A study in the relationship between supportive work environment and employee retention: Role of organizational commitment and person–organization fit as mediators

The main aim of the study was to empirically investigate the mediating role of organizational commitment (OC) and person–organization fit (POF) between the causal relationship of supportive work environment (SWE) and employee retention (ER). One thousand questionnaires were sent to the targeted population included employees of all chains of multinational fast-food brands (restaurants) in Lahore, Pakistan. The restaurants were selected from clusters by using a cluster sampling technique. Questionnaires were comprised of multiple items adopted from former studies to obtain responses using quantitative methodology. For statistical analysis and to test the proposed hypothesis, the partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was employed through Smart PLS 2.0 M3 software. The study’s findings elucidated that SWE has a positive and significant association with ER. In addition, OC and POF acted as mediators between the relationship of a SWE and ER. This study presented implications for human resource (HR) practitioners that they should endure developing mechanisms for imparting a SWE to foster healthy exchange relationships with people, which in turn will result in ER. This article significantly contributed to the extant literature on the relationship of the SWE and ER while highlighting the critical factors to be noticed for retaining key employees. This study also explicated the limitations and scope for further research.