Satisfaction with HRM Practices, Work Engagement and Turnover Intention among Malaysian Oil and Gas Professionals

Malaysia aspires to become a high-income nation by 2020. Achieving the said
vision demands attention being given to the retention of highly skilled human resources.
However, voluntary turnover is a major issue affecting Malaysian organisations,
thereby jeopardising the chances of the country’s strategic objectives being met.
Particularly, Malaysia’s oil and gas (O&G) professionals tend to move from one to
other organisations and/or other countries, depriving local organisations of their talents.
Despite the fact that employees’ satisfaction with HRM practices and work engagement
have been credited for reducing employee turnover intention, to date there has been
limited research which investigated the causal relationship among these factors. The
present study addresses this research gap. The purpose of this study was threefold.
Drawing on the social exchange theory and the JD-R theory, it first examined the impact
of employees’ satisfaction with HRM practices (i.e., person-organisation (P-O) fit,
training satisfaction, performance appraisal satisfaction, and pay satisfaction) on work
engagement. Second, it examined the impact of work engagement on employee
turnover intention. Lastly, it investigated the mediating role of work engagement
between employee satisfaction with HRM practices and turnover intention among
Malaysian O&G professionals. Additionally, the study was also designed to determine
respondents’ level of work engagement and turnover intention. Data was collected from
442 O&G professionals using multiple sampling methods. The Partial Least Squares
Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypothesised model.
The findings indicated that P-O fit, training satisfaction, and performance appraisal
satisfaction are the key drivers of employee’s engagement at work, and work
engagement has a significant negative impact on employees’ turnover intentions.
Another major finding of this study was that work engagement mediates the
relationship between employees’ satisfaction with HRM practices, particularly P-O fit,
training satisfaction and performance appraisal satisfaction, and turnover intention.