The impact of negative work home interface on intention to leave and the role of flexible working arrangements in Malaysia

Abstract

Recent research into employee turnover has lacked empirical evidence and dissemination of practical information requires further investigation into the relationship between work-life balance and intention to leave. Although flexible working is not currently prevalent in Asian cultures, recent concerns about work-life balance have caused major employers, including the Malaysian government and multinational companies (MNCs), to introduce family-friendly policies. The objective of this study is twofold: first, to examine the moderating effect of flexible working arrangements (FWA) on the relationship between negative work-home interface (NWHI) and intention to leave (ITL) and second, to determine the mediating effect of FWA on the relationship of NWHI and ITL. An online survey gathered 661 responses from participating organizations and a total of 382 valid responses were used in the hierarchical regression analysis for testing mediation and moderation effects. The data revealed that FWA did not significantly affect ITL when NWHI and FWA are constant although there was indeed a very small effect (change in R 2 value of 0.02%) with the inclusion of the interaction between NWHI and FWA on relationship between NWHI and ITL, F (1, 378) = 12.95, p R 2 from 0.086 to 0.091. Thus, the change in R 2 associated with adding FWA is 0.005 and the result shows that the inclusion of FWA in the model accounts for an additional 1% of the variance in ITL. The relationship between the NWHI and ITL is reduced when FWA as mediator is included in the equation of analysis (β = 0.35, p