Factors Affecting Employee Turnover The
Factors Affecting Employee Turnover The
Factors Affecting Employee Turnover The
Abstract
The Lebanese Retail Sector had been suffering from a decline in the performance
since there is a high rate of employee turnover due to many factors. Absence of
motivation, employee engagement and compensation benefits were some of the
strategies which led to a high turnover rate in the Lebanese Construction Sector.
The research addressed the quantitative methodology throughout distributing a
questionnaire over a defined number of respondents for data collection. The
results were analyzed using the SPSS statistical tool, and the results proposed that
there are many factors which tend to affect the employees turnover including
training and development, commitment, and loyalty.
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Research & Development Specialist
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Supply Chain Manager
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7, No. 2, December 2019
There are many dimensions which can be affected by change and at different
levels. With reference to a study done by the UNDP (2006), there are many direct and
indirect variables which can lead to change and have a direct impact on the
organizational goals and objectives. These factors can be divided into two parts which are
the internal factors and external factors. The internal factors include technologies,
operational changes, processes and procedures as for the external factors includes
competitions among the companies which operate in the same industry in addition to
technological and political challenges. Preference to a research done by Kamarch (2004),
it proposed that there is a direct correlation among the change which takes place in the
organization and the organizational objectives. It focused on the importance of careful
planning and organizing to achieve the objectives effectively and efficiently included
change in management plans, and programs. Different studies addressed in brief the
effect of change management to organizations and the outcomes proposed that changes
which are implemented in a planned way can have a positive effect on the objectives of
the organization on the long term and through the implementation of the strategic plan
(Cousins,2008).
Empirical Literature
Communication and Organizational Performance
Communication had been considered as one of the most important factors which
can lead to the success of implementing change in the organization and is considered
important in building change readiness and aims to minimize risk and is considered as a
key factor in maintaining commitment on the long term. Communication within the
change framework had been considered as a way to motivate the workforce to be
engaged in the change process.
Several scholars and researchers had studied deeply the importance of communication in
implementing change in the workplace. For example, Oreg (2018) implemented a
research to study the impact of communication on change management throughout
implementing the quantitative methodology. The sample that he addressed includes 500
respondents from different retail companies in Kenya to study the impact of
communication in implementing change management. The results were analyzed using
the SPSS statistical tool, and the results proposed that there is a positive and significant
relationship among the proposed factors since the margin of error showed a level below
than 0.05.
Leadership and Communication
The suitability and clarity of communication determine partly the effectiveness of
leadership. The role of the leadership of the manager is exerted through the
communication with the employees of a company. According to Justin (2006),
communication means transmitting and receiving the message at the same time. The
manager defines the essence of a task by the mean of communicating with his employee
while the subordinate in return reports the progress of the work to his director. The
expression of the feelings and attitudes happens through the communication process.
Any kind of planned activity requires communication. Chester Barnard 1983 in Parasad
expressed communication as a mean that links people together in a company in order to
achieve a common objective (Prasad 2004). The objective of communication in a company
is to alter change in order to direct an action towards the prosperity of the company.
More precisely, communication is required to establish the goals of a firm, to set up plans
for their accomplishment, to develop human resources development in the most useful
way and to proceed by a selection, a development, a lead in the purpose of motivating
people in order to increase and control their performance Koontz et al 1983 in (Ezeani,
2006).
Khodor Shatila & Marina Alozian
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For the survival of a company and the achievement of its goals of making profits or
supplying main services, a maintenance of an effective network with the diversity of its
publics of communication is necessary. Communication is considered to be the body of a
company due to the means through which the other management entities are finalized.
Communication is the heart of the management. Every form of the job or task is
communicated. Communication is an essential instrument for the transmission of the
information to other people in order to affect a requested action. Planned and goal-
directed actions would not exist without some communication’s model. Communication is
considered as the transmission of information to others. It is an operation that passes the
information, knowledge and feelings among individuals for particular purposes and also
the transmission of opinions from one person to another or from a group of people to
another. Communicating effectively involves an interchanging point of views and ideas
between a company and another to mutually understand each other without any kind of
tension. Three extensive ways can be carried out which are the verbal communication,
non-verbal one and written one. According to Yolokwu (2005), logistics are a principle
problem as noted in the statement of problem in National Youth Service Corps
Secretariat.
Employee Productivity
Jennifer and George (2006) claim that job performance directly leads to increase
the effectiveness and efficiency of the company for accomplishing goals. They also argued
that the failure of a company affects negatively the effectiveness of a company therefore
diminishing employee’s productivity regarding set goals and objectives. Antomioni (1999)
states that the level of productivity is dependent on the level to which employees believe
that motivational ambitions will be fulfilled declaring that workers are discouraged and
become less productive when they notice that their desires are not met. Mathis and John
(2003) declared that productivity relates to the measurement of the quantity and quality
of work done, keeping in mind the cost of capital utilized. The greater the organizational
productivity is, the greater the competitive will be. This is due to lower costs related to
the production of goods and services. Better productivity ratios do not necessary mean
that more outputs are produced but it could also mean that less financial resources and
less time were used for producing the same output. McNamara (2003) argues that
productivity could be designated in a quality form, quantity, time and cost.
It is also stated by him that assessing productivity is related to the measure of the
length of time required for a normal employee to produce a specific level of outcome.
Although measuring productivity may not be easy, it has however a significance since it
has a direct impact on the organizational yielding profit. Brady (2000) stated that none of
the resources used for production in the workplace are carefully assessed as the human
capital. Most of the activities accomplished in Human Resource Systems are aimed to
affect employee or the productivity of a company. Job compensation, reward systems,
training and development, recruitment, job features are Human Resource responsibilities
directly influence productivity. Bernardin (2007) clearly explained that the essence of
motivational factors must be estimated by a firm in order to increase the productivity
levels of a labor force especially when attempting to earn competitive advantage. He also
declared that it is difficult to measure productivity but it is easier to evaluate it in terms
of effectiveness and efficiency of employees.
Employee Engagement
The ability of a company in achieving its objectives is considered as the
organizational performance. Such goals can be high profit, quality of items, large market
share, good financial outcomes and survival time using appropriate strategy for actions
4 Journal of Human Resources Management and Labor Studies , Vol.
7, No. 2, December 2019
(Koontz and Donnell, 2003). The success of a company in reaching its purposes is
determined by a different performance measurement. The impact of many factors on
organizational performance has been studied by researchers due to its importance.
Employee engagement is one of them. A committed employee is partly responsible for
improving the performance of companies because of job satisfaction. Moreover, the
effects of employee engagement on entreprises’ performance have been studied by
different researches. Employee commitment has been indicated by Rayton and Yalabik
(2014) to be an efficient predictor of companies’ performance and constitutes a
reciprocal relationship between employer and employees. Furthermore, Kompaso and
Sridevi (2010) proposed that there is a relationship between the degree of employee
commitment and the level of company’s profit growth. Nevertheless, a high turnover and
a low customer satisfaction is the consequence of the absence of employee commitment
(Wise, 2017).
Motivation
The vital element for any company is a motivated talent which is crucial for
organizational performance. Such performance is leaded by a good motivation for all the
sectors including the non-profit one. Motivation is defined by Pinder (2008) as “a set of
energetic forces that originates both within as well as beyond an individual’s being, to
initiate work‐related behavior and to determine its form, direction, intensity and
duration.” Employee’s willingness describes motivation in simpler words. Some of them
are motivated to perform human resources tasks while others feel that they are coerced
that are why they hesitate of getting involved at work. According to (Perry & Wise, 2000),
individual incentives or institutionalized ones encourage motivation. Little interest in the
policies is shown by employees in terms of personal incentives (Brewster & Larsen, 2000)
and they are not persuaded that human resources management work is something they
should dedicate too much time on it. Nevertheless, with respect to institutional
incentives, the role of human resources management is not an overall part of employee’s
performance goals which are only assessed through the achievement of targets related to
profits or sales which are in the area of people’s management. Motivation has been split
into two types: extrinsic motivation which constitutes external motivation and intrinsic
ones which represents the internal one. According to Calder and Staw (2015), employees
are proposed to be extrinsically motivated if their needs are satisfied, especially through
monetary compensation. Money is a “goal which provides satisfaction independent of the
actual activity itself.” Extrinsically motivated coordination in enterprises is accomplished
by relating employees’ monetary purposes to the objectives of the company. Extrinsic
motivation happens when an employee feels motivated to do his job in order to be
rewarded or to avoid punishment, contrary of the intrinsic one which consists of
performing a task due to the job satisfaction. Therefore, the motivation of a talented
employee is for personal reasons such as his/her well-being rather than for the desire of
being rewarded. Intrinsic motivation “is valued for its own sake and appears to be self‐
sustained.”
Training and Development
Talent management enjoys the significance of training and development. The
significance of training and development is shown by the basic definitions of talent
management proposed by researchers. Nevertheless, it is an ongoing debate that if the
“talent” is innate or it can be “acquired.” The sustainability of talent management is
marked by hard work, training and development. The culture of the basic skills in
performing human resources management practices is done through training and
development. The need for a continuous and systematic training in human resource
management practices has been shown by some authors such as Coetzer et al. (2012).
Khodor Shatila & Marina Alozian
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Research Design
This study will implement a case study design in which it will address retail
companies in Lebanon. This method is the most suitable one since there are many retail
companies in Lebanon and most of the respondents resist change when implemented.
The case study research design provides a detailed insight about the factors which help
the scholar to address real life situations related to the objectives of the study.
Target Population
The population of this research will include all the staff which is working in the
Lebanese retail companies. The targeted population is all involved in organizational
change in an indirect and direct way. The population of the staff is 1000 employee.
6 Journal of Human Resources Management and Labor Studies , Vol.
7, No. 2, December 2019
Data types
Quantitative and qualitative methodologies are two different types which can be
practiced in a research. The quantitative methodology is a methodology which relies on
primary data which means it can be defined as the data that can be collected by the
researcher himself through the means of a survey or interviews. As for the secondary
data, it is defined as previous data and studies done in the field of studying the factors
which impact employees’ turnover, and this part is already addressed in the literature
review of the research.
Research Model
The probability of getting a critical ratio as large as 4.95 in absolute value is less
than 0.001. In other words, the variance estimate for ChangeManagement is significantly
different from zero at the 0.001 level (two-tailed).
The probability of getting a critical ratio as large as 4.95 in absolute value is less than
0.001. In other words, the variance estimate for Leadership is significantly different from
zero at the 0.001 level (two-tailed).
The probability of getting a critical ratio as large as 4.95 in absolute value is less than
0.001. In other words, the variance estimate for Training is significantly different from
zero at the 0.001 level (two-tailed).
Data Analysis
The findings proposed that the size of the organization is affected by change and
by that affects the overall performance of the company. The participants assured that the
size of the firm is considered as a direct factor which affects the motivation and
commitment of the employees in the workplace, since the bigger the size of the company
is, the higher the employees will be motivated and will be committed to their work to
achieve higher performance. But on the other hand, the findings proposed that the bigger
the size of the company is, the higher the resistance to change will be, because the
employees fear the future and they are afraid from losing their jobs. The findings of the
research proposed that organizational performance and change management are both
Khodor Shatila & Marina Alozian
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