Strategic Human Resource Management Practices and Employee Retention: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction: Evidence from Indian Corporate Enterprises

Abstract

Employee retention is a continuous challenge confronting Indian organizations, in which competition for high-quality human resources as well as evolving employee aspirations cause voluntary turnover to remain high. Based on a review of the theoretical and empirical literature, this paper synthesizes the findings for the impact of strategic HRM (SHRM) practices on retention outcomes and examines the mediating role of job satisfaction from an international perspective as well as from Indian organizations. While integrating the universalistic, contingency, and configurational perspectives with social exchange theory and withdrawal models, the paper extends global research by analyzing studies from India. So, the adoption of systematic groupings of select staffing, training, and development, equitable appraisal and rewards, participation, and career management practices is linked to reduced turnover and increased intention to stay, with part of these relationships being mediated by job satisfaction trust support, and embeddedness. Several Indian-specific variations of these relationships are identified. Most Indian research upholds these relationships, although most studies employ cross-sectional designs with a focus on the information technology industry.