Abstract:
Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is the ability of employees to go an extra
mile and perform roles outside their job description. OCB has been established as a
major determinant of employee retention both in public and private sector. Despite
this, Environmental Agencies suffer low employee satisfaction compromising on their
OCB which calls for the adoption of appropriate employee retention strategies.
However, there is empirical evidence that not all retention strategies have been
exhaustively investigated on its association with organizational citizenship behaviour.
Similarly, there is inadequate knowledge on career development practices as the
potential moderator. Thus, the need to interrogate the link on these variables. This
study therefore examined the moderating role of career development practices on the
relationship between employee retention strategies and organizational citizenship
behaviour. The specific objectives were to determine the effect of open
communication, employee involvement, leadership and work life balance on
organization citizenship behaviour. The study was anchored on the Social exchange
theory, Job embeddedness theory and Social cognitive theory. The study employed
explanatory research design and pragmatism philosophy. The target population
comprised of 935 employees drawn from the three Environmental Agencies within
North Rift Region. Stratified sampling, purposive and simple random sampling
techniques were used to select the respondents. Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table was
used to calculate the sample size of 274 respondents which was proportionally
allocated to the organizations using Neyman Allocation formular. The primary data
was collected using closed ended questionnaires and structured interview schedule.
Data was analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics (frequencies,
percentages, means, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Regression,
Correlation and ANOVA) while qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The
hypotheses were tested using multiple regression model and hierarchical regression
for moderation. The regression results indicated that open communication (β=.374, p=
0.00<0.05), employee involvement (β=.236, p= 0.00<0.05), leadership (β=.234, p=
0.00<0.05), while work life balance (β=.129, p= 0.00<0.05). This infers that there was
a significant and positive effect of open communication, employee involvement,
leadership and work life balance on OCB. The study further established that career
development practices significantly and positively moderates the relationships
between open communication and OCB (β=.59, p<0.05), employee involvement and
OCB (β=.60, p<0.05), Leadership and OCB (β=.86, p<0.05) and work Life balance
and OCB (β=.50, p<0.05). The study concludes that open communication, employee
involvement, leadership and work life balance have a significant and positive effect
on OCB which is crucial in the development of both public and private sector
organizations and for OCB to thrive, the management should be encouraged to put
more emphasis on career development practices. The study recommends that
organizations should understand and develop a holistic approach of implementing
career development practices and overall employee retention strategies which include
open communication, employee involvement, leadership and work life balance and
which focus on changing the demands of employees for sustained OCB. The study
findings supported social exchange theory that organizations with career development
practices will have stronger retention strategies enhancing OCB.