Retention of employees has become a critical issue in the corporate arena. With the increasing trend of frequent job switching among employees, it is a big challenge for HR Managers today to fulfill the aspirations of each and every employee and to bring congruence between organizational and individual goals. In the BPO sector of India where attrition rate is as high as 55 percent (ASSOCHAM, 2011), the situation is even more difficult for HR Managers. But the big question is how to make employees feel committed to their organizations especially in such a dynamic work environment where attrition rate is so high and job poaching is the order of the day. An extensive review of literature reveals that employees' ‘commitment‘ to the organization is a function of their interaction and relationship with that organization and, to a great extent, a manifestation of the attitude of management towards the employees. This belief is based on the premise that member's identity with the organization is a result of a set of carefully designed policies within the cultural pattern of the organization. An attempt has been made in this research to study the BPO sector to see whether the organizational culture and commitment level of employees differ across the different strata of employees in the BPO sector and finally to explore the relationship between organizational culture and commitment. The research was carried out in 15 BPO units in and around Chandigarh — Chandigarh, Panchkula, and Mohali which covered three strata of BPO units based on the number of employees and from all the three level of employees, i.e. top, middle, and lower level of employees. Results reveal that employees of smaller BPOs perceive their culture a shade better than medium or larger BPOs. And, as far as overall commitment is concerned, employees of smaller BPOs have significantly more commitment level than employees of medium or larger BPOs. As organizational culture is better in smaller BPOs and so is the commitment, these findings give us a cue that organizational culture has definite impact on commitment of employees. Further results reveal that commitment of employees is particularly sensitive to six dimensions of organizational culture viz. proaction, confrontation, trust, authenticity, experimentation, and collaboration. But, the results failed to support the relationship between autonomy and openness with commitment. Further, findings reveal that the focal point in the development of any strategy is directed towards impacting the commitment of employees towards their organizations

An attempt has been made to investigate the mediating role of OCBs in culture and turnover intentions. Data was collected from 15 BPO units located in Chandigarh. Findings revealed that OCBs of employees in the BPO sector are mainly sensitive to four dimensions of organizational culture viz. proaction, confrontation, experimentation and openness. Finally, a partial mediation of OCBs had been found between organizational culture and turnover intentions. Taking into consideration the practical implications of the study, findings suggest that BPO Managers should pay special attention and recognition to employees' OCBs, as these could help in reducing their attrition. Further implications of the results and direction for future research have been elaborated.

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The present study investigated the effect of organisational culture on high attrition of employees in business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in India. The study has been conducted in three strata comprised of 15 BPO units in and around Chandigarh. An attempt has been made to establish a relationship between openness, confrontation, trust, authenticity, proaction, autonomy, collaboration and experimenting (OCTAPACE) dimensions of organisational culture and turnover intentions of employees. Regression analysis was employed to test the research hypotheses. Results revealed that turnover intentions are particularly sensitive to six dimensions of organisational culture viz. proaction, confrontation, experimentation, trust, authenticity and collaboration. But the results failed to support the relationship of openness and autonomy dimensions of organisational culture with turnover intentions. This study contributes to a better understanding of the influence of organisational culture on the turnover intentions among employees in the BPO sector.Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Dwivedi, S., Kaushik, S. and Malodia, L. (2014) 'Effect of organisational culture on high attrition in Indian business process outsourcing sector', Int.