Human Resource Development Practices and Employee Engagement: Examining the Connection With Employee Turnover Intentions

• Author: Angie Shuck,Brad Shuck,Devon Twyford,Thomas G. Reio
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21190
• Published date: 01 June 2014
• Date: 01 June 2014

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 25, no. 2, Summer 2014 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21190 239

Human Resource Development

Practices and Employee

Engagement: Examining the

Connection With Employee

Turnover Intentions

Brad Shuck, Devon Twyford, Thomas G. Reio Jr., Angie Shuck

The relationship between how an employee perceives support for

participation in human resource development (HRD) practices,

engagement, and turnover intent has been underrepresented in the

literature. Using social exchange theory as a guiding framework, this

research sought to better understand the possible linkages of HRD

practices and employee engagement to turnover intentions. An Internet-

based self-report survey battery utilizing a four-stage preparation method

was used as the primary data collection tool. Research was conducted in

the health care industry ( N = 207). Linear, simultaneous, and mediated

regression analyses were used to examine the variables of interest. Results

suggested that participation in HRD practices and cognitive, emotional,

and behavioral engagement were negatively related to turnover intent.

Mediated regression analyses indicated that engagement partially mediated

the relation between HRD practices and turnover intent. The fi ndings

support the utility of supporting employee participation in HRD practices

to improve employee engagement and reduce turnover intent.

Key Words: employee engagement, human resource development, turnover,

perceived investment in employee development, social exchange theory,

intentions

Human resource development (HRD) professionals endeavor to provide learn-

ing opportunities that nurture human expertise in organizations (Peterson,

2004). Several studies have shown that equipping employees with additional

240 Shuck, Twyford, Reio Jr., Shuck

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

or new knowledge and skills is associated with positive organizational out-

comes (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Lee & Bruvold, 2003; Schaufeli &

Salanova, 2007). For example, Saks (1995) found that opportunities for learn-

ing and development shared a positive relation with affective commitment

among entry-level accountants. Further, Frank, Finnegan, and Taylor (2004)

noted several other HRD practices linked to positive organizational outcomes,

such as job skills training and retraining, employee orientation processes,

mentoring programs, career development, and career pathing, as well as

leadership development. Additional studies have suggested linkages between

learning and development and job satisfaction (Scarpello & Campbell, 1983),

turnover (Kalleberg & Rognes, 2000), and continuance commitment (Wallace,

1997). Seminal researchers in HRD have focused on these HRD practices and

their associated performance outcomes through numerous connected streams

of research (see, for example, Bartlett, 2001; Ghosh, Reio, & Haynes, 2012;

Gilley, Shelton, & Gilley, 2011; McDonald & Hite, 2005).

As a result of the previously demonstrated relation between HRD prac-

tices and performance outcomes (e.g., Ferguson & Reio, 2010), many organi-

zations laud their learning and development programs. They tend to routinely

endorse yearly catalogs of schedules, highlighting initiatives aimed at develop-

ing their workforce for the coming year’s challenges. Moreover, and directly

connected to the work of HRD, each year the American Society for Training

and Development (ASTD), the practitioner base for many in the HRD fi eld,

promotes the BEST Awards. The BEST Awards recognize enterprise-wide

HRD initiatives and their connection to strategic performance outcomes, such

as an employee’s intention to turnover and heightened levels of employee

engagement.

Employee engagement has been defi ned in the HRD fi eld as the cognitive,

emotional, and behavioral energy an employee directs toward positive organiza-

tional outcomes (Shuck & Wollard, 2010). Further, employee participation in

HRD practices is being linked to heightened levels of employee engagement

(Czarnowsky, 2008). Consequently, for some, the performance relation asso-

ciated with HRD practices is being operationalized through collective levels

of engagement (e.g., see Chalofsky & Krishna, 2009). That is, HRD prac-

tices are believed to increase an employee’s level of reported engagement and

consequently affect performance to some degree. Notwithstanding, while the

connection between HRD and engagement may seem intuitive, little research

has actually explored this connection empirically. Presently, the connection

between HRD practices and employee engagement remains decidedly unclear

despite casual and relational claims (see, for example, Czarnowsky, 2008).

Moreover, in the context of HRD practices, we must be mindful that not

all learning and development opportunities within organizations are perceived

equally across all levels and with all types of employees. This is especially

true when considering employee perceived levels of support for participa-

tion in HRD practices (e.g., perceptions of investment in learning, mentoring

Human Resource Development Practices and Employee Engagement 241

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

programs, leadership development initiatives, or skills development; Lee &

Bruvold, 2003; Shuck, Shuck, & Reio, 2013). For some employees, they can

feel unsupported at times or perceive there is little investment from the orga-

nization for their participation in HRD-related practices. This issue can be

especially striking to older employees or those who are part of other poten-

tially low-status groups, like racial minorities or single, divorced, or widowed

women (Reio & Sanders-Reio, 1999). Thus, perceived support for participat-

ing in HRD practices can vary greatly throughout an organization. This could

occur for a variety of reasons including restrictive policies that all but prohibit

participation, a continuous lack of funding, or an employee’s manager who

never brings up the topic of professional development directly. Consequently,

this critical variability in perceived support can have implications for the

development of employee engagement and its associated research-linked

performance outcomes such as employee turnover intention (Shuck, Reio,

& Rocco, 2011). In support of this relationship, evidence has consistently

suggested intention to turnover as a powerful and important organizational

outcome as well as a predictor of actual voluntary turnover often affected

by perceived levels of organizational support (Hom & Griffeth, 1995; Lee &

Bruvold, 2003). Further, recent empirical research has suggested that employ-

ees who perceive a lack of support specifi cally for participation in HRD prac-

tices at times voluntarily leave their organization (Shuck et al., 2013).

Within the boundaries of HRD, it is widely believed that HRD profes-

sionals could make a contribution to reducing this unwarranted voluntary

turnover through the development of higher levels of employee engagement

(Shuck et al., 2011). That is, participation in HRD practices should promote

higher levels of employee engagement, with lower levels of turnover intention.

This connection seems promising. However, very little literature has explored

how employee perceptions of support for participation in these practices can

affect outcomes related to performance. While robust HRD practices could

be present within an organization, employee-held perceptions about support

for their own participation in those practices could be decidedly low, thereby

adversely affecting the intended performance outcome. At this time, how-

ever, the empirical linkage between employee-held perceptions of support

for participation in HRD practices is disproportionately underrepresented in

the literature, particularly in relation to performance-related variables such

as employee engagement and turnover intention. Despite the potential for

signifi cant positive impact for both individual and organizational level per-

formance, little is actually known about the relation between these variables.

Building from this gap, the purpose of our research was to examine the

specifi c relation between HRD practices and intention to turnover within the

context of employee engagement. Specifi cally, we were interested in the rela-

tion between employee-held perceptions of support for participation in HRD

practices and employee engagement and how this potential relation affected

an employee’s intention to turnover. As such, we hoped to indirectly connect