Exploring Employee Turnover And Its Impact On Amazon’s Sustainability And Success

Problem Statement

Employees are the most important asset of an organization. Therefore it is important for all companies to take care of their employees in terms of their needs, preferences as well as satisfaction factors. When employees within a company remain disengaged for a long period of time, They are most likely to quit their work within the organization and look for better opportunities. therefore employee turnover can be a concerning issue that states the performance of the company within their competitive market. When the employee turnover rate of an organization increases, several researchers have opined that it automatically affects the success and profitability of the company (Kumar, Singh and Shankar 2015). As per the US Bureau of Statistics, in the United States, the average employee turnover rate has been reported as roughly about 12% to 15% per year (Zojceska, 2018). The global statistics as per LinkedIn has been stated as 10.9% (Zojceska, 2018). Researchers have also revealed that the HR function plays an extremely important role in reducing employee turnover rates across companies (Haider et al. 2015). This research proposal it’s focused on exploring the case study of Amazon, which is a multinational organization, in terms of its employee turnover rate, the causes for it, as well as the way in which it affects the success and sustainability of the company.

Employee turnover has been a worldwide problem across various organizations in the contemporary era. There are various causes for it that include disengagement, dissatisfaction, unequal status, and atrocities meted out to the employees within an organization. Factors like communication issues, lack of leadership facilities, absence of work life balance, absence of training and development programs, and many others have affected employee retention within companies. this is particularly catalyzed by the present situation of the global pandemic which has created huge issues for businesses to work properly. this has further increased the dissatisfaction of the employees to work with their employers. In the case of Amazon, the company is highly target driven and focuses on customer satisfaction and good performance within the global sphere (Weill and Woerner 2015). However, the company has very few policies to protect the needs and requirements of the employees. This has resulted in a high employee turnover rate of the company and has also created a negative name for the company (Cowan 2018). Therefore, several researchers have revealed that in the job market Amazon is an infamous name (Briken and Taylor 2018). the problem statement of this research is to explore the case study of Amazon along with its causes for employee turnover rate increment over the years. The cause of the COVID 19 pandemic will also be explored along with the contemporary situation of the company.

The rationale of this research lies in its significance of conducting the upcoming research methodologies for solving the problem statement established.

The central aim of this research is to conduct a critical study on the impact of employee turnover on business sustainability and success with the consideration of the case study of the multinational company, Amazon.

Rationale of the Research

The scope and objectives of this research include:

• To understand the causes of employee turnover in Amazon.
• To understand the factors that influence the sustainability and success of Amazon.
• To understand the impact of employee turnover on Amazon’s sustainability and success.

RQ1: What are the causes of employee turnover in Amazon?

RQ2: What are the factors that influence the sustainability and success of Amazon?

RQ3: What is the impact of employee turnover on Amazon’s sustainability and success?

H0: Employee turnover has a significant impact on Amazon’s business sustainability and success.

H1: Employee turnover has no impact on Amazon’s business sustainability and success.

Constraints of time, as well as budget, might limit the scope of the upcoming research study. various other aspects impacting business sustainability and success in Amazon cannot be explored and investigated due to the constraints.

Employee turnover, also termed as employee turnover rate can be defined as the exact measurement of the number of workers who have left a company within a particular time span. Several researchers have revealed that this time period is mostly one year (Hom et al. 2017). Researchers have also stated that most companies generally measure this total number of leaving employees to calculate its employee turnover rate (Grissom, Viano and Selin 2016). However, turnover can also be applied within the subcategories or the internal departments of the organization. Demographic groups are also included within this measurement. employee turnover rate is generally calculated as the division of the total number of employees that have left the organization within a particular period of time, which can be a month, a quarter, or a year, by the average employee number that operates within that specific time span. This number is further multiplied by 100 in order to calculate the turnover rate of employees of that particular organization. This calculation does not include temporary employees or temporarily hired employees in order to deduce an accurate number.

According to several researchers, there exist two types of turnovers which include voluntary turnover and involuntary turnover (He, Shaw and Fang 2017). Voluntary turnover can be doomed as inactive leaving of the employee in which the employee consciously chooses to leave the organization. There are various reasons for a voluntary turnover that can include acceptance of better opportunities in other companies, employees disengagement with their employer, workplace conflict and issues, and many more. Several researchers have opined that while calculating employee turnover rate within a particular functional area or department within an organization, the entire turnover of the organization must not be considered to get authentic results (Lee 2018). Involuntary turnover, on the other hand, can be defined as the decision of the employer to terminate an employee from that position within the organization and from their department. In this case, the employer terminates the employment contract due to various reasons like poor productivity and performance of the employees, toxic conduct and behavior, and many more. Several researchers have stated that in an organization, turnover is a natural affair. Even though most organizations aim for reducing their employee turnover rates and keeping them low, the actual determination of the low turnover versus high turnover of an organization depends upon the comparison of the actual turnover to the expected or typical turnover rate (Afsar, Shahjehan and Shah 2018). This can vary between industries, regions, size of the company, type of job, and many more factors. However, most of the researchers have stated that the employee turnover rate of an organization is rarely even zero (Sun and Wang 2017). For example, the employee turnover rate of a fast food company will vary from that of an insurance company depending upon their way of working and operations. Therefore one company must not base or compare their employee turnover rate in these regards.

Aim, Scope, and Objectives

Business sustainability refers to the long term measures that a company undertakes in order to remain at a competitively advantageous position in its operational market. in the contemporary era, businesses are striving two remain sustainable in their market. This not only creates a special position for the company in the minds of the customers influencing their buying patterns but also keeps them ahead of their competition. Several researchers have opined that in the present scenario there is an abundance of companies are available within a particular industry (Weir 2018). Customers have a number of companies to choose from. Therefore businesses are required to strive for sustainability in terms of each and every aspect that they work with to create a profitable position in the market. Business success involves a number of factors, however, the most important factor includes the profitability of the business. The more the business owns revenues, the more it can be termed as successful in its operational market. Therefore business success results from business sustainability. Several researchers have opined that business is striving to become sustainable in the long run has proved to be profitable and successful (Gilinsky Jr, Newton and Vega 2016). This is particularly applicable for small sized businesses as well as medium sized businesses, however, even in the case of big companies, this is highly useful and applicable. There are various ways in which companies can remain sustainable. One of the main ways is to ensure effective and efficient stakeholder management. This is also a major part of the corporate social responsibilities of the businesses. Therefore, since employees are one of the major stakeholders of a company, several researchers have stated that a direct way to succeed is to manage their employees better (Madueno et al. 2016).

There are a number of demerits of a high employee turnover rate of a company, however, its major demerit is its direct impact on the profitability as well as the sustainability and success of the company. Several researchers have stated that there exist strong proportional relationships between them (Noe and Kodwani 2018). In terms of profitability, the more the employees leave an organization within a stipulated time, the more the companies have to spend in order to hire new employees and train them as per the operations of the organization. This requires capital investments on the part of the employer which could have otherwise been eliminated if the employee turnover rate was low within the company. therefore these capital investments on the part of the company reduce their profitability and profit rates which also respectively affects that business success quotient. With more capital investments on hiring, the company is unable to improve its other work operations and is unable to meet the needs of the employees or the operations within the company. the loopholes remain and the company tends to lose its sustainability over the years. having a high employee turnover rate not only creates a bad name for the company in the job market but also affects the customer buying decisions. Several researchers have opined that one of the major factors that influence a customer to choose a particular brand is its reputation in the job market and the reviews of the employees (Adhikari and Bhattacharya 2016). Therefore, researchers are of the direct opinion that high employee turnover rates have an adverse impact on business sustainability and success (Hermundsdottir and Aspelund 2021).

Research Questions

Figure: Conceptual Framework

(Source: Created by Author)

The independent variables are communication, leadership, training and development, employee relations as well as compensation and benefits. These are the factors whose influences cause significant impact and modifications in the dependent variables of the research which include employee turnover rate as well as business sustainability and success.

Research philosophy which is responsible for defining the flow of research work is of mainly four kinds which include positivism research philosophy, interpretivism research philosophy, and realism research philosophy. Positivism research philosophy reflects the perspectives of the researcher directly and creates a logical flow. Interpretivism philosophy is undertaken during the operational phases and defines the operational flow. Realism philosophy mixes the qualities of both the philosophies mentioned above. Pragmatic philosophy focuses on facts and pays most importance to research questions that requires to be fulfilled. This research will make use of the positivism philosophy as it helps in understanding each and every concept and aspect of the research work and creating a logical flow towards defining the outcomes.

Research design mainly focuses on data collection and data analysis methods and is of mainly three types that include exploratory research design, explanatory research design, and analytical research design. The explanatory design focuses on Deriving logical associations between the independent variables of the research as well as the dependent variables of the research. The exploratory research design is undertaken during the initial stages of the research in order to collect background information about the topic of research. The analytical research design is used to put into place all the aspects of data collection and data analysis and undertakes a descriptive analysis infused with theoretical frameworks and concepts to define the logical outcomes. The upcoming research will use both explanatory research design and analytical research design to use the dependent and independent variables and explain the theories to prove the collected data.

Data will be collected using both primary sources and secondary sources. In primary data collection, real time and first hand information are collected by the researcher that is generally unstructured in nature. There are several primary data collection methods that include surveys, in depth interviews, observations, focus group discussions, and many more (Moser and Korstjens 2018). Secondary data involves the access of publicly available data in order to support the primary data and establish evidence based outcomes. In the upcoming research, primary data will be collected using survey techniques from a specified sample and secondary data will be collected using the keyword research technique on the Internet to collect relevant and valid evidence to support the primary data.

The primary data will be collected using the simple random sampling technique which reduces bias by allowing all the members of the population will have a chance in participating in the study (Etikan and Bala 2017). This research will include A sample size of 50 employees of Amazon who will be surveyed. They will be recruited randomly from social media. The inclusion strategy of the sample will be the present employees, those that are serving their notice period as well as alumnae of Amazon. The exclusion strategy includes the employees who are currently working in their probationary period or have joined only recently in the company. The secondary data will be shortlisted using the purposive sampling technique in which the researcher will consciously choose the most relevant articles, academic journals, peer reviewed articles, industry as well as business reports that are available on the Internet. All these sources will be highly relevant to the organization Amazon or to the current scenario in the global business environment. approximately 10 to 15 such articles and relevant sources will be selected for the study.

Research Hypothesis

A mixed method approach using both quantitative and qualitative research techniques will be used for data analysis. Quantitative research deals with measurable or quantifiable data that can be represented in the form of charts and graphs. A descriptive statistics technique will be used to undertake the quantitative research analysis. Qualitative research deals with descriptive data that takes the form of explanations and theories (Morse 2016). The coming research will use the thematic analysis technique to categorize the information into thematic codes and analyze them thoroughly. Both reliability and validity will be maintained in the data collection techniques and data analysis techniques. This involves the authentic and unbiased methods of data collection and analysis without any attempt at distorting the data or analysis methods.

Ethical considerations will be strictly maintained. Consent will be taken from the primary respondents before conducting the survey. they will also be state in detail about the utilization of the data that they will provide. They will be allowed to withdraw from the study at any time they feel uncomfortable with answering the questions. their identity will be protected and anonymity will be maintained. The secondary data will be acknowledged throughout the research using in text citations and references. this will also be done to avoid plagiarism or academic misconduct.

References

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Afsar, B., Shahjehan, A. and Shah, S.I., 2018. Frontline employees’ high-performance work practices, trust in supervisor, job-embeddedness and turnover intentions in hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Briken, K. and Taylor, P., 2018. Fulfilling the ‘British way’: beyond constrained choice—Amazon workers’ lived experiences of workfare. Industrial Relations Journal, 49(5-6), pp.438-458.

Cowan, R.L., 2018. When workplace bullying and mobbing occur: The impact on organizations. Workplace Bullying and Mobbing in the United States 2 Volume.

Etikan, I. and Bala, K., 2017. Sampling and sampling methods. Biometrics & Biostatistics International Journal, 5(6), p.00149.

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Grissom, J.A., Viano, S.L. and Selin, J.L., 2016. Understanding employee turnover in the public sector: Insights from research on teacher mobility. Public Administration Review, 76(2), pp.241-251.

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Zojceska, A., 2018. HR Metrics: How and Why to Calculate Employee Turnover Rate?. [online] Blog. Available at: <https://www.talentlyft.com/en/blog/article/242/hr-metrics-how-and-why-to-calculate-employee-turnover-rate#:~:text=Average%20employee%20turnover%20rate&text=According%20to%20the%20U.S.%20Bureau,employee%20turnover%20rate%20is%2010.9%25.> [Accessed 28 January 2022].

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