Training for Transformation: Unravelling the Dynamics of Employee Commitment and Citizenship Behaviour in Fiji's Retail Sector

Abstract

This paper examines the mediating effect of organisational commitment (OC) on the relationship between workplace training opportunities and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) of frontline retail sector employees in Fiji. The authors conducted a cross-sector survey with selected 37 small to medium sized grocery retail outlets executing workplace training strategies at their workplaces. The authors used structural equation modelling to verify the hypotheses. The findings suggest that small and medium-sized (SME) grocery outlets should focus on reinforcing the implementation of workplace training practices, whose synergistic effects may be currently neglected. The results show that constituents of training and development initiatives, especially providing avenues for support for employee training can significantly improve frontline and back-office employee commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in SME retail companies. Previous studies have primarily examined the relationship between workplace training components, OC and OCB in specific contexts, such as the manufacturing industry or have lumped training and development practices with other human resource management (HRM) practices. The present study aims to fill this gap by exploring the concurrent effects of components of a single HRM practice of workplace training on OC and OCB in the understudied services sector setting in a developing country context.