Work-life balance practices and turnover intention: The mediating role of person-organization fit

Abstract

The higher educational institutions in Pakistan are facing challenges to reduce the turnover of their faculty members. To date, research has failed to explore the antecedents of faculty members' turnover intention, especially in the context of Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to investigate worklife balance practices and person-organization fit as antecedents of faculty members' turnover intention. This study hypothesized that work-life balance practices and person-organization fit are negatively related to intention to leave the job. Furthermore, the study proposed that person-organization fit mediates the negative relationship between work-life balance practices and intention to leave the job. This study adopted a cross-sectional design and a quantitative approach. The data was collected from a total of 250 faculty members from the public sector colleges in Baluchistan, Pakistan, through self-administered questionnaires. This study used partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for the analysis of measurement and structural model. The results revealed that work-life balance practices and person-organization fit had a direct negative and significant effect on employees' intention to leave the job. Furthermore, the results also showed that person-organization fit mediated the relationship between work-life balance practices and intention to leave the job. This study contributes to work-life balance practices and person-organization fit literature by examining the mediating processes through which work-life balance practices and intention to leave are linked. These findings provide important implications for human resource professionals to reduce the turnover of faculty members. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

The Mediating Role of Person-Job Fit between Person-Organisation Fit and Intention to Leave the Job: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

“…Contrary to our expectations, the results of the study revealed that POF is not a significant predictor of faculty members' turnover intentions in Pakistan. This finding is in contrast to previous literature and theories [7,8,11,58], which always provide support for the negative and significant impact of POF on employees' turnover intentions. However, the finding, to some extent, corroborates the work of Astakhova [23], who reported no significant relationship between fit (i.e., person-supervisor fit) and OC in the USA.…”

An Empirical Analysis of the Mediating Role of Fear of COVID-19 Between Telecommuting and Employees Retention

“…For instance, telecommuting provides employees the benefits of working remotely, better work and family life, and job satisfaction (Jamal et al, 2021 ). In the norms of reciprocity, employees will reciprocate these favours by showing high commitment to the organisation (de Vries et al, 2018 ) and lowering their intention to quit the job (Choi, 2019 ; Kakar et al, 2019 ). However, in case of the non-availability of such benefits, employees may look for alternative jobs that may meet their needs.…”

“…For instance, Mignonac et al ( 2006 ) found that ER is affected by external prestige and organisational identification, while Mcculloch and Turban ( 2007 ) and Kakar et al ( 2022a , b , c ) argued that satisfied employees and those who fit organisations always tend to stay with their organisations. Other factors that affect ER include work-life balance (Kakar et al, 2019 ), employees’ voice (Mohammad et al, 2020 ), workplace mentoring (Naim, 2018 ), employee engagement (Shahruddin & Daud, 2018 ), job embeddedness (Holtom & Darabi, 2018 ), and working environment (Samad & Saufi, 2017 ). Scholars have also studied ER to some extent during the COVID-19 pandemic and found it to be predicted by factors such as job security, job satisfaction (Aman-Ullah et al, 2021 ), career development opportunities (Al Kurdi et al, 2021 ), and human resource management practices (Kakar & Saufi, 2021 ; Tej et al, 2021 ).…”