The United Nations aims to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. However, shortages of public doctors are affecting national public health systems worldwide, including in Malaysia. Malaysian public healthcare is losing many doctors due to their resignation from public service. A review of existing empirical papers gathered through the PRISMA method and extensive literature search was employed. Based on the review, it is discovered that organisational justice has an inverse influence on turnover intention, a precursor to actual turnover. In the Malaysian healthcare context, indications of perceived injustice were discussed as factors potentially contributing to turnover among Malaysian health employees. However, organisational justice has not been explicitly tested and validated as a reason for the withdrawal of Malaysian public doctors. Despite organisational justice, individual factors could also affect the intention to leave. However, they are mostly studied separately. Therefore, the present study intends to provide an integrated framework that may be used to research how diverse factors could influence Malaysian public doctors’ turnover intention. Besides proposing an investigation of how organisational justice could significantly influence turnover intention, a further recommendation is to also examine organisational citizenship behaviour and personal norms of reciprocity, particularly positive and negative reciprocity norms that may intervene in the effects between both variables. The authors believe this is the first extended study to integrate organisational citizenship behaviour as well as positive and negative reciprocity norms in a moderated mediation model involving Malaysian public health workers, particularly doctors.

Malaysia is working on achieving Universal Health Coverage for its people. On the other hand, the migration of experienced doctors from the public to private sectors is a significant hurdle to achieving universal health access. The scenario harms health systems worldwide, including Malaysia, where many public doctors have resigned from the Ministry of Health. One ground reason for their withdrawal was concerns about the justice system. A review of the literature revealed that a positive perception of organisational justice could inversely impact the level of turnover intention. This serves as a precursor that leads to actual turnover among organisational employees. To a certain extent, organisational citizenship behaviour and personal norm of reciprocity could determine the nature of the interaction between the variables with their mediation or moderation roles. Therefore, this conceptual paper aims to investigate to what extent the mediation of organisational citizenship behaviour and moderation of personal norms of reciprocity could significantly alter the interaction between organisational justice and turnover intention among Malaysian public doctors. The authors believe this is the first study of its kind to integrate organisational citizenship behaviour and personal norms of reciprocity in a moderated-mediation model involving Malaysian public health professionals, particularly doctors.