* Corresponding author. E-mail address: ahmed.mehrez@qu.edu.qa (A. Mehrez) © 2019 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada doi: 10.5267/j.msl.2018.12.007 Management Science Letters 9 (2019) 425–442 Contents lists available at GrowingScience Management Science Letters homepage: www.GrowingScience.com/msl The impact of human resource practices on job satisfaction and intention to stay in emerging economies: Model development and empirical investigation among high caliber governmental employees in Qatar Ahmed Mehrez a* and Anas Bakri a a College of Business and Economics, Qatar University, Qatar C H R O N I C L E A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: October 7, 2018 Received in revised format: No- vember 29, 2018 Accepted: December 14, 2018 Available online: December 14, 2018 High rates in turnover of skilled employees can turn to be a very significant concern in organiza- tions world-wide. Turnover affects productivity, product or service quality and of course profita- bility. As Human Resources (HR) activities can be considered as a primary source of sustainable competitive advantage in organisations, it would also play a major role in employees’ intention to stay or to leave. This paper examines the influence of different human resource practices on em- ployees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment and eventually on job turnover with a focus on the governmental sector in the State of Qatar. In order to develop such investigation, a model was suggested and an online questionnaire was developed and distributed. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of more than 250 highly ranked employees in Qatar. Statistical correlations were conducted to examine the relationships among variables under investigation. The results show that positive relationships were observed between the HR practices under investigation and job satisfaction and organizational commitment which indicate intention to stay. © 2019 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada Keywords: Human Resource Organizational culture Leadership style Job satisfaction Organizational commitment Intention to stay Job turnover Governmental sectors Qatar 1. Introduction The issue of high rate of turnover of skilled employees can turn to be very significant problem in many organisations world-wide. Many researchers consider high rates of turnover as a continual problem (Yin-Fah et al., 2010). Turnover affects productivity, quality and, of course, the profitability. In this manner, academic literature has viewed that human resources (HR) of any firm are potentially the primary source of sustainable competitive advantage (Kochan & Dyer, 1993; Pfeffer, 1994; Sarwara et al., 2013). Moreover, turnover also is very costly for any organization in terms of attracting and finding skilled employees with required experience, training these employees, and of course cost re- lated to replacing these employees if they decide to quit. Understanding reasons and factors that are associated with leaving/staying in an organization is of great importance as it provides employer with information on how to design strategies that can reduce turnover rates.