Role overload: A cause of diminishing employee retention and productivity

Retaining employees and maintaining a satisfactory level their productivity are crucial concerns in the organizational studies. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of role overload at work place on retention and productivity of layoff survivors. Data comprised of 450 responses from layoff survivors working in two giant organizations in Pakistan. Stratified random sampling was employed with a cross-sectional research design. The results of the Pearson's correlation and regression analysis helped in analyzing the data and reveal that role overload has a strong negative and significant relationship with both dependent variables that are employee retention and productivity. Role overload accounts for 85.3 % change in employee retention and 87.2% change in employee productivity. Additionally it is assessed that whether the difference among male and female layoff survivors with respect to role overload, retention and productivity exists or otherwise. The results are discussed in comparison with previous research studies.