The Well-being-Attrition Link: Quantifying the Human Cost of Integration Stress; Evidence from Pakistan

The research examines the vital role of employee well-being as a predictor of voluntary turnover in the post-merger and acquisition (M&A) context in the constantly changing business environment of Pakistan. The research is based on the tenets of the conservation of resources theory. A prospective research design was used, and data was gathered from 380 employees in three organizations in Pakistan operating in the banking and telecom sectors. The logistic regression analysis showed that pre-merger and post-merger well-being were significant negative predictors of turnover, controlling for job level, type, and financial incentives. It is important to mention that the proximal predictor had a stronger impact on post-merger well-being, and therefore, pre-merger well-being was made insignificant in the regression analysis. The findings of the mediation analysis supported that post-merger well-being completely mediated the relationship between pre-merger well-being and turnover, with well-being during the integration phase as a vital mechanism explaining post-merger turnover.