Author:Anita Taib, Steven Eric Krauss, Ismi Arif Ismail, Nor Wahiza Abdul Wahat

Doi: 10.26480/mjhrm.02.2024.138.142

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Executives in research and development (R&D) organisations are high-quality employees and are accountable for carrying out research activities to attain the organisation’s goals. The purpose of this study is to explore how the selected theory, which include Herzberg’s two-factor theory or motivation theory, job embeddedness theory, and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, contribute to executives motivation and lead to their retention in a government-based R&D organisation. Based on the theories selected, it was found that the integration of the selected theories enhanced the motivation of executives, which can lead to an improvement in their performance and thus lead to executive retention. This paper contributes to the theories by giving insights into the theories in the human resource development (HRD) field, particularly in the career development area, and also contributes to the practices where HRD practitioners, HR practitioners, and the management of the organisation can identify the factors that motivate the executives to stay and choose the right tools to motivate and inspire the R&D executives. By understanding what motivates the employees, it can encourage them to boost their scientific productivity and retain them in government-based R&D organisations.