ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF EMPLOYEE LOYALTY TOWARDS THE ORGANIZATION: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM INDIAN SOFTWARE INDUSTRY

Although substantial differences exists between employee commitment and loyalty, none of the studies made an attempt to understand these constructs separately and analyse the causes and consequences of employee loyalty. In this context, the present study att empts to investigate the antecedents and consequences of employee loyalty in the software industry context. The findings of this paper indicate that employee engagement, satisfaction and commitment have positive and signifi cant impacts on employee loyalty and are considered to be the significant causes for predicting employee loyalty; at the same time the consequences of employee loyalty such as absenteeism and intention to quit do not have any significant effect. However, the study finds that employee satisfaction has a significant effect on the intention to quit via employee absenteeism. The paper shows that, from the managerial perspective, it is necessary for employers and policy- makers to know the causes and consequences of employee loyalty to retain the employees in the long run. The findings of the study suggest that, in order to develop commitment and thereby loyalty, the employer should create a congenial atmosphere for employee engagement and should create satisfied employees. At the same time, this created satisfaction will reduce employee absenteeism and the intention quit. Thus, the attention of the software-employee management should fruitfully focus on the development of employee engagement, satisfaction and commitment, which will ultimately lead to employee loyalty.