Human resources management practices and intention to leave : The moderating and mediating roles of professional commitment and perceived organizational support

The relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and employees? intention toleave the organization has been gaining increased attention among researchers and human resourcepractitioners. This relationship is critical, because employees in organizations are viewed asinvaluable contributors prominently in the realization of organizational goals and objectives.In this study, we intended to examine the effect of a selected number of human resources practices onemployees?intention to leave with respect to perceived organizational support and professionalcommitment of these employees in companies in Turkey.The data was was collected from different companies in İstanbul, Bursa, Ankara and İzmir bycontacting Human Resource Management (HRM) departments and also by e-mailing thequestionnaires to the respondents. Selection of the sample of this study was done by taking intoconsideration a balanced composition of Turkish workforce. The target population coveredemployees working in different organizations in İstanbul, Bursa, Ankara and İzmir.The questionnaireswere sent to 500 employees and number of total respondents was 200 from 14 differentorganizations.A self-administered questionnaire was developed for this particular study consisting of twocomponents. The first component of the questionnaire comprised of 7-Point Likert type scale items.These questions aimed to reveal the selection practices, training and development opportunities,performance appraisal practices, Work-family support practices, perceived organizational support(POS), professional commitment and intention to leave. The second part of the questionnaireidentified employees? demographic data, such as age, gender, education level, current job positionand tenure with the current job position.viThe results indicate that there is a negative relationship between selection practices, training anddevelopment opportunities,performance appraisal practices, work-family support practices applied inan organization and employees?intention to leave in organizations in Turkey.On the other hand, results show that there are two dimensions of Perceived Organizational Support,which are Positive Perceived Organizational Support and Negative Perceived Organizational Support.The results reveal that there is a significant and a positive relationship between Positive PerceivedOrganizational Support and the human resources practices chosen in this study. For example, whenfair and objective selection practices increases, Positive Perceived Organizational Support alsoincreases. Moreover, the higher the use of work-family support practices in a company, the more thePositive Perceived Organizational Support of employees.The results also indicate that only Negative Perceived Organizational Support mediates therelationship between selection practices, training and development opportunities,performanceappraisal practices and employees? intention to leave in Turkey. Only in work-family supportpractices ,both Negative Perceived Organizational Support and Positive Perceived OrganizationalSupport mediate the relationship between work-family support Practices applied in a company andemployees?intention to leave in Turkey.The results also reveal that professional commitment does not moderate the relationship betweenPerceived Organizational Support and employees? intention to leave in Turkey.After the literature review, it has been understood that there is a gap exists regarding the relationshipbetween human resources practices and employees?intention to leave an organization in Turkishliterature. This study intends to fill this gap.