Abstract
Quiet resignation, which is marked by less discretionary effort as employees continue to satisfy official employment duties, has become a common form of employee disengagement in modern businesses. Despite growing attention to this issue, empirical understanding of how quiet quitting develops remains limited. Grounded in social exchange theory and the job demands resources model, this study examines quiet quitting as an outcome of workplace resources, relational exchange, and employee evaluations. In particular, it looks into how leadership and work environment quality affect quiet quitting through job satisfaction, how perceived organisational fairness acts as a moderator, and how quiet quitting affects work engagement, job performance, and turnover intention. Using a quantitative cross sectional survey design, data were collected from 312 full time employees across diverse organisational sectors and industries. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modelling. The findings indicate that while job satisfaction is adversely correlated with silent resignation, work environment and leadership quality are positively correlated with job satisfaction. The impacts of leadership and work environment quality on quiet departing are mediated by job satisfaction, suggesting that organisational factors affect disengagement through employees' assessments. The association between job happiness and silent resignation is weakened by perceived organisational justice, indicating that beliefs of fairness operate as a buffer against the tendency of dissatisfaction to manifest as withdrawal behaviour. Quiet quitting is also associated with lower work engagement and job performance and higher turnover intention. The study contributes to the quiet quitting literature by explaining it as a predictable form of disengagement shaped by workplace resources, social exchange, and fairness perceptions. These findings offer practical insights for organisations seeking to reduce disengagement by improving work conditions, leadership quality, employee satisfaction, and organisational fairness.