Factors Behind Employee Turnover In Organizations: A Literature Review

Literature map

Employees are considered to be one of the major factors that can facilitate the organisations to run business effectively and prosperously. As a matter of fact Hancock et al. (2013) advocated that the employees are termed as the prop to maximise the profit for a business organisation. As a result of that it can be argued that there are huge importances of the employees in order to retain the business activities for a company. Therefore, most of the organisations try to find out the best way to make a negotiation with the employees and cope with the interests of the employees. However, how far the organisation will negotiate is also depended on the efficacy of its staff. In order words, it can be stated that the efficiency of an employee helps him to increase his value so that the company can feel the importance and need of him. Sometimes, the companies take the initiative by keeping more stress on the recruiting best people or quality human resources (Han, Bonn and Cho 2016). As a matter of fact, the organisational workplace environment and the Human Resource management are also played pivotal role in order to bring a healthy relationship between the employees and the company management. Despite of all those initiatives very often the corporate organisations are facing severe crisis regarding the high employee turnover.

Focusing on this growth of employee turnover crisis this research puts emphasis on different reasons and factors that are responsible to develop employee turnover. In fact, the purpose of this research is to highlight the reason behind employee turnover in organisations. Therefore, the research firmly sticks with in-depth analysis of the literatures and articles and tries to get the insights of such practice.

Before going into the long discussion regarding the details of the literatures it is important to illustrate the brief details of those literatures. For a better understanding, the literatures are chosen from different sectors with dynamic factors that shows the increase in employee turnover in a rapid pace. There is bulk of evidences through the empirical data provided by those articles that proves the vitality of the employee turnover and the type of turnover that cause enormous damage to the continuous growth of the business companies. For an instance, the literatures are chosen on the basis of different types of turnover such as voluntary, involuntary, avoidable, unavoidable and poor organisational factors. Moreover, there are plenty of literary sources that put focus on different business sector so that an overall and extended scenario can be illustrated.

This research is trying to figure out all the possible factors responsible for the increase in employee turnover. For an example, the research of Stanley et al. (2013) tried to find out the possible relation between the psychological factors behind the employees’ job satisfaction and their proneness towards quitting jobs. In this context, they argued that the commitment of the employees played a significant role in order to retain their jobs. The same theory is propounded by Hausknecht and Holwerda (2913) where the scholar advocated that paramount responsibilities were vested on the employees as it was their decisions to continue the job or leave it. Therefore, it is highly important to keep in track the mentality and the psychological discourses that pushed the employees to take such a harsh decision. On the contrary, Memon et al. (2014) pointed out that the organisations were also played a significant role in order to compel the employees to leave their jobs. Similarly, while understanding the purpose of employee turnover Kabungaidze, Mahlatshana and Ngirande (2013) remarked that it was both the responsibilities of the employees as well as the organisation to install such a measure that can serve both the interests and objectives of the employees and company as well. In many cases, it was seen that despite of enough hard working done by the employee the company terminated him. It was perhaps a blunder done by the companies at the time of recruiting aspirants. According to Tews, Michel and Stafford (2013) in case of the quality of the employee seemed unfit for the organisation, the officials tried to terminate him or her with the perception that the person was incapable to increase the profit of that company. However, the morale of the company was hurt extensively without the knowledge of the executives and in future it haunted down the entire company during dire situation.

Research question, theories and methods

On the other hand, the article of Arokiasamy (2013) tried to find out the possible root cause of the employee turnover and stated that the workplace environment was considered to be a the protagonist that played behind the scene of the entire incident. The same notion was accounted in the research of Kim, S.Y. and Fernandez (2017) that opined about the importance of workplace environment to retain the employees and made them relaxed to do their jobs perfectly. In this context, Carnahan, Kryscynski and Olson (2017) showed that in the service industries the commitment and understanding between the executives and the employees were very important for making progress in personally and professionally. The dynamic objectives and illustrations put huge pressure on the employees and as a result of that they became nervous and could not find the way to regain their confidence. In such cases, it was the duty of the organisations to curb down the mental instability of the researchers and encouraged them a lot so that it would turn into an effective tool for the development of the company. From this point of view, the practice of employee empowerment seems quite relevant and significant enough to deal with the increasing rate of employee turnover.

On the other hand, it can be argued that external factors are also considered to be contributing factors in order to ensure the safety and security of the job risks and satisfaction of the employees. For an example, the research of Katsikea, Theodosiou and Morgan (2015) showed that political, social and economic factors are played jointly to influence the decision making of the employees. For an instance, for an export sales manager it became so problematic to do his job in a different cultural environment. Moreover, the aftermath of 9/11 pointed out there was reluctance among the US employees to transfer into Asian countries on business purposes. In fact, many US employees with different religion compelled to resign because of the political and social hostility. Those are also contributed a lot in the employee turnover practices that should be taken into consideration and required in-depth analysis.  

The purpose of this section is to clearly define the methodologies or the theories that the main articles and journals have used in order to understanding the true motive and factors behind the emerging tendencies of employee turnover. For an instance, the research of Tews, Michel and Stafford (2013) articulated about the role of fun and relaxation that is contributed a lot in reducing the employee turnover. In course of the discussion the authors used the psychological theories and understanding in order to reduce the employee turnover. On the other hand, Arokiasamy (2013) tried to establish his theory on employee turnover with the help of the case study in Malaysian private sector. Job satisfaction and the financial underpinnings were the major focus of this research.

Besides this, Kim and Fernandez (2017) derived his theory on employee turnover intentions on the backdrop of US federal Bureaucracy that put emphasis on both the internal and external factors behind the escalating trend of employee turnover. it means individual characteristics, employee attitudes, organisational conditions and the managerial practices were the key points of the research. Furthermore, the research on the employment scenario in US sectors in the aftermath of the 9/11 took a great deal by incorporating both the socio- cultural dimension and the political factors that contributed huge in the employee turnover rate. In this research Carnahan, Kryscynski and Olson (2017) referred to the evidences from the US attorneys that create a new dimension into the discussion.

In course of the discussion Katsikea, Theodosiou. and Morgan (2015) pointed out the turnover rate among export sales managers in UK and the mitigation strategy to eradicate such threats. The purpose of the author encircles both the individual aspirations and satisfaction of the sales managers and the role of socio-cultural differences that created huge gulf between the organisational objectives and the employee intentions. Meanwhile, the research of Hancock et al. (2013) illustrated that there are series of factors responsible for the hike in turnover rate among employees. For an example, the author showed that there are collective turnover intentions as well as the financial factors that instigated the employees to quit their jobs in a rapid manner.

On the other hand, Stanley et al. (2013) propounded the theory of employee commitment and turnover practices in a effective way that both were interrelated and affected each other rigorously. Based on the understanding, it can be stated that the employee commitment played a pivotal role in creating turnover practices indiscriminately. Along with this while discussing the impact of employee turnover on organisation Hausknecht and Holwerda (2013) figured out that the psychological factors were identified as the driving elements that pushed the employees to leave their job. Moreover, the role of the organisations was also narrated in the research.  However, the reason behind employee turnover got a different turn through the research of Kabungaidze, Mahlatshana and Ngirande (2013) when the author claimed about the importance of the demographic variables behind the increase in turnover rates. Memon et al. (2014) mentioned the same facts by stating the reliability and dependency of employees and organisations on both. The perception of person-organisation fit theory was the central of the argument.

Katsikea, E., Theodosiou, M. and Morgan, R.E., 2015. Why people quit: Explaining employee turnover intentions among export sales managers. International Business Review, 24(3), pp.367-379.

The quantitative research on the primary sources is considered to be the mainstay of the research. It can be argued that there are an array of sampling size that can contributed to the relevance of the research. In course of the understanding, it can be stated that the samplings are mainly taken from the sales business sectors based in UK and the primary focus is relied on the sales manager. Moreover, the research also puts a significant emphasis on the role of the sales managers and different factors responsible to create turnover situations for the sales manager. In addition to this, there is a detailed description related to resolve the crisis situation in the UK companies and in response to this, the research started putting great deal of importance on the samplings. The major criteria for choosing the sample is related to the experience of the employees of minimum three years.  As a matter of fact, it can be stated that the research took 500 full time employees who are operate in different industrial sectors like textile mill, apparel, chemical and allied products, rubber and miscellaneous plastic products. The samples were chosen on a random basis with the purpose to enhance the generalise ability of the research findings.

It can be argued that the psychological discourse was only taken into consideration during the analysis of the high employee turnover rates in the sales management sector. From the psychic analysis it can be stated that there are huge risks in the sales management by pressuring sales managers not only physically but the mental strain is also played a pivotal role in order to push the sales manager to take a voluntary retirement before their maturity. Moreover, the experience of the sales manager was also treated as an important variable for understanding the insights of the hike in sales managers’ turnover. The author used the term psychic distance in order to get a clear background of the psychological evaluation of the sales marketing employees. According to Collini, Guidroz and Perez (2015) it can be stated that the psychic distance is a psychological notion that connotes the difference between the home country and the foreign country in terms of the economic development, climatic conditions, lifestyles, consumer preferences, language, education and cultural values. It means psychic distance clearly points out the difference in culture and tradition that creates serious problems for the sales manager from a different culture to adapt and get accustomed with. On the other hand, the experience of the sales managers is also played a driving factor that compelled them to step back from the profession in such an early phase. For an instance, Mathieu et al. (2016) advocated that the underlying uncertainties of sales marketing jobs make the managers and the employees nervous and they were not satisfied with their profession because it never give them the relaxation or any kind of satisfaction that they can enjoy. In this context, the research of Nisar and Yeung (2015) remarked that with the growing complexities and competition in the global market the business activities of the organisations also expanded in a rapid pace. However, the satisfaction or benefits for the sales executives remained the same. As a result of that they were forced to quit their jobs prematurely.

Despite of all the efforts carried by the author the research is not free from limitations. At first, it can be stated that the problem  was in the methodology of the research. The author opted for the quantitative research rather than  putting emphasis on both the quality and quantity. The dynamics of the employee turnover is a very huge aspect and keeping eye on the psychological factors could deploy multiple variables in the research which could divert the anticipating result. Besides this, putting so much importance on the sales managers  does  not covered up the entire scenario of growing threat of the employee turnover. In such scenario, it becomes impossible to track down the other factors that are responsible to create immense employee turnover in different sectors. Moreover, psychology is not the only factor that intriguing the sales managers. The role of the business organisation in terms of evaluating the training and induction of the employees or the workplace culture are also considered to be of enough relevance. However, in case of this research the author failed to identify any such factors besides the role of psychology. As a result of that the research became limited and subjected to further investigation.

Kabungaidze, T., Mahlatshana, N. and Ngirande, H., 2013. The impact of job satisfaction and some demographic variables on employee turnover intentions. International Journal of Business Administration, 4(1), p.53.

Employee turnover is causing great threat to the strong establishment of any business organisation. Recently, besides the business organisation turnover is also seen in the educational institute where number of teachers is reducing in a rapid pace. Based on this understanding, this research article tries to project a clear picture of the employee turnover practices prevalent in global educational institutes. It can be argued that the primary focus of this research is fixed on the Eastern Cape province of South Africa but for the sake of establishing a justified background the research also cares to portray the scenario of the global educational sector. The purpose of choosing South Africa as the field of investigation as the educational employee turnover is getting a common practice subsequently in that region. On the other hand, it is also true that in the South African region the educational challenges are a bit complex in compare to the developed countries. Several number of inter-related factors are played significant role in order to influence the teachers to quit their jobs in an emphatic manner (Avanzi et al. 2014). As per the basic understanding of job quit tendency, it can be argued that lack of job satisfaction is considered to be the driving factor. However, in case of Africa the socio-cultural facets are also contributed a lot to the tendency of quitting jobs in teaching profession. As a result of that the demographic variables become a significant part of the teachers’ turnover intentions and the variable is comprised of gender, age, level of education, tenure of the job and area of specialisation. Side by side the level of grades being taught is also identified as an important quotient for formulating the demographic variable. Furthermore, the purpose of this research is also coupled with identifying the relationship between job satisfaction and the demographic variables so that it will deliver a clear perception regarding the recommendations to resolve the problem.

Based on theory of job satisfaction and demographic variables the author of the research tries to propound a justified research outcome on the growing trend of teachers’ turnover in educational institutes in South Africa. For this research the author opted for the quantitative research design. The purpose of choosing the quantitative framework was very simple. As the author prescribed that quantitative analysis helped to deal with the survey question answer method therefore the survey questionnaire was constructed on the basis of redefining the relationship between the measured variables with the purpose of explaining, predicting and controlling the incidents of employee turnover. In addition to this, the characteristics of objectivity and generalised understanding will also deliver better information over the research topic. Based on this, the author took a sample size of 300 respondents who were working on the selected schools of Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Moreover, the random sampling method was utilised purposefully with the motive to skip any kind of partiality or favour that could hamper the research. As a matter of fact, the research questionnaire was based on MCQ type and directly pointed out the objectivity of the research. In case of this research, the author used the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire that is based on 20 items or questions and there is a grading or rating system which helped the researcher to evaluate the answers and responses of the respondents quickly.

Despite of all that exclusive efforts this research is also suffering with some serious limitations. At first, it can be stated that choosing the teachers is not the same as employee turnover. The job description of a teacher is highly different from the employees. Therefore, it will create some perceptual problem regarding the issue of employee turnover. In fact, employees have to face more challenges in work in compare to the teachers and the professional paradigm is mismatch. As a result of that keeping an eye on the teachers’ turnover will not justify the prevalence of employee turnover entirely. Besides this, this research could rely on both the qualitative and quantitative methodology. As Hadded et al. (2015) argued that the qualitative methodology helped the researcher to get more accurate and quality data that the quantitative framework could not provide. From that point of view, the research failed to justify with majority of the issue. In fact, there was lack of perception regarding the data collecting methods. Nonetheless, it can be stated that created a possible environment for taking the other factors excluding the job satisfaction into consideration. Therefore, it will be an effective prop to research further.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be stated that the research rights pointed out every possible factors responsible to instigate the employee turnover. The research primarily relied on the articles and journals that can deliver a better insight into the topic. As a matter of fact, the author intended to take journals on different sectors and various interpretations that were effectively contributed to enrich the research. For an example, the factors behind the employee turnover were based on the two different perspectives such as external and internal. The internal perspective talks about the internal factors like the psychological establishment and commitment of the employees that forced the employee to leave the job. On the other hand, external factors such as the role of the organisations, workplace environment and the socio-cultural and political underpinnings that stimulate the process of increase in employee turnover.

As a result of that the literature review has to be broad and dynamic enough to encompass all the possible ideas and interpretations that foster a great deal of insights into the topic. As  matter of fact, the literatures also resembled with different industrial sectors so that it could generate a possible overall scenario of the employee turnover related issues. The researcher took into consideration that the growing tendency of the employee turnover is not as linear phenomenon and based on this perception the research tried to take plethora of articles and journals based on different organisational sectors and connoted diverse factors that played significantly into the process of employee turnover. As a matter of fact, use of different methodologies and theories is also a significant feature of this research that made the investigation more efficient and accurate.

However, it can be argued that there are certain limitations of this research. The gross genre of employee turnover made the research a complex and heterogeneous. As a result of that it will provide some contradictory factors that can formulate great obstacle in the course of the research. Moreover, lack of specification made the research dynamic that can be ineffective for micro-research analysis. Broad elaboration and huge lists of literature reviews caused a serious problem for the readers. As a result of all those limitations the research on employee turnover is a subject of further analysis and microscopic assessment. Nonetheless, it can be stated that this research tries to amalgamate all the possible factors regarding employee turnover and can be an useful guidebook for taking further researches on the same theme.

Arokiasamy, A.R.A., 2013. A qualitative study on causes and effects of employee turnover in the private sector in Malaysia. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 16(11), pp.1532-1541.

Avanzi, L., Fraccaroli, F., Sarchielli, G., Ullrich, J. and van Dick, R., 2014. Staying or leaving: A combined social identity and social exchange approach to predicting employee turnover intentions. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 63(3), pp.272-289.

Carnahan, S., Kryscynski, D. and Olson, D., 2017. When does corporate social responsibility reduce employee turnover? Evidence from attorneys before and after 9/11. Academy of Management Journal, 60(5), pp.1932-1962.

Collini, S.A., Guidroz, A.M. and Perez, L.M., 2015. Turnover in health care: the mediating effects of employee engagement. Journal of nursing management, 23(2), pp.169-178.

Hadded, M., Muhlethaler, P., Laouiti, A., Zagrouba, R. and Saidane, L.A., 2015. TDMA-based MAC protocols for vehicular ad hoc networks: a survey, qualitative analysis, and open research issues. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 17(4), pp.2461-2492.

Han, S.J., Bonn, M.A. and Cho, M., 2016. The relationship between customer incivility, restaurant frontline service employee burnout and turnover intention. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 52, pp.97-106.

Hancock, J.I., Allen, D.G., Bosco, F.A., McDaniel, K.R. and Pierce, C.A., 2013. Meta-analytic review of employee turnover as a predictor of firm performance. Journal of Management, 39(3), pp.573-603.

Haque, A., Fernando, M. and Caputi, P., 2017. The Relationship Between Responsible Leadership and Organisational Commitment and the Mediating Effect of Employee Turnover Intentions: An Empirical Study with Australian Employees. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-16.

Harris, C.M., Lavelle, J.J. and McMahan, G.C., 2018. The effects of internal and external sources of justice on employee turnover intention and organizational citizenship behavior toward clients and workgroup members. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp.1-24.

Hausknecht, J.P. and Holwerda, J.A., 2013. When does employee turnover matter? Dynamic member configurations, productive capacity, and collective performance. Organization Science, 24(1), pp.210-225.

Huffman, A.H., Casper, W.J. and Payne, S.C., 2014. How does spouse career support relate to employee turnover? Work interfering with family and job satisfaction as mediators. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(2), pp.194-212.

Kabungaidze, T., Mahlatshana, N. and Ngirande, H., 2013. The impact of job satisfaction and some demographic variables on employee turnover intentions. International Journal of Business Administration, 4(1), p.53.

Katsikea, E., Theodosiou, M. and Morgan, R.E., 2015. Why people quit: Explaining employee turnover intentions among export sales managers. International Business Review, 24(3), pp.367-379.

Kim, N., 2014. Employee turnover intention among newcomers in travel industry. International Journal of Tourism Research, 16(1), pp.56-64.

Kim, S.Y. and Fernandez, S., 2017. Employee empowerment and turnover intention in the US federal bureaucracy. The American Review of Public Administration, 47(1), pp.4-22.

Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), pp.473-475.

Mathieu, C., Fabi, B., Lacoursière, R. and Raymond, L., 2016. The role of supervisory behavior, job satisfaction and organizational commitment on employee turnover. Journal of Management & Organization, 22(1), pp.113-129.

Memon, M.A., Salleh, R., Baharom, M.N.R. and Harun, H., 2014. Person-Organization Fit and Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Employee Engagement. Global Business & Management Research, 6(3).

Nardi, P.M., 2018. Doing survey research: A guide to quantitative methods. Routledge.

Nisar, T.M. and Yeung, M., 2015. High involvement human resource practices and their effects on employee turnover in the pub industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, pp.1-44.

Qiu, H., Haobin Ye, B., Hung, K. and York, Q.Y., 2015. Exploring antecedents of employee turnover Intention–evidence of China’s hotel industry. Journal of China Tourism Research, 11(1), pp.53-66.

Rubenstein, A.L., Eberly, M.B., Lee, T.W. and Mitchell, T.R., 2018. Surveying the forest: A meta?analysis, moderator investigation, and future?oriented discussion of the antecedents of voluntary employee turnover. Personnel Psychology, 71(1), pp.23-65.

Serrador, P. and Pinto, J.K., 2015. Does Agile work?—A quantitative analysis of agile project success. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), pp.1040-1051.

Stanley, L., Vandenberghe, C., Vandenberg, R. and Bentein, K., 2013. Commitment profiles and employee turnover. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 82(3), pp.176-187.

Tews, M.J., Michel, J.W. and Stafford, K., 2013. Does fun pay? The impact of workplace fun on employee turnover and performance. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 54(4), pp.370-382.

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