Employer branding as a driver of engagement, retention and commitment in crisis-prone environments

Purpose In volatile and crisis-prone environments, organisations face heightened challenges in sustaining employee engagement, commitment and retention. This study aims to investigate the association between employer branding, employee engagement, retention and the three components of organisational commitment, namely, affective, normative and continuance commitment, within the context of Lebanon’s prolonged economic and political instability. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative design and partial least squares structural equation modelling were used on data collected from 262 employees working across diverse sectors in Lebanon. Findings The findings reveal that employer branding is positively associated with employee engagement, retention, affective commitment and continuance commitment, whereas no significant relationship was found with normative commitment, indicating that employer branding operates primarily through relational and identity-based rather than obligation-based mechanisms in crisis-prone environments. Originality/value This study extends employer branding theory by examining crisis-prone environments as a theoretical boundary condition rather than merely a geographical context. By disaggregating organisational commitment into affective, normative and continuance dimensions, it shows that employer branding does not influence all forms of employee attachment uniformly, thereby refining existing explanations of employer branding under prolonged macroeconomic instability.