How Supervisors and Engaging Work Retain Generation Z: Job Satisfaction and Affective Commitment as Parallel Mediators of Turnover Intention in Indian Multinational Corporations

Abstract

Purpose: Purpose: Although supervisor support and job involvement are known as retention resources, the influence on the intention to leave of Gen Z employees is not fully understood. This study aims to understand how job satisfaction and affective organisational commitment act as mediators between the construct of job involvement, supervisor support and coworker support in predicting the turnover intention of Gen Z employees in multinational corporations (MNCs) in India and draws a framework for retention based on the findings..

Design/methodology/approach: Two surveys were carried out. Study 1 was a small-scale study of mediation models in 189 young workers. Study 2, which involved a validated questionnaire of 446 Gen Z workers for six different sectors and six metropolises, was analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis and an integrated latent structural model with 11 antecedents and control variables; indirect effects were tested using Monte Carlo confidence intervals (20,000 draws) and bootstrapped intervals (bias corrected).

Findings: Supervisor support was the best predictor of job satisfaction (β = 0.358) in Study 2, and job involvement was the best predictor of affective commitment (β = 0.392) in Study 2. Mediators both decreased turnover intention (satisfaction β = −0.275; commitment β = −0.321). The effect of job involvement on job satisfaction was completely mediated by supervisor support and the effect of job involvement on commitment was completely mediated by job satisfaction, with 89 per cent of the total effect of job involvement going through these two mediators. There was no statistically significant indirect effect of coworker support. The partial mediation seen in Study 1 was the outcome of modelling mediators and all antecedents simultaneously. Research limitations/implications: This study has a cross sectional, self reported design which reduces the ability for causal statements; longitudinal and multi-source designs are recommended.

Research limitations/implications: The cross-sectional, self-reported design limits causal inference; longitudinal and multi-source designs are recommended.

Practical implications: To keep Gen Z employees, MNCs should improve the coaching and recognition skills of their supervisors, and enhance job involvement to organisational attachment. A three-pillar retention structure, that includes measurable indicators, is proposed.

Originality/value: The study is one of the first studies to test satisfaction and commitment as parallel mediators of Gen Z employees in MNCs in India using an integrated latent model and provides a first attempt to operationalize the mechanism into an evidence-based retention framework.