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JOURNAL REVIEW
Employee Dissatisfaction and Turnover Crises in the Malaysian
Hospitality Industry
Ahmad Rasmi Suleiman AlBattat & Ahmad Puad Mat Som

Review by:
Mohd Fakrulhisham Bin Ahmad 823107

High employee turnover crisis is a phenomenon that can have a negative impact

on an organization. An organization with a high turnover of employees can bring harm

to the organization in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and loss. In Malaysia, the

average turnover rate of employees was at 20% and among the top reasons for

employee separation, involuntary turnover represented about 6% (ILMIA, 2017). Many

of the organizations that have problems in this high turnover of workers are

organizations that require high skill set.

There are five top skill job that required by the employers in Malaysia, Accounting

and Finance, Administrative or Clerical, ICT, Human Resources, and Engineering. In

general, employee’s dissatisfaction is one of the major causes of high employee

turnover in an organization. An employee's dissatisfaction can be attributed to low

wages, unfairness, bullying and a poor work environment. This situation has left an

employee lacking motivation and self-satisfaction in their day-to-day work and has since

left the organization.

Hospitality Industry is one of the fastest growing industries in Malaysia. If we look

at the rapid growth of the industry over the past decade, we can conclude that the

hospitality industry is a branch of the industry that requires high skill and quality

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workforce. In general, the industry is the backbone of the country's economy in

providing excellent service not only to foreign tourists but also to domestic customers.

The hospitality industry is currently not only focused on the accommodation sector such

as hotels and resorts but also covers the travel sectors and food & beverage sectors.

Employees working in this industry are usually workers with educational

background and skills in various fields and most of them will not stay in the industry due

to dissatisfaction. On average, they are dissatisfied with the fact that the wage rate is

not commensurate with their work and they are often fired at their employer. This makes

the hospitality industry one of the top employment turnover industries. Like other

industries, industrial hospitality also relies heavily on good manpower in providing their

services to their customers. Therefore, human resource management in this industry

plays a critical role in ensuring that employees' satisfaction is at their best.

Therefore, in this article I will elaborate on employee dissatisfaction and turnover

in this industry through a review of the journal entitled Employee Dissatisfaction and

Turnover Crises in the Malaysian Hospitality Industry written by Ahmad Suleiman

AlBattat & Ahmad Puad Mat Som. Referring to the article I have chosen, I find that there

is a significant relationship between employee dissatisfaction and employee turnover

within an organization. In this article, the author also proves the connection between

these two factors. In the article the author reviews the existing literature on hospitality

and tourism jobs, working environment, employee turnover, employment factors,

employee dissatisfaction, and the causes of turnover crisis. The authors have also used

Mobley's (1977) Model and theoretical framework to interpret the relationship between

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work environment, employee satisfaction, turnover intention that leads to voluntary or

voluntary turnover.

Firstly, in this article I discovered that the author has carried out a preliminary

study and review of the literature on the importance and responsibility of the human

resources and its relations on employee dissatisfaction and turnover. From what the

author finds out, human resource management must take effective and efficient

responsibility in ensuring the well-being of the workers in terms of work environment,

training, remuneration and performance appraisals. Most human resource

management, especially in the Malaysian hospitality industry, fails to provide good

facilities and welfare to their employees. According to Davies et al. (2001), performance

appraisals, remunerations and training are important human resource practices in

Australian hotels. They also emphasize that organizational commitment can be

improved when adapting to the appropriate human resources system such as improve

good labor relations and quality of service.

According to the authors, human resource management also needs to make

improvements on their policies and procedures to ensure that their employees are

satisfied with their work. Job satisfaction can be a key factor in ensuring that an

employee is able to stay within the organization and at the same time provide quality

service. In this article also we can find the authors has written that, a literature scan of

hospitality and tourism management discovered that job satisfaction, organizational

obligation, and turnover intentions are the results of organizational justice dimensions

(Fulford, 2005; Hemdi & Mohd, 2007; Nadiri & Tanova, 2010).

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In other hands, other scholars also have examined the impacts of job satisfaction

on employee turnover within the Amari Hotels in Thailand (Ronra & Chaisawat, 2010).

They observed the relationship between employee satisfaction and their overall

satisfaction giving suggestions to help reduce the turnover rate. In this article the

authors also have expressed about work stress. Work stress is also one of the factors

that can increase turnover. Workers who are often burdened with overwork are one of

the causes of increased work stress in an organization. This makes the employee's

motivation and quality go down and they eventually decide to leave the organization.

Other researchers also have identified stress as a critical issue in many organizations

(Cooper & Cartwright, 1994; Ornelas & Kleiner, 2003; Varca, 1999).

In this article the authors also point out that demographic factors such as age,

gender, marital status, educational status and race are also factoring that can cause

dissatisfaction in the workplace. Women and people with disabilities are often the ones

who are deprived of justice and equal rights when they are at work through

discrimination in work, wages, compensation and rewards. (Bluedorn, 1979; Elangovan,

2001) highlighted the demographic factors: employee`s age, gender, race, education,

and marital status that clout job expectations; satisfaction which eventually affects job

dissatisfaction, and labor turnover.

Secondly, the authors have come up with a model that links the relationships

between dissatisfaction and turnover on employees. In the article, the author discusses

the Mobley Model (1977) in which the model clearly explains the relationship between

dissatisfaction with employee turnover. In this model, Mobley has emphasized that

every action taken by an employee who wishes to quit actually stems from the

Mohd Fakrulhisham BinJob dissatisfaction

Ahmad 823107 can lead to start thinking about quiting 4

Evaluated the advantages for searching about another job

 Taking into consideration the cost of this quit

Actual searching for alternatif

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employee's Employee start towith

dissatisfaction search about
his workaltenative job evaluating
environment. its acceptability
According to the authors,

Mobley's model can be used as a measure by human resource management in

Employee start to search about altenative job evaluating its acceptability
designing situations that involve employee dissatisfaction while reducing turnover rates
An intention to quit and ultimate employee turnover
in their organizations. Figure 1 below describes Mobley's model in more detail where it

is a process experienced by an employee from dissatisfaction in the workplace to the

intention of resigning.

Figure 1. Mobley Model 1977.

However, in this article the authors also state that the use of this model of Mobley

may not be applicable in some cases since not all cases are the same. To avoid

turnover crises, the Malaysian regime knows the contribution needed in the hospitality

and tourism industry for sustaining the economy: its crucial regulations. According to the

authors, further studies should be done to improve the employment environment in

order to reduce turnover crises.

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On others side, the authors also explain about the theoretical framework that

have been adopted from Mobley (1982) and have been enhanced by Kuria (2012).

Through this theoretical framework, the authors find that there is a significant

relationship between dissatisfaction with employee turnover. Referring to previous

studies, many researchers, conceptual and empirical studies have highlighted work -

liabilities, training programs, organizational environment, work relationships, and job

dissatisfaction which all lead to employee burnout (Bonn & Forbringer, 1992; Foong-

ming, 2008; Mobley et al., 1979; Tracey & Hinkin, 2008; Williams & Hunter, 1992).

In this framework factors such as organization justice, work stress, demographic

factors and job satisfaction are strongly associated with employee satisfaction.

Successful human resource management gives employees the satisfaction of being

able to retain their employees while reducing employee turnover. Employees with high

employee satisfaction can also provide good output such as good work quality. With

good quality of work, it can provide the best service to the customer and make the

customer a loyal to the service provided. Figure 2 below is the theoretical framework

that been adopted by Mobley (1982).

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Figure 2 Theorical Framework relation between employee satisfaction and turnover

Further in the recommendation chapter, the authors provide some suggestions

on the improvements that human resource management needs to take in industrial

hospitality such as improving workforce through training, making changes in the hiring

process, improving wage rates and rewards. With this policy and procedure review, the

authors hope that employee satisfaction can be further enhanced and at the same time

reduce employee's turnover rates in hospitality industry. The use of proper human

resource models in auditing also needs to be given special attention by all stakeholders

involved in the industry so that the welfare and job satisfaction of workers is at their

best.

In conclusion, in my opinion this article is a useful article and can be a referenced

by every human resource management involved in the hospitality industries. Through

the writing of this article, the authors take great attention in auditing employee

satisfaction in ensuring that employee turnover rates are reduced. In reviewing this

article, I would like to emphasize how important it is for an organization to make audits

of the policies and procedures used in their human resource management to ensure

employee satisfaction can be given priority.

The auditing process should be carried out not only on policies and procedures

but also on the hiring process, training & development activities, performance &

evaluation and lastly rewards & compensation. Auditors who have been given the

responsibility to carry out the auditing process also need to use various approaches

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during the auditing process. Among the approaches that can be used are comparative

approach, outside authority approach and statistical approach.

Reference

Cooper, C., & Cartwright, S. (1994). Stress-management interventions in the workplace:

Stress counselling and stress audits. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling,
22(1), 65-73.
Davies, D., Taylor, T., & Savory, L. (2001). The role of appraisal, remuneration and
training in improving staff relations in the Western Australian accommodation
industry: a comparative study. Journal of European Industrial Training, 25(7), 366-
373.
Fulford, M. D. (2005). That's Not Fair! the test of a model of organizational justice, job
satisfaction, and organizational commitment among hotel employees. Journal of
Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 4(1), 73-84.
ILMIA. (2018). Job, Salaries and Vacancies 2017, Retrieved from http//:
https://www.ilmia.gov.my/ebook/research/ILMIA_ArtcFREP1_2019_NER2018.pdf.
Mobley, W. (1982). Employee Turnover, Causes, Consequences, and Control. Addison-
Wesley.
Mobley, W., Horner, S., & Hollingsworth, A. (1978). An evaluation of precursors of
hospital employee.
Nadiri, H., & Tanova, C. (2010). An investigation of the role of justice in turnover
intentions, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior in hospitality
industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 29(1), 33-41.
Ronra, B., & Chaisawat, M. (2010). Factors Affecting Employee Turnover and Job
Satisfaction: A Case Study of Amari Hotels and Resorts. Paper presented at the 3rd
International Colloquium on Business & Management (ICBM), Bangkok, Thailand.

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