Role of organizational commitment in career growth and turnover intention in public sector of Oman

INTRODUCTION: Creating a proper career program is the best way to enhance employees’ organizational commitment; it motivates and retains them. This research aims to measure career growth’s influence on turnover intention, mediated by employees’ commitment through self-reported employees’ perceptions. This study identifies the key dimensions of organizational commitment (affective, continuance and normative commitment) that mediate the relationship between career growth and employee turnover intention exploring the indirect effects between career growth and turnover intention. The relationship is examined among the public sector employees in the Sultanate of Oman, a sector currently facing high turnover rates and losing key skilled talent pool. METHODOLOGY: Data collection was executed through an adopted questionnaire distributed among 500 employees of 38 government units within the Sultanate of Oman. A total of 351 questionnaires were returned, and after the initial screening process, 329 were found to be valid for further analysis. CFA analysis was conducted to identify the factors falling under the three primary constructs of the study. Assessment of the models was explained through Goodness-of-fit Indices. Structural equation modeling, which is most recommended to study the effect of latent variables, was performed using AMOS to evaluate the mediating role of organizational commitment between career growth and employee turnover intention. FINDINGS: The results indicated that the potential for career growth is an essential motivating element for public sector employees in the Sultanate of Oman to encourage retention and reduce intention to leave. The findings also confirm that effective and continuous commitment significantly mediates the relationship between career growth and employees’ turnover intention. CONTRIBUTION AND ORIGINALITY VALUE: The results generated could help both researchers and those involved in public sector policy-making to understand how employee turnover intention is influenced by career growth and organizational commitment in the public sector in the Sultanate of Oman.