Perceived Organizational Support, Career Development, and Intention to Stay: The Mediating Role of Employee Engagement in Islamic Banking

Employee retention in financial services requires understanding why employees intend to maintain the employment relationship. Previous studies have not consistently explained whether organizational support and career development are related to Intention to Stay both directly and simultaneously through Employee Engagement, particularly in Indonesian Islamic banking. This study used a quantitative cross-sectional survey of 300 permanent Bank BJB Syariah employees recruited through the bank's internal survey channels using regionally proportionate sample targets derived from an eligible population of 1,260 employees. Measurement was based on SPOS-8, a 15-item career-development measure operationalized through the Organizational Career Growth framework, UWES-9, and a four-item Intention to Stay scale. PLS-SEM with SmartPLS 4 showed that Perceived Organizational Support and Career Development were positively associated with Employee Engagement and Intention to Stay, while Employee Engagement was positively associated with Intention to Stay. Both indirect relationships through Employee Engagement were significant and the corresponding direct relationships remained significant, indicating complementary mediation. The findings suggest that Employee Engagement provides an additional psychological pathway rather than replacing the direct retention relevance of organizational support and career development.