Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intentions : Impact of Employee ’ s Training in Private Sector of Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this paper is to investigate impacts of training on organizational commitment and turnover intentions in private sector of Saudi Arabia. The study seeks to focus the relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intentions of the employees. A literature review of organizational commitment and employee turnover provides the basis for the research model and hypotheses. A self-administered questionnaire was used, involving 251 respondents from leading private organizations of Saudi Arabia to collect data and testing the existing theory. The results provide strong support for the hypothesis that is the negative relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention. Employees’ training is significantly correlated with organizational commitment, turnover intentions and the commitment-turnover relationship.The sample was limited to private organization in Saudi Arabia. It may not be appropriate to generalize the findings across other populations or settings. However, the sample can be viewed as a representative case typical of many other organizations in the same industry. The results provides insight into the impact of organizational commitment on turnover intentions in the specific private sector of Saudi Arabia, which might benefit for managers and policy makers of the concerned organizations and in general for the whole sector. The paper studies the problems that exist in the private sector of Saudi Arabia.

In 1970s, training and development exertions were dedicated to the young employees those appear to have high potential.However, it was recommended to the organizations to make strategy for the future and training of the young employees for highly rankedmanaging positions (Moses, 1999).The proposed career path model robust with the conventional commitment that employee offered to their organization.This commitment can be defined such as a "psychological contract" in which employers are mostly assured long term fidelity and commitment to the organization in the result thereof for providing employees job safety, probabilities for promotion, and training and development opportunities (Feldman, 2000).The capability to hold on quickly to the top of an organization reduced in 1980s, when organizations were trying to moving a flat organizational hierarchy with less chance for employee promotions.In 1950s quite a few organizations adopted the similar path.In the period of 1950s General Electric developed "Crotonville Management Development Institute" (Gerbman, 2000).Therefore, training should be designed in a way to achieve organizational commitment (Lang, 1992).However, effective commitment can be defined as an optimistic desire to perform in a certain way (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990).
In 1960s, MacDonald's also pursued this trend and start Hamburger University for the training of their employees.Today most of the organizations emphasized on the training of their employees.Training is defined as organizational program by which employee learn knowledge and skills for a specific purpose (Beach, 1965).Moreover, benefits of employees from training included career development, job safety, self-importance, job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Geale, 1995).Training can be described as the practice of organization that can be prescribed to draw a desired set of employees' attitudes and behaviours such as organizational commitment (Sparrow, 1998).Regardless of the availability of various training programs, training helps to get the specific outcomes such as employee commitment and turnover intentions.Employee commitment is correlated to the actual and perceived human resource practices such as employee training (Gaertner & Nolen, 1989).One school of thought suggests that training leads to an increase in turnover; however some authors declare that training is a tool which can be used for the employee retention (Colarelli & Montei, 1996;Becker, 1993).

Introduction
Researchers have been studying the affiliation between training and organizational commitment (Al-Emadi & Marquardt, 2007).Numerous researches describe that the facility of training program for the employees helps to increase the organizational commitment (Al-Emadi & Marquardt, 2007;Bartlett, 2001).The success or failure of any organization tremendously depends on its human resources.However, there are some other aspects that perform major roles, such as it is necessary for the organizations to have efficient employees in reference to keep themselves economically dominant and competitive in the market.In reference to retain such worthy commodity, organizations should be conscious about the organizational commitment and retention of the employees.Quite a few organizations made the misconception that employees are merely looking for monetary advantages from their jobs.This assumption neglects the high significance that many employees reside on the inherent benefits of their careers.Consequently, this is not related to employee's job satisfaction and retention rather has undesirable effects on the business too.Furthermore, it is well said that it is essential for the organizations to have employees who are capable to rapidly adapt to continuously changing world market.
The meaning of organizational commitment is an effective connection to the organization with encouraging decisions to work and remain committed to continue work with the organization (Porter, Steers & Mowday, 1974).Therefore to understand a positive return on training, organizations must ensure that the training is appropriately aligned with the organizational goals (Clark & Kwinn, 2005).The importance of training is rapidly growing and organizations are using this tool to compete with their competitors in the market.There is meaningful discussion between the scholars and the professionals on the issue that training has effective impact on employee and organizational goals.Noe (2002) suggested in a research that training is an intentional activity adapted by the organizations to communicate the job expertise, information and also modify the attitude and behaviour of the employees in a way which is aligned with the organizational goal.Regardless of all discussion, most of researchers agreed that employee training is a complicated human resource practice that can significantly impact on success of the organization.Saudi Arabia is a major manufacturer and exporter of oil with one of the largest oil reserves in the world.Government of the Saudi Arabia plays an important role for the development of the country.Saudi organizations have been increasingly contributing in the economic development with the help of government that desires to expand its national income through the private sector to invest highly in economy of Saudi Arabia.It is important for the Saudi organizations to be vigilant on employees' turnover for public and private sectors.The policy of Saudization required the government and private sectors to hire Saudi nationals in position of foreign workers by a quota system and enforce restrictions on the staffing of foreign employees (Looney, 2004).Therefore, Saudi government needs the private sector for Saudization.However, the organizations have negative attitude for recruiting the Saudi nationals.

Motivation to Research
Today Saudi Arabia is reforming its economy to familiarize new development in global market.Organizations that strive for achieving high market share on international level have a low rate of employee turnover and high employee commitment, which is related to hard work, efficiency and better quality of work (Al-Kahtani, 2002).This study precedes previously described cultural variances and specified the different level of commitment while considering the association betweenthe training program and organizational commitment of employees.Malhotra et al. (2007) had described that though there is a lot of literature on the effect of human resource management on the proposed psychological agreement but there is a very short discussion on the topic of the context of organizational commitment.Gamble and Huang (2008) described in their study that maximum amount of information on the topic of organizational commitment is taken from the Western literature.Their study proposed that cultural variance among countries utilizes a substantialeffect on employee commitment (Glazer, Daniel & Short, 2004).
It has been suggested that training is an extremely critical element in the Arab organizations and third world countries.However, some of the scholars do not agree with this statement that the most significant challenges faced by third world countries are that of training and development of their citizens (Murrell, 1984).Basically in most of the Arab organizations training and development are not acknowledged as a vital strategic organizational function which can contribute highly in the successof the organization.However, employee training and development in Arab organizations have been observed as a holiday and leisure activity which is provided to senior managers and their friends.It has been perceived that in Arab countries training and development are mostly influenced by managers who worked within a social structure, in which family and friends plays a significant role.Consequently, it has been suggested that there is a problem concerning what should be completed involving training and development decision and what are the obligation by organizational culture (Abdalla & Al-Homoud, 1995).Furthermore, Arab countries implemented certain features of employee training and development in a way which is in view with the current theories, but still they are extremely lacking in the training need assessment (Abdalla et al. 1998).Moreover, the available research on this topic shows that training is not conducted in a professional way keeping in mind training need assessment that isselecting the trainees, conducting the training program and its evaluation.Referring to this, Bahar et al. (1996) and Abdalla et al. (1998) suggested that employee training and development practices by many Arab organizations are deficient due to lack of efficient planning, execution and the assessment phases.Some of the significant outcomes from a few earlier researches described that training and development programs are largely influenced by personnel relations, favouritism, ideological relationships and acquaintances that imitate cultural forces.However, Arab organizations spend a huge amount on the training and development of their employees but have no effect.This research adds its contribution to the concept and practices of employees training in a numerous means.First, it encompasses Saudi Arabia to manipulate on the association concerning to employee perceptions of training and organizational commitment.The outcomes of this research permit the researchers to recognize that training endowment might be utilized by private sector of Saudi Arabia to enhance the organizational commitment of the employees.The study would help private sector to adapt a better training facility for employees to increase their commitment and retention.In private sector benefits and salaries are high but job security is less.A study conducted on employee turnover in Saudi organizations confirmed that the amount of turnover in Saudi market is high particularly in the private sector (Achoui & Mansour, 2007).The policy of Saudization pursues numerous organizations to accomplish the compulsory percentage of Saudi national in their organizations by the Saudi government.Additionally, the economic growth in private sector drive organizations to attract extra qualified Saudis on the expense of the other companies.The preceding factors significantly contributed to turnover problem in Saudi Arabia.Achoui and Mansour (2007) conducted an empirical study through survey and classify the main causes of employee turnover in Saudi organizations, most of the respondents confirmed that their organizations are not helping them to retain.

Organizational Commitment
Training and development program utilized by organizations has an effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment of the employees (Meyer & Allen, 1991).Training has been defined as providing a significantly role to the organizational effectiveness (Schuler and MacMillan, 1984).An inadequate research has established in America (Bartlett, 2001), Middle East (Al-Emadi & Marquardt, 2007) and Malaysia (Ahmad & Bakar, 2003) found a positive connection between training and organizational commitment and negative with turnover intentions.A research on US health care exposed positive relationship between training and effective organizational commitment (Bartlett, 2001).To observe the effectiveness of training, it has recommended to directly examining its correlation with organizational commitment.Training must design in a way that achieves organizational commitment (Lang, 1992).Organizational commitment appears more significant in cultures and industries where employees increase high levels of self-interest that might increase thinking to leave one organization and join another (Beyer, 1990).
Some of researchers suggested that facility of employee training and development positively influenced on job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and result thereof affect employee retention (Lam & Zhang, 2003).Therefore, it has been described as positively correlated to organizational efficiency (Bartlett, 2001).The research proposes that encouraging work conduct and attitude rely on the employee perception and extent to which organization take care about their future career (Allen et al, 2003).Training might be utilized to provoke required results that may comprise improved organizational commitment (Bartlett, 2001).It is like a psychological attachment, employee has for his organization.Current research argues that training and development programs perceived as endorsement by employees that their organization's desire to develop a social exchange with them.However, this social exchange commitment produces a sturdy emotional commitment between employees and their organization (Garrow, 2004).Training supposed to have a positive impact on employee motivation and organizational commitment.

Availability of Training
The availability of training is being extended to which employees believe that they are capable to approach the training opportunities offered by their organizations.Previous research proposed that employees, who have the opportunity for training program, are more committed with their organization (Bartlett 2001).In past, it has been pointed out by research that in USA and Malaysia, the accessibility of training was highly associated with effective but not persistence with organizational commitment (Bartlett, 2001).These outcomes support that organizations enhance affective commitment of the employees by encouraging them to participate in training programs.There is a momentous correlation between training and job satisfaction and particularly those employees who obtain training are more gratified than those who have not participated (Patrick and Owens, 2006).Quite a few studies have pointed out that accessibility of training and development programs are significant features of increasing job satisfaction and decreasing turnover intentions among employees (Bartlett, 1999).
Training is described as "planned intervention that is designed to enhance the determinants of individual job satisfaction" (Chiaburu & Tekleab, 2005, p. 29).Training is associated with skills required by the organization that must be obtained by the employee in reference to achieve the organizational goals.Employees, who are enthusiastic to learn, demonstrate a high level of job satisfaction through an optimistic effect on their performance (Tsai et al., 2007).It has been described that a strong association is available between employee turnover and accessibilityto the training programs.However, the accurate picture of this relationship is not clear (Reddy, 1996).The efficient training programs resulted in improved production, decrease employee turnover, and better job satisfaction of the employee (Harris, 1990).In contrast to the earlier findings, it has assumed that accessibility of training program absolutely correlated to the organizational commitment of the employees.
H1.There is a positive relationship between availability of training and organizational commitment.

Motivation to Learn
A motivated employee has positive observation about the training program offered by the organization.It has been revealed to lead superior contribution in training activities (Mathieu, Tannenbaum & Salas, 1992).However, empirical research similarly pointed out those employees who are motivated to learn likely to apply the learned expertise more efficiently on their jobs (Facteau et al. 1995).Furthermore, the resulting benefits essentially produce optimistic emotions in the direction of organization and increase organizational commitmentof employees.Studies established that motivation for training is the most significant aspect for the effectiveness of training program (Kontoghiorghes, 2004).Regardless of the preliminary motivation of trainees to contribute in the training program, most of the members had positive expectations concerning transfer of training to the workplace.Noe (1986) described in a research that motivation for training is anexplicit desire of the trainee to acquire all the features of training program and apply those learned knowledge and skills on their jobs.
Motivation to learn facilitates the connection regarding to the variables related with training program and efficiency of training program by a model of ''Integrative Theory of Training Motivation'' (Colquitt et al. 2000).Baldwin et al. (1991) suggested in a study that employees with greater motivation before training on the foundation of their willingness to participate in training have better learning results as compared to those employees who have lower level of pre-training motivation.Motivation to learn is the most significant element of the effectiveness of training program as compared to other factors, grounded on the response towards the training (Cannon-Bowers et al. 1995).Research studies confirmed that there is a highly significant connection between employee motivation to learn and their organizational commitment (Bartlett, 2001;Ahmad & Bakar, 2003).These consequences proposed that organizations can get advantage from high commitment by motivating their employees to participate in training programs.A study conducted in Hong Kong also confirmed that there is a positive correlation among motivation to learn and organizational commitment (Cheng & Ho, 2001).
H2.There is a positive relationship between employee motivation to learn and organizational commitment.

Manager Support for Training
The research suggested that the support in the workplace environment has essential implications for the appropriate effectiveness of the organization.Researchers suggested that social support increase job satisfaction and commitment of the employee and reduce turnover (Allen and Meyer, 1990).However, it is clear that social support is an important factor of organizational effectiveness.There are three main resources of social support: co-workers, family and friends (Ganster, Fusilier & Mayes, 1986), and immediate supervisor (Eisenberger et al. 2002).From last decades, scholars have constantly confirmed that social support is an essential source for facilitating the emotional, physical and overall well-being of the employees (La Rocco et al. 1980).
Senior colleagues support for training has been exposed to affect training involvement (Noe & Wilk, 1993).
There is a significant correlation between supervisor support for training and mutually affective and continuance commitment (Bartlett, 2001).Such outcomes demonstrate possible benefits that might be obtain from the development of a situation in which contribution in training and development events are stimulated by the managers.This kind of personal attachment with manager, resulted by a given social norm dictates an obligation to be faithful with seniority (Wang, 2008).The research observe the degree to which multinationals companies are capable to increase employee's commitment by stimulating managerial level employees to deliver additional support to their assistants, to join the training programs and apply learned skills on their jobs.
H3.There is a positive relationship between manager support for training and organizational commitment.

Turnover Intentions
Employee turnover has a significant subject for many researchers and academics because of its negative results as turnover (Cotton & Tuttle, 1986;Mowday et al., 1982).The relationship between training and development has been developed in the literature but contradictory outcomes described in literature defining the part of training and its impacts on employee turnover creates the complicated relationship (Mincer, 1988).For example the low rate of training programs in organizations may lead to poor job performance and higher employee turnover rate.On other side, the organizations which have proper training program for the development of their employees, enjoying high success ratio and lower level of employee turnover.Employees might feel grateful to show greater commitment and less encouragement to leave the organization (O'Reilly et al., 1991).
While a research on young employees established weak confirmation on the fact that training reduces employee turnover (Veum, 1997).Conversely to the previous results, employees who are more satisfied with the training programs offered by their organizations, such employees are more expected to leave the organization (Sheng, 2003).Therefore turnover may be costly to the organizations whereas commitment is commonly used as desirable skills that might increase in employees.Satisfaction is positively associated to organizational commitment and negatively related with employee turnover intentions (Lane, 1993).A vigilant survey on the existing literature regarding the role of training and its influence on turnover intentions of the employees provide no substantial and strong confirmation to simplify the optimistic effect of training on employee turnover.
H4.There is a negative relationship between organizational commitment and employee turnover intentions.
Figure 1.Proposed model of study to test the training effects on turnover intentions

Procedure
Randomly selected employees were invited to contribute in the study by completing survey questionnaire.
Respondents were full-time employees and working on different managerial and non-managerial positions.The organizations selected were from various industries in the private sector of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, such as banks, fast food, telecommunication and retail.However, each organization has more than 50 employees.Total 350 questionnaires were distributed whereas 278 were received back, out of which 251 questionnaires were finally selected for final analysis withthe response rate of 72%.The field work was conducted in August-September 2012.A written letter was issued to HR Manager describing the reason of research and to get the formal approval.Noe and Schmitt's (1986).Manager support for training was measured by ten item scale.Meyer et al. (1993) scale was adopted for organizational commitment.A seven item scale was adopted from Newman et al. (2011)

Demographic Characteristics
The demographic details of respondents are shown in Table 1.Gender shows, there were 95.7% male and 4.3% were female.Such gender ratio is justified because of Saudi society has limitations to approach females.In terms of age, the highest respondents fell into the age of 21-30 years, which were accounted for 49.3%.This was followed by 31-40 years of age group, in which respondents were 37.7%.66.7% of the respondents were graduated and the 18.8% were undergraduates.By the ethnic group of respondent, 59.4% respondents were Saudis and remaining 40.6% were non-Saudis.This ratio of Saudi citizen participation is expected in the private sector as most of the Saudi citizens prefer to work in the government sector.

Supported
H4.There is a negative relationship between organizational commitment and employee turnover intentions.

Hypothesis Testing
Table 2 shows the standardized Cronbach's alpha for each variable that reflects adequate and acceptable internal consistency reliability coefficients for all the scales as greater than .75(Nunnally, 1978).Correlation between the selected variables such as availability of training, organizational commitment and the employees' turnover intentions are presented in Table 2. Variables associated with training that were availability of training program and manager support for training found consistent with the theory and our hypotheses.
Hypothesis 1 predicts that availability of training and organizational commitment is positively correlated.
Results depicted positive correlation between both variables (r = 0.192, p < .05).Regression analysis results in Table 3 indicates that relationship between availability of training and organizational commitment is highly significant (β = .49,t-value = 5.192, p = .000)and in line with past studies (Bartlett 2001, Ahmad & Bakar 2003).
Hypothesis 2 contrary to our research, we found much weaker and insignificant relationship between motivation to learn and organizational commitment.This negates findings from other countries (Ahmad & Bakar, 2003;Al-Emadi& Marquardt, 2007) but supports the findings of Newman et al. (2011), who also found no relationship between motivation to learn and organizational commitment.The lack of relationship between motivation to learn and organizational commitment possibly occurred because an employee's motivation to learn might not lead to interest in training activities.Decision to join training activities might not take by employees individually but enforced by the management.Previous studies have recommended that perceptions of training might be linked only to commitment when training is related to career development (Meyer & Smith, 2000).
Hypothesis 3 consistent with our theoretical framework, our results strongly indicates the positive relationship between manager support for training and organizational commitment.Our results proposed that the manager is exceptionally central in supporting employee training involvement in Saudi Arabia.Redding (1990) suggested in the literature that giving high significance on the ethics in hierarchies and personal relationships instead of the system itself.Saudi employees feel more expected to be based on gratitude for personalized support from a manager or supervisor.
Hypothesis 4 suggests that organizational commitment is negatively correlated to employee turnover intentions.Table 2 revealed that organizational commitment and turnover intentions have negative correlation (r = -.483,p < .01).Regression analysis results in Table 3 also confirmed that organizational commitment is negatively related to turnover intentions and significant (β = -.218,t-value = -1.964,p < .05).Results found are consistent with the findings of other researchers (Cheng & Stockdale, 2003;Newman et al. 2011).

Future Research
Future research on this topic can further examine the training program and organizational commitment with the concept of turnover.For instance this study suggests that training and social support factors effects the organizational commitment and turnover intentions.Future exploration on this topic required more deep empirical research in private sector of Saudi Arabia, so that researchers and organizations come to know that what are the other predicts which effects the organizational commitment and turnover intentions.Private sector of Saudi Arabia is required to provide the training opportunities for their employees so that they can decrease the turnover rate of employees.Managers and supervisors are also required to encourage their subordinates to motivate them for try to learn new knowledge and skills which is beneficial for their organizations.This research also encourages the researchers to further investigate on this topic and found other variable effecting turnover intentions in private sector of Saudi Arabia.

Conclusion
In our study of private sector in the Saudi Arabia, we attempt to explore the relationship between the perception of availability of training and organizational commitment and the further impact of organizational commitment on turnover intentions.In line with theory, all the selected variables: availability of training program and supervisor support for training is found positively related to organizational commitment.Nonetheless, contrary to theory, motivation to learn depicts insignificant results which could have other reasons e.g.employees might be motivated to learn but their failure to put on learnt skills might cause the absence of an apparent relationship with organizational commitment (Benson et al. 2000).A strong inverse relationship is also confirmed by our research between organizational commitment and turnover intentions of an employee.Hence, organizations should consider how to get their employees strongly recognised with their organizational goals, missions and values through appropriate training.
Availability of training program was measured by seven item scale.Motivation to learn was measured by which are taken from the study of To determine how training inprivate sector can increases organizational commitment in Saudi Arabia, we utilize the affiliation of training variables which were used formerly.The study inquires a number of questions:  To what extent private organizationscan increase employee commitment in Saudi Arabia by encouraging awareness of training opportunities among employees? To what extent private organizations in Saudi Arabiaare able to increase the commitment of employees by encouraging them to contribute in training programs? To what extent private organizations in Saudi Arabia can increase employee commitment by refining supervisor support for training?Saudi planner made efforts to develop manpower necessary to fulfil the development privileges for social and economic equality.Those who have not access to official learning are encouraged to develop such training programs which fulfil Saudi requirements.Al-Souhem (1996) described that development plans have taken an important place on human resource development by continuous advance in general and higher education, and in particular technical and vocational training.Also, significant progress has been conducted in the area of vocational training and technical education through development of highly skilled staff and well-equipped training organizations.The development of competent Saudi work force will help in increasing their efficiency level and create significant influence to economic development.Saudi government deployed incredible efforts to enlarge the Kingdom's vocational training system in quantitatively and qualitatively to meet the challenges of economic development.Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) conducts every year around 130 training courses and seminars.These courses mostly complete all the labour needs of private sector such as marketing, sales, maintenance, office management, and photography and customs clearance.These programs were conducted after observing the workforce demand of private industry of Saudi Arabia.Furthermore, JCCI has made agreements with the organization that will employ Saudis, who have contributed in JCCI's training program.Ministries of Education and labour and other public organizations have developed programs that will help to enhance the quantity of Saudi youth in technical and commercial field.Furthermore, the ministry of Communication has developed a program that provides training to young Saudis who are more than 20 years, in the field of transmission production (Saudi Embassy; USA, 1997).Al-Ahmadi (2002) established a research on hospital nurses in Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia.She found that the opportunity for individual and professional growth is one of the best predictors of organizational commitment and job satisfaction.Specific number of researchers described the Saudi organizations but there is a little research available on the theory of employee turnover and its causes.Most of the employers are not focusing on this serious issue.They have slight knowledge that how much negative effect of turnover has on the efficiency of the organizations.If the performance of Saudis employees compared with the expatriates the results are in the favour of expatriates which are likely not to promote the idea of Saudization.The study suggests that private sector must appoint workers with proper knowledge, skill, capabilities and training.Saudi employees are not currently suitable to fulfil the requirements of the current local labour market, but they can be developed as efficient workers by providing them appropriate training.
4. Training Situation in Saudi ArabiaThe government of Saudi Arabia encourages workplace training and regularly applies some forces on large multinational organizations in Kingdom to nationalize certain jobs.Consequently, most of the large organizations have their own in-house training centres and programs.For example, Saudi Aramco, Yanpet and Samref -working in oil and petro-chemical industries-have developed their own industrial training programs.Saudi Aramco that is located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia since 1930s has long history in providing training to their employees.However, Yanpet and Samref were established with the foundation of Yanbu Industrial City in 1975.These companies have similar organizational structures and operational procedure.Industrial training in the given companies is divided into numerous phases, including vocational and technical training, academic job-related training, and on-the-job training.The provincial chambers of commerce and industry contribute in the training and development of Saudi work force by providing specific training programs.The provincial chambers provide support to young Saudis to make them eligible for private sector jobs which might be beyond their approach without the help of government support.
, to measure the availability of training program.Items included: "My organization provides training opportunities to learn general knowledge and skills which later may use for the betterment of my future career".Manager support for training was measured by 10 items which is taken byNoe and Wilk(1993).5-point likert scale was used to measure the all the responses.

Table 2 .
Mean, standard deviations and Pearson correlations among key variables

Table 3 .
Multiple regression analysis