IN PRESS                   Back to the articles list | Back to browse issues page

XML Print

Work–Life Balance as a Key Pathway between Decent Work and Turnover Intentions: A Sectoral Perspective from Saudi Arabia
Wael Elshanhaby1 , Sabri Turki2 , Esraa Abdel Azzem3 , Bahaa Eldin Saad4 , Amr Noureldin5 , Hamdy Nour6 , Shahenda Habib7
1- Professor, Department of Business Administration, College of Commerce, University of Buraimi, Al Buraimi Governorate 512, Sultanate of Oman, E-mail: Wael.z@uob.edu.om, ORCID: 0009-0006-9184-2992
2- Assistant Professor, Department of Human Resources Management, College of Administrative and Human Sciences, Buraydah Colleges, Saudi Arabia., E-mail: dr.sabrytorky@bpc.edu.sa, ORCID: 0009-0004-6118-0268
3- Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, Canadian International College (CIC), Cairo, Egypt.E-mail: Esraa_s_abdel-rahman@cic-cairo.com, ORCID: 0009-0000-2966-743X
4- Associate Professor of Business Administration, Department of Marketing and Advertising, International Academy for Engineering and Media Science, Cairo, Egypt, E-mail: Bahaa.ElDin.Mosaad@iaems.edu.eg, ORCID: 0000-0002-7829-119X
5- Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, College of Administrative and Human Sciences, Buraydah Colleges, Saudi Arabia., E-mail: Amr.Nour@bpc.edu.sa, ORCID: 0000-0001-7637-164X , Amr.Nour@bpc.edu.sa
6- Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Heliopolis University, Cairo, Egypt.E-mail: hamdy.mohamed@hu.edu.eg, ORCID: 0009-0008-2782-409X
7- Assistant Professor, ElGazeera high Institute for Computer and Management Information Systems, Department of Business Administration, English Section, Cairo, Egypt. E-mail: Shahendasaidhabib@gmail.com, ORCID: 0009-0007-9699-540X
Abstract:   (201 Views)
This research examines good work as a strategic asset for reducing employee turnover intent in Saudi Arabia, with work-life balance as a mediator. Using the Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, the study positions decent work as a multidimensional resource bundle that employees draw upon to preserve psychological and contextual resources. Data were collected from 210 full-time employees across key Saudi sectors (education, healthcare, and industry), reflecting the sectoral dynamics emphasized by Vision 2030. PLS-SEM was employed to test both a first-order and complementary second-order specification of decent work, thereby providing a more rigorous and theoretically coherent examination of its structure than prior studies. The findings demonstrate that decent work significantly reduces turnover intention both directly and indirectly through enhanced work–life balance, confirming the resource gain processes described in COR Theory. The study contributes novel empirical evidence from a transforming Middle Eastern labor market, clarifies the mechanism through which decent work promotes personal resource stability, and offers a sectoral interpretation of employee retention drivers in Saudi Arabia. Practically, the results underscore the importance of sustaining comprehensive decent-work practices, especially fair workloads, safety, and work–life policies, to retain skilled employees and support the human capital objectives of Vision 2030.
Keywords: Decent Work, Work–Life Balance, Turnover Intention, Employee Retention, Saudi Arabia Labor Market
     
Type of Study: Research | Subject: Decision Analysis and Methods
Received: 2025/11/13 | Accepted: 2025/12/2
Add your comments about this article : Your username or Email:
CAPTCHA
Send email to the article author

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.