The mediating effects of professional and organizational commitment on the relationship between HRM practices and professional employees’ intention to stay

Abstract

Previous literature on professional employees argues that the quality of their work depends on both their organizational and professional commitment. Combining a target similarity and a cognitive approach to HRM, this study examines the mediating effects of these two variables on the relationship between HRM practices and intention to stay. Using a sample of 265 professional auditors working for certified public accountancy firms, we find that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between information-sharing, fair rewards and intention to stay, while the effect of autonomy and recognition is successively mediated by professional commitment and organizational commitment. Training has a direct effect on intention to stay. The implications of these results for the development of an HRM model linking professional employees’ organizational and professional commitment, thereby providing the possibility of reconciling organizational efficiency and traditional professional ethics, are discussed.