The role of work volition and organizational commitment in the relationship between total rewards and employee retention

Abstract

In the last few decades, retention of employees has become a real issue in public and private organisations because of the openness and liberalisation of global economy. These organisations have implemented various reward oriented schemes to improve employees? work effectiveness and efficiencies. The key purpose of these schemes is to retain valuable human capital and make employees more committed at the work place. A number of empirical studies and anecdotal evidences indicated employee retention is becoming a dilemma in private and public organisations particularly in the higher education sector. The study explored the phenomena of employee retention and total rewards by examining the mediating role of organisational commitment and job satisfaction. In addition, the moderating role of work volition between total rewards and job satisfaction was examined. This study employed quantitative methods for data collection and analysis. Based on multistage random sampling technique, a survey was conducted among faculty members of higher educational institutions in Pakistan. Approximately 289 completed questionnaires were received from the targeted population. Data checking, preparation, screening, normality, descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS- 21). The key findings indicated that total reward has a significant impact on job satisfaction, organisational commitment and employee retention. These findings also showed that work volition significantly moderated the relationship between total reward and faculty member?s job satisfaction in the higher educational institutions. Theoretically, the research has implications in the existing state of knowledge by proposing a noble policy and practice for the higher education sector of Pakistan.