The Effect of Work-Life Balance on Employee Retention: The Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment

Abstract

This paper was written to fill the increasing problem of employee retention within contemporary organizations by conducting research on the input of work life balance (WLB) and the psychological process under which it can be applied. Although previous studies have found independent relationships between work-life balance, organizational commitment and employee retention, empirical studies on the detection of such relationships within a comprehensive system of mediation is weak, especially in the present work-related relationships of high stress and evolving demands of employees. To that end, the study hypothesizes that whether work-life balance is associated with the employee retention depends on the mediating effect of the organizational commitment. Quantitative and cross-sectional research design has been used based on the survey data of the employees of the organisations of the service and the corporate sector. Work measurement balance, organizational commitment, and retention were measured through the standardized and validated measurement scales. An analysis of data was performed with the help of the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with the use of SmartPLS 4 to determine the presence of both direct and indirect relationships as well as to evaluate the measurement and structural models. It indicates that the worklife balance has a positive influence on organizational commitment (β = 0.842, p < 0.001) and employee retention (β = 0.403, p < 0.001). Employee retention is also a great determinant of organizational commitment (β = 0.485, p = 0.001). The mediation analysis confirms that organizational commitment is a partial mediator reassuring the relationship between work-life balance and retention of employees. The model accounts 70.9 percentage of the organizational commitment variance and 72.6 percentage of the retention of employees. The work makes a contribution as it empirically verifies an integrated approach on work-life balance, work commitment and retention, showing the effectiveness of multiple-path model as compared to single-path strategies. The results are applicable to HR practitioners and have the potential to sustain the longitudinal and cross-cultural research in future.