Abstract
In today’s corporate world, employee retention has become a critical challenge for business leaders. Through investigation, it is identified that there are a few business offerings including culture that impact employee retention within organisations with culture being the central cause. This study operationalised Herman’s Iceberg model of culture and Rosethorn’s Brand Balance Model to develop a mixed methodology questionnaire. Consequently, through the questionnaire and above mentioned academic frameworks, the research was aimed at assessing the individual components of culture that generate the highest impact on a current and future employee’s decision to leave or continue working with an organisation. To further develop a greater understanding, culture as a whole concept was compared against three other business offerings, namely, opportunities, rewards & recognition and corporate reputation & brand when employees consider the exiting decision. With 159 responses collected and 113 fitting the inclusion criteria, the study was able to ascertain that the visible and expressed side of culture created a more significant impact on an employee’s exiting decision. Simultaneously, the study established that organisational culture was exceedingly significant over other business offerings when employees considered leaving or continuing working with an organisation. Most corporate institutions can refer to the insights developed from this study to offer a balanced culture along with increasing employee retention thereby developing a sustainable competitive advantage.
