THE INFLUENCE OF THE QUALITY OF WORKING LIFE ON EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION, JOB COMMITMENT AND TENURE INTENTION IN THE SME SECTOR IN ZIMBABWE

A major reason for advocating for quality of work life has been the promise that it creates a win-win situation: improved employee satisfaction and welfare, hence increased productivity, longer employee tenure and consequently increased company profitability. Nevertheless, in the context of small to medium enterprises (SMEs), scant attention has been given to the empirical investigation into the influence of the quality of work life on employee tenure intention in Southern Africa. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by examining the influence of SME employees' perceptions of the quality of work life on their tenure intention and the mediating role of job satisfaction and job commitment in this relationship as far as Zimbabwe is concerned. Five hypotheses were posited and sample data of 282 were collected from Harare, Zimbabwe's biggest city, to empirically test these hypotheses. The results of this study showed that, in the SME context, quality of work life positively and significantly influences employee job satisfaction, job commitment and consequently tenure intention. The managerial implications of the findings are discussed and limitations and future research directions are indicated.