Purpose Casting employers as customers, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between expectations, perceptions and disconfirmation beliefs with the satisfaction of employers regarding the competencies possessed by fresh engineering graduates hired by such employers in the Indian context. Design/methodology/approach Using data collected from 284 employers, the authors have hypothesized and examined a partial mediation model in which disconfirmation beliefs mediate the relationships between expectations and perceptions, and employer satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors have tested if this mediated relationship is moderated by the age and sex of respondents representing employers. Findings Results indicate that employers’ satisfaction can be explained from the framework of the expectancy-disconfirmation theory. Employers’ expectations and perceptions are established to be associated with employers’ satisfaction with new hires, and positive disconfirmation mediates these relationships. Results also indicate that age moderates the effect of predictor variables employers’ expectations and employers’ perception on the mediator disconfirmation. Sex, however, did not moderate any relationship. Practical implications The results demonstrate the usefulness of the expectancy-disconfirmation theory for studying employer satisfaction with competencies of recent engineering graduates in India. Findings are relevant to multiple stakeholders including employers hiring engineering graduates, engineers and technical institutions. Originality/value Expectancy-disconfirmation theory has been successfully applied to measure customer satisfaction in consumer behaviour research, while satisfaction of employers has been studied in the field of organizational behaviour. The paper stands out in the literature as one of its major implications is to extend the expectancy-disconfirmation theory to predict employers’ satisfaction.

PurposeThis study examines the link of effective change implementation (CIE) with select human resource (HR) practices and employees' resistance to change (RTC) amidst ongoing mergers in Indian public sector banks (PSBs). It also intends to highlight the role of RTC as a mediator in this mechanism.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a structured questionnaire administered through a survey of employees of select PSBs that have undergone mergers. The hypothesized relationships were tested on 220 responses with structural equation modelling.FindingsTraining and communication of change as HR practices were found to have significant effects in implementing change. RTC fully mediated the relationship of training and CIE, and partially mediated the association of communication and CIE. Communication had a stronger influence on RTC than training. This finding upholds the importance of communication but also implies that training can reinforce effective communication of change and may not affect the implementation if not directed towards handling resistance.Practical implicationsThe significance of communication as a finding supports the theory of planned behaviour. The authors’ results also align with the social exchange theory and can be extended to the job demands-resources model. PSBs may plan for phase-wise training initiatives starting from the announcement till the end of a merger. PSBs also need to effectively communicate all relevant HR issues to employees, thus being transparent and fair. Both online and offline modes of communication can be explored. Overall, the senior management has to imbibe the handholding of employees in the short term and a sense of empathy in the longer term.Originality/valueResearch on HR in Indian banking mergers seems to take a back seat vis-à-vis strategic issues and financial performance. There also is a limited empirical examination of the role of HR practices in effective change implementation. This paper addresses both these issues by proposing a conceptual model and empirically validating it amidst the merger of PSBs. The authors also highlight how training and communication are effective in handling resistance to change.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether satisfaction of employers with skill competencies of fresh engineering graduates (EGs) in India is impacted by their expectations and perceptions. Applying Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT), the authors have also proposed and tested whether such effects on employers’ satisfaction are mediated by (dis)confirmation. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through a survey of employers’ representatives using a structured questionnaire. The proposed mediation model has been tested on a sample of 284 with Confirmatory Factor Analysis by applying structural equation modelling in AMOS. Findings The structural model has been constructed with six latent constructs in accordance with extant literature. Excluding some observed variables, the structural model was found to have a good model fit. The measurement model is in accordance with ECT. Three of the four independent variables (two related to employers’ expectations and one to employers’ perception) exert significant influence on employers’ satisfaction, with (dis)confirmation as a mediator. Practical implications Industry–academia partnerships need to be an integral feature of any curriculum to bridge the gap between course curricula on one hand and employers’ expectations and perceptions on the other. Originality/value Past research on employability of EGs has mostly explored a direct association between employers’ perception and satisfaction. The authors study contributes to literature by examining the role of employers’ expectations in addition to their perception as precursors of their satisfaction, using the framework of ECT. Outcomes reported are of relevance to multiple stakeholders in technical education.

PurposeEmployee turnover, a reality that Indian retail organizations cannot ignore, is the central theme of this paper. The authors have aimed to empirically establish corporate social responsibility initiatives (CSRI) and transformational leadership (TL) as rather unconventional predictors that can potentially influence retail employees’ intention to stay (ITS) through sequential mediation by employer branding (EB) and organizational identification (OI).Design/methodology/approachData collected using a structured questionnaire from three hundred and five frontline employees working with twenty-nine Indian retail outlets in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) region was tested using structural equation modelling.FindingsFindings confirmed the impact of both CSRI and TL on ITS, with sequential mediation by EB and OI. While OI partially mediated the effect of EB on ITS, TL exerted more influence than CSRI in enhancing EB.Originality/valueThis study enhances retail literature by empirically testing a unique fusion of organization and individual-level predictors that influence ITS as an individual-level outcome. Having TL and a firm corporate philosophy of CSR spending can enhance a retailer’s image as a preferred employer brand and generate OI to successfully address employee turnover