Does Affirmative Action affect intention to leave? The effect of perception of discrimination due to Affirmative Action policies on the intention to leave in a beneficiary group

Affirmative action policies are believed to have both positive and negative impacts on business. This paper takes a novel perspective to understand the negative impact of this policy on the organizational commitment and therefore the intention to leave (IL) on the part of native employees when they perceive unfair discrimination against expatriate employees. Based on analysis conducted by Structure Equation Modelling of answers from a sample of 440 employees in Saudi Arabia, the perception of affirmative action in an organization is found to affect the perception of discrimination (national, gender and religious) in it. The perception among nationals of discrimination is found to fully mediate the relationship between the perception of an organization’s affirmative action policy and organizational commitment (OC). Indeed, this OC fully mediates the perception of national discrimination and the intention to leave. Furthermore, the perception of negative discrimination based on gender and religion partially mediates the relationship between the perception of the affirmative action policy and the intention to leave among the beneficiary group.