Equity Sensitivity and Employee Retention through the Lenses of Social Exchange Theory among Specialist Doctors in Malaysia

Purpose: Specialist doctors are the indispensable human resource asset of the healthcare industry due to their unique expertise built over time. They are the industry leaders in medical research and play a crucial role in providing specialized care producing better outcomes in overall patients’ treatment. Therefore, the increasing number of specialists leaving government health services has been concerning. In this regard, most research in specialist retention has focused on individual and job factors. However, there is scant research exploring the individual differences that may influence the intention to stay of specialists. Hence, this paper looks to contribute to the literature on specialist doctors’ retention by focusing on the role of equity sensitivity.Design/Methodology/Approach: The study first establishes the problem of specialist doctors’ retention thru analysis of current reports, secondly investigates the past literature in the constructs relationship and theoretical underpinning to establish the theoretical basis and direction of this study.Proposition: This paper heeds the limited theoretical precision of social exchange theory highlighted by previous studies to further specify the distinction between hedonically positive and negative values within equity sensitivity construct and in its relations with employee retention.Implications/Originality/Value: This paper presents the theoretical ambiguity of social exchange theory suggested by prior studies in articulating the bipolarity within equity sensitivity and employee retention research and presents a proposal for the way forward from the challenges in this area of study