Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the role of burnout as a mediator between high performance work system (HPWS) and intention to leave (ITL). Further, the role of mentoring as a moderator between HPWS and burnout as well as between burnout and ITL has also been explored. All the middle level employees (2728) and departmental heads (132) of selected telecommunication organisations have been contacted. Data have been validated with exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modeling has been used to test the hypothesised relationships. The results proved that burnout mediates the relationship between HPWS and ITL. Further, mentoring moderates the relationship between HPWS and burnout as well as between burnout and ITL. This study contributes to the literature by identifying the black-box using burnout and mentoring to understand the HPWS and ITL relationship.

Introduction

Human resources (HR) are the most valuable assets of an organisation. No organisation can exist and grow without appropriate HR capabilities and competence. In the past few years, most of the organisations have adopted the HR practices such as recruitment and selection, training and development to encourage, motivate and boost employees’ morale to achieve the organisational objectives (Huselid, 1995). Globalisation, privatisation/deregulation, competition and technological advancement have resulted in dramatic change in HR practices. These environmental changes have forced the organisations to adopt HPWS (Gurbuz, 2009). HPWS comprises bundle of HR practices like ability enhancing practices (training and skill development), motivation enhancing practices (high pay, career development and information sharing) and opportunity enhancing practices (employee involvement and teamwork) (Appelbaum, Bailey, Berg, & Kalleberg, 2000), which helps in providing sustainable competitive advantage to the organisation (Pereira, Fontinha, Budhwar, & Arora, 2018). HPWS focuses on productivity and efficiency that leads to higher job demands, which in turn, enhances job strain (Gulzar, Moon, Attiq, & Azam, 2014; Ramsay, Scholarios, & Harley, 2000). In order to reduce the negative effects of HPWS like burnout, ITL, and anxiety, management motivate employees by developing their knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs), as well as empower them through delegation of authority/job control (Combs, Liu, Hall, & Ketchen, 2006).