Sustaining Work Life Balance Toward Job Satisfaction and Employee Intention to Leave Universities

Abstract

Retaining, maintaining, and sustaining brilliant and competent workers with excellent academic credentials is a major challenge in the industry of higher education, given the fast-changing environment and the increasing trend of global competition. Universities struggle to find, attract, and retain outstanding talent because academic attrition is rising in the higher education industry. With job satisfaction as a mediator and outside employment opportunities as a moderator, this study aims to examine how university organizational policies regarding work-life balance (WLB) practices enhance job satisfaction and reduce employee intent to leave. Social Exchange Theory served as the study's theoretical foundation. Data was collected from 466 participants in an online survey using a cross-sectional research methodology, and partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the results. The outcome confirmed that sustaining WLB practices were positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to academic employees' intention to leave. Further, the study's results confirmed that job satisfaction significantly mediates the relationship between WLB practices and employee intention to leave. The study analysis demonstrated that job opportunity significantly moderates the relationship between job satisfaction and employee intention to leave. The paper's main contribution is a coherent and comprehensive model of retention strategy that academic HR specialists, legislators, and university administrators would find highly beneficial in implementing WLB principles and policies into practice.