Career development and turnover intention: Investigating affective commitment’s mediating role among telecommunications employees in Egypt

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractEmployee turnover is an expensive problem for telecom firms going through a fast digital transition. This study investigates whether emotional occupational commitment mediates the association between multidimensional career development (career-goal advancement, professional competence development, promotion speed, and compensation growth) and employees’ desire to leave Egypt’s telecom industry. Employees of three major Egyptian operators (Vodafone Egypt, Orange Egypt, and WE) completed a structured online questionnaire between January and March 2025. Of the 600 surveys received, 588 were found to be legitimate and were included in the final study. Reliability testing (Cronbach’s alpha), descriptive statistics, hierarchical linear regression, path (mediation) analysis, and Pearson correlation were used. All structures have strong internal consistency (alpha range 0.776–0.894). Affective commitment and career growth characteristics were positively correlated, but turnover intention showed a negative correlation. Affective occupational commitment mediates the association between career growth and turnover intention (R2 = 0.588), as demonstrated by path analysis and hierarchical regression. The whole model explains 58.8% of the variation in turnover intention. According to the findings, telecom companies can significantly lower employee turnover by implementing organized career-development programs that increase emotional engagement by enhancing workers’ abilities, making promotion tracks clear, and guaranteeing equitable compensation. To evaluate causal direction and generalizability, future studies should use longitudinal designs and cross-industry comparisons.AcknowledgmentThe author declares that no financial support, institutional grant, or external assistance was received for conducting this research, and there are no use of artificial intelligence tools in preparing the manuscript.