ASSESSMENT OF CAUSES OF EMPLOYEE TURNOVER INTENTION IN SOME

SELECTED FOUR STAR HOTELS IN HAWASSA CITY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

BY: HIWOT DEMISSIE TOMA

ADVISOR Ato. DEJENE ADUGNA

CO.ADVISOR Ato. HABTAMU MESERET

HAWASSA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS SCHOLL OF

MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTING

June 2017

HAWASSA, EHTIOPIA
ASSESSMENT OF CAUSES OF EMPLOYEE TURNOVER INTENTION IN SOME
SELECTED FOUR STAR HOTELS IN HAWASSA CITY

MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN HUMAN RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT

HIWOT DEMISSIE

HAWASSA UNIVERSITY, HAWASSA, ETHOPIAN

June 2017
 HAWASSA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

EXAMINERS’ APPROVAL SHEET

=====================================================================

We, the undersigned, members of the Board of Examiners of the final open defense by Hiwot
Demissie have read and evaluated her thesis entitled “Assessment of Causes of Employee
Turnover Intention in Some Selected Four Star Hotels in Hawassa City”, and examined the
candidate. This is, therefore, to certify that the thesis has been accepted in partial fulfillment of
the requirement for the degree of Masters of Business Administration with specialization in
Human Resource Management.

___________________________ ______________________ ______________________

Name of the Chairperson Signature Date

_________________________ ______________________ _____________________

Name of Major Advisor Signature Date

_________________________ ______________________ _____________________

Name of Co-Advisor Signature Date

_________________________ ______________________ _____________________

Name of Internal Examiner Signature Date

_________________________ ______________________ _____________________

Name of External Examiner Signature Date

_________________________ ______________________ _____________________

SGS Approval Signature Date

Final approval and acceptance of the thesis is contingent up on the submission of copy of the
thesis to the school of Graduate Studies (SGS) through the Department/School Graduate
Committee (DGC/SGC) of the candidate’s department.

Date: _______
 HAWASSA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

EXAMINERS’ APPROVAL SHEET

As members of the Board examiners of the final master’s degree open defense, we certify that
we have read and evaluated the thesis prepared by Hiwot Demissie under the entitled
“Assessment of Causes of Employee Turnover Intention in Some Selected Four Star Hotels
in Hawassa City”, and recommended that be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirement for the
degree of Masters of Business Administration with specialization in Human Resource
Management.

___________________________ ______________________ ______________________

Name of the Chairperson signature Date

_________________________ ______________________ _____________________

Name of Internal Examiner signature Date

_________________________ ______________________ _____________________

Name of External Examiner signature Date

Final approved and acceptance of the thesis is contingent upon the submission of the final copy
of the thesis to the SGS through the DGC/SGC of the candidate’s department/school.

Thesis approved by

___________________________ ______________________ ______________________

DGC/SGC signature Date

I hereby certify that all the corrections and recommendation suggested by the Board of Examiner
and incorporated into final Thesis entitled “entitled “Assessment of Causes of Employee
Turnover Intention in Some Selected Four Star Hotels in Hawassa City”, by Hiwot
Demissie.

_________________________ ______________________ _____________________

Name of the Designate signature Date

 DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the thesis entitled Assessment of Causes of Employee Turnover
Intention in Some Selected Four Star Hotels in Hawassa City, submitted to the School of
Management and Accounting, Hawassa University for the award of the Degree of Masters of
Business Administration with specialization of Human Resource Management is based on my
original research work carried out by me myself under the supervision and guidance of Ato.
Dejene Adugna and Ato. Habtamu Meseret . This work has not been submitted earlier in full or
in a part thereof, for the award of other similar degree, Diploma, Fellowship, Associate ship or
any other similar titles to this or any other University or Institution.

Name :___________________________

Signature:_________________________

Place: ____________________________

Date: ____________________________
 CERTIFICATE

I hereby certify that this thesis entitled “Assessment of Causes of Employee Turnover
Intention in Some Selected Four Star Hotels in Hawassa City”, submitted to the School of
Management and Accounting, Hawassa University for the award of the Degree of Masters of
Business Administration is an authentic work done by Hiwot Demissie from September 2016 to
May 2017 under my supervision and guidance. The subject on which the thesis has been
prepared is based on his original research work and it has not been submitted earlier in full or a
part thereof for the award of any of degree, diploma or any other similar titles in this or any other
University or institution.

Name: ------------------------------------------

Signature:--------------------------------------

Place :-------------------------------------------

Date:--------------------------------------------
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost I wish to convey my sincere gratitude to my main thesis advisors Ato Dejene
Adugna and co advisor Ato Habtamu Meseret, for their unreserved comments, suggestions and
corrections given throughout the research project. I am truly grateful to all my respondents (lay
workers & managers) in the target hotels for their time & commitment in filling out the
questionnaires, and providing the necessary data pertaining to the research. Sincere thanks to my
husband, Zelalem Mulugeta for his continuous support through the research work.

i
 Table of Contents

Content Page

Acknowledgement ----------------------------------------------------------- i

Table of Content ------------------------------------------------------------- ii

List Of Table ------------------------------------------------------------------- v

List Of Figure ------------------------------------------------------------------ vi

Acronyms ---------------------------------------------------------------------- vii

Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------- viii

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study ----------------------------------------------------- 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem ---------------------------------------------------- 4

1.3 Research questions ------------------------------------------------------------ 5

1.4 Objectives of the study ------------------------------------------------------- 6

1.4.1 General Objectives ----------------------------------------------------------- 6

1.4.2 Specific Objectives ----------------------------------------------------------- 6

1.5 Significance of the study ---------------------------------------------------- 6

1.6 Delimitation of the Study --------------------------------------------------- 7

1.7 Limitation of the Study ------------------------------------------------------ 7

1.8 Organization of the Study --------------------------------------------------- 7

ii
 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Definition of Turnover and Turnover Intention --------------------------- 8

2.2 Theories Explanting Voluntary Turnover Intention ---------------------- 9

2.2.1 Equity Theory --------------------------------------------------------------- 9

2.2.2 Human capital theory ------------------------------------------------------- 10

2.2.3 Organization Equilibrium Theory ------------------------------------------ 10

2.2.4 Matching theory --------------------------------------------------------------- 11

2.2.5 Search theory ---------------------------------------------------------------- 11

2.2.6 Social Exchange Theory ----------------------------------------------------- 11

2.3 Components of Turnover Intention ----------------------------------------- 12

2.3.1 Psychological ---------------------------------------------------------------- 12

2.3.2 Cognitive --------------------------------------------------------------------- 12

2.3.3 Behavioral ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 13

2.4 Causes and Influencing Factors for Turnover Intention ----------------- 13

2.4.1 Benefits and salary packages ------------------------------------------------ 14

2.4.2 Orientation about the company and the job ------------------------------- 15

2.4.3 Relationship of Managers and Supervisors with subordinates ---------- 16

2.4.4 Job Satisfaction and Related factor ----------------------------------------- 16

2.4.5 Working environment, work load and fairness --------------------------- 17

2.4.6 Intention of employees to leave or stay in the organization ------------- 18

2.4.7 Effort to Retain Employees -------------------------------------------------- 19

2.5 Effect of Turnover on Organization’s Performance ---------------------- 20

2.6 Basic Strategies to retain employees --------------------------------------- 21

iii
2.7 Theoretical Framework of Factors affecting Employee Turnover
Intention-----------------------------------------------------------------------
24

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Description of the Research area ------------------------------------------- 26

3.2 Research Design ------------------------------------------------------------- 26

3.3 Population of the Study ---------------------------------------------------- 26

3.4 Sampling Technique ---------------------------------------------------------- 27

3.5 Sample Size Determination ------------------------------------------------- 27

3.6 Type and source of data ------------------------------------------------------ 28

3.7 Data collection Method and Procedure ------------------------------------ 28

3.8 Method of Data Analysis --------------------------------------------------- 29

3.9 Ethical issues ------------------------------------------------------------------ 29

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4.1 Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents ------------------------ 30

4.2 Data Analysis Pertaining to Research Questions ------------------------- 32

4.2.1 The Status of Employee Turnover ----------------------------------------- 32

4.2.2 Employee Turnover Intention ---------------------------------------------- 33

4.2.3 Internal Factors to Turnover Intention ------------------------------------- 35

4.2.3.1 Co-worker Relationship ----------------------------------------------------- 35

4.2.3.2 Work Environment ---------------------------------------------------------- 37

4.2.3.3 Salary and other Benefit Packages ------------------------------------------ 39

4.2.3.4 Jobs Satisfaction -------------------------------------------------------------- 41

4.2.3.5 Organizational Commitment ------------------------------------------------ 42

iv
 4.2.4 External Factors to Turnover Intention ------------------------------------ 45

4.2.4.1 The Influence of Other Similar Hotels ------------------------------------- 45

4.2.4.2 The Influence of Geographic Location and Socio cultural Context ---- 46

4.2.5 Effect of High Turnover on the Existing Employees and performance 48

of the Hotels -----------------------------------------------------------------

4.2.5.1 The Effect of High turnover on the Existing Staff ------------------------ 48

4.2.5.2 The Effect of Staff Turnover on the Quality of the service being 50
provided -----------------------------------------------------------------------

4.2.6 Major Strategies used to Retain Best Employees 52

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS, CONCLUSION &

RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Summary of the Major Findings -------------------------------------------- 55

5.1.1 The Status of Actual Turnover and Intention to Turnover Rate -------- 56

5.1.2 Internal Factors to turnover Intention -------------------------------------- 56

5.1.3 External Factors to Turnover Intention ------------------------------------ 56

5.1.4 Effect of High turnover on the Existing Staff and on the Performance 56
of the Hotel --------------------------------------------------------------------

5.1.5 Major Strategies Used to Retain Best Employees ------------------------ 54

5.2 Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------- 58

5.3 Recommendation -------------------------------------------------------------- 59

Reference ------------------------------------------------------------------- 60

Appendices ------------------------------------------------------------------

v
 LIST OF TABLES

Tables Page

Table 3.1 Population of the study & sample size ----------------------------------------------------- 28

Table 4. 1 Demographic Characteristic of the Respondents ----------------------------------------- 30

Table 4.2 A Turnover Rate as Perceived by the Respondents ----------------------------------------- 32

Table 4.2 B Turnover rate by department as perceived by the respondents ------------------------- 32

Table 4.2 C Month of turnover as perceived by the respondents ------------------------------------- 33

Table 4. 3 Turnover Intention as Perceived by the respondents ------------------------------------- 34

Table 4.4 Co-workers Relationship as a factor for turnover intention as perceived by the 37
Respondents -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 4.5 Worker Environment as a factor for turnover intention as perceived by the 39
Respondents -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 4.6 Salary & Benefits as a factor for turnover intention as perceived by the Respondents - 40
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 4.7 Job satisfaction as a factor for turnover intention as perceived by the respondents - 42

Table 4.8 Organizational Commitment as a factor for turnover intention as perceived by the 43
respondents ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 4.9 The Influence of other similar hotels as a factor for turnover intention --------------- 46

Table 4.10 The Geographic location & socio-cultural context of the hotels as major factors for 47
turnover intention as perceived by the respondents --------------------------------------

Table 4.11 The Effect of high turnover on the Existing Staff as perceived by the respondents - 49

Table 4.12 The Effect of higher turnover rate on the quality of service being provided as 52
perceived by the respondents ----------------------------------------------------------------

Table 4.13 Major strategies used by the target hotels to retain best employees as perceived by the 52
respondents --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

vi
 LIST OF FIGURE

Figure Page

Figure 1: Theoretical Frame work of Turnover Intention ------------------------------------------- 25

vii
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

Av. -Average

ANNOVA-Analysis of Variance

GTP-Growth & Transformation Plan

GoE-Government of Ethiopia

HR-Human Resource

MCT-Ministry of Culture & Truism

MoE-Ministry of Education

SPSS-Statistical Package for Social Science

TVET- Technical & Vocational Education & Training

UNESCO- United Nations Education Science & Culture Organization

viii
 Abstract
The major objective of this thesis was to assessment causes of employee turnover intention in
some selected four star hotels in Hawassa city. To achieve this objective descriptive research
method was employed. The population of this study was all workers who were working in Haile
resort, South Star international hotel & Lewi resort. The sampling frame of the study was all
professional workers working in the departments of Food & Beverage-Service, Food &
Beverage-Kitchen, namely Front office, Spa, department heads, HR managers and deputy hotel
managers. Data pertaining to research questions were collected from both primary and
secondary data sources through 5 point Likert scale of questionnaire, structured interview and
relevant documents were also analyzed. The collected data were analyzed using percentage
mean and one way ANNOVA. Finally the research project comes out with some major findings,
conclusion and recommendations.
The study revealed the presence of high turnover rate in the hotels under the study during the
study period, January 2016-December 2016. The intention to turnover also found out high
among the existing employees in the target hotels. Unattractive salary & benefit package, poor
incentive for good performance & additional work, unrealistic expectation of work performance
& inconvenient organizational policy towards employees’, absence of training and scholarship
opportunity and absence of future career development programs were reported as major internal
factors that contributed higher turnover intention in the selected hotels and resorts. Among the
external factors that contributed to high turnover intention includes attractive salary system &
better benefit packages, and suitable organizational policy and well coordinated management
system of other similar hotels.
Based on the major findings of the study it is concluded that waiters/ waitress and cooks are
identified as the leading group in quitting their jobs and many of the employees tend to leave
between the months of December to February. The presence of high actual turnover and
intention to turnover is affected the service quality, efficiency and satisfactions of the customers
Co-workers relationship and work environment (in terms of provision of the necessary
equipment, healthy work environment and presence of enough freedom to perform tasks) were
not considered as a major pushing factor to turnover intention among the employees of the
hotels.
Key words: turnover, turnover intention, salary & benefit packages, work environment,
organizational commitment & job satisfaction

ix
 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
In this continuously changing environment that is not only affecting the organization but also the
employees working in it, Human Resources Management has a vital role to play in managing the
organization resources and how employees are treated in the organization (Hassan, Hassan, Khan
and Naseem, 2011). Employees are an important asset to every company, business and
organization. In fact, the success of every company or business is entirely dependent on the
effectiveness of its workforce (Samuel and Chipunza, 2009). A business may invest a lot of
resources into its core operations and activities, but without a highly effective human resource,
success in the long run cannot be achieved.

There are several ways through which a company or business may improve the effectiveness of
their employees. This can be through periodic training programs, constant motivation in the
workplace, employee empowerment, promotion and bonus programs, etc. (Samuel and
Chipunza, 2009). These strategies and activities often require a company to spend a significantly
large amount of resources, to ensure that its employees are content with their jobs and work
optimally to achieve the set of organizational goals and objectives (Glebbeek and Bax, 2004).
However, even with the above mentioned efforts, companies and businesses still face the
constant threat of intention to quit their jobs and actually facing high employee turnover rates
and low employee retention rates. These three factors greatly inhibit the success of companies
and businesses as they rob them of their most prized assets, the employees (Ongori, 2007).

Intention to leave is referred to the employee‟s intention of leaving the organization they are
currently employed (Cho, Johanson & Guchait, 2009). It is defined as employee‟s willingness or
attempts to leave the current workplace voluntarily. Furthermore, it can be defined as “a
conscious and deliberate desire to leave an organization within the near future and considered as
the last part of a sequence in the withdrawal cognition process (Su, 2014).”While intention to
leave is considered as the employee‟s intent on leaving, intention to stay in contrast refers to the
staff‟s conscious and deliberate willingness to stay with the organization (Cho et al., 2009).
Intent to leave or to stay has been found to be indicative of both near-term and distant turnover
action (Ghiselli, Lopa & Bai, 2001).

Employee turnover basically means the percentage of employees who within a particular period
of time opt to leave the company or business for other companies. This forces the company to
replace them with new employees at an additional cost (Tracey and Hinkin, 2008).

1
Human resource is the base for organizational existence and development. HR professionals and
organization executives are seen implementing different mechanisms to retain their experienced
employees.

Depending on the mechanisms organizations are implementing, they are able to retain their
employees or reduce employees‟ turnover. They focus on turnover for three main reasons: it has
significant cost implications; it affects overall business performance; and it has the potential to
become difficult to control, resulting in a talent crisis, where it is hard to find quality candidates
with the skill sets required to fill open positions (Kuria, 2011). As they commented, „Turnover
may be a function of negative job attitudes, low job satisfaction, combined with an ability to
secure employment elsewhere, i.e. the state of the labor market. On the other hand, turnover is a
normal part of organizational functioning, and while excessively high turnover may be
dysfunctional, a certain level of turnover is to be expected and can be beneficial to an
organization (Armstrong 2006). It includes replacement of the departed employee.
Distinguishing employee separations from acquisitions that replace the separated employees is
helpful in analyzing the case. Employee separations and acquisitions are “external movements,”
meaning they involve moving across external of the organization. Other than the turnover rate,
the very concern of companies should focus on the achievement their goals.

When we come to the formal definition of the term „employee turnover‟ it has been defined by
many researchers and writers in different ways. For example, it is defined by Price, as the ratio of
the number of organizational members who have left during the period being considered divided
by the average number of people in that organization during the period (Price, 1977 in S. Kuria,
W. Peter & O. Alice. 2011).

The term is also often utilized to measure relationships of employees in an organization as they
leave, regardless of the reason (Taylor, 2002). Labor turnover also relates to the movement of
human resources within organizations where employees move from job to job, through transfer,
promotion or relocation. Employee turnover is one of the major concerns of HR practitioners
since resignation of value contributing employees affects the performance and competitiveness
of the organization.

Actual labor turnover rates and intention to leave ones job provide a valuable means of
benchmarking the effectiveness of HR policies and practices in organizations. They do not tell
the whole story, but if turnover is significantly higher than in comparable organizations, this
should stimulate action to investigate why this is the case and to do something about it
(Armstrong 2010).

Turnover can be either voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary turnover happens when the
employees initiate the termination of employment regardless the reasons, while involuntary
turnover happens when a termination is initiated by the employers (Lon, 2011).

2
Involuntary turnover may help improving productivity because underperforming employees were
removed (Davidson & Wang, 2011). Most of the research on turnover is devoted to the causes
and consequences of voluntary turnover (Schneer, 1993).

Being in customer service business, hospitality industry capitalizes heavily on its human
resources to achieve its competitive advantage. Choi and Dickson (2009) in Nivethitha (2014)
emphasized that the hospitality industry is a highly guest service–oriented business, where
communication between employees and guests determine the success of the business. Chand and
Katou (2007) in Nivethitha (2014) stated that since the hospitality industry is highly labor-
intensive, the effective utilization of human resources can give an organization its competitive
edge.

Worland and Wilson (1988) in Nivethitha (2014) described the hospitality industry as
organizations that provide one or more services that contribute to the function of hospitality as
generally construed and as including four sectors: hotels, restaurants, licensed clubs and motels.

Retention is a voluntary move by an organization to create an environment which engages

employees for long term. According to Chaminade (2007), this attachment relationship should be
durable and constant and link the employee to the organization by common values and by the
way in which the organization responds to the needs of the employees. The main purpose of
retention is to prevent the loss of competent employees from the organization, which could have
an adverse effect on productivity and service delivery. Also, retention allows senior and line
managers to attract and effectively retain critical skills and high performing employees. This is
achieved by providing these managers with information on retention and retention strategies that
will ensure that the goals and objectives of the organization are realized.

At this time, organizations need to be concerned about retaining their workers since retaining
valuable employee is one of the important issues for competitive organizations as hiring is not an
easy process and recruiting the right candidate is a time consuming process, an organization
invests time and money in training an individual and make them ready to work and understand
the corporate culture. To retain employees, the organizations must review their career plans and
reorganize those plans according to the market so that intelligent and talented employees could
serve more and would beneficial in the long run (Nadeem et al, 2011). Besides, today employees
are the most valuable assets in any company (Ongori, 2007); hence, it is better for organizations
to continue working with their current employees than to encourage labor turnover by hiring new
employees. This is may be akin with the Amharic proverb the devil you know is better than the
angel you do not know.

To be effectively retaining workers, employers must know what factors motivate their employees
to stay in the organization and what factors cause them to leave. So, reducing employee turnover
3
is a primary goal for almost every human resource professional (Catherine, 2002). By reducing
employee turnover, organizations save money on recruitment and training, as well as
encouraging a stable and experienced workforce. Since retention of employees is one of the most
important ongoing practices of human resource management, efforts to increase employee
retention start with improving the recruitment and training process, but continue on to providing
challenging, interesting work, a cooperative work environment, and comparable compensation
programs (Irshad, 2009). Additional factors that contribute to reducing employee turnover
include opportunities for professional growth, additional training, and organizational stability.
Therefore, it is always important to keep professional employees in any organization in order to
improve the kind of service that is provided to the relevant customers (Nadeem et al. 2011).

Ethiopia is one of the African countries that possess the highest number of UNESCO World
Heritage Sites in Africa, with 8 sites spread throughout the whole country, and therefore has
great potential to develop its hospitality industry. The Government of Ethiopia (GOE) has
prioritized tourism development in its development strategy, GTP 1 & 2, to optimize the existing
tourism resources as a driving force of economic growth for the whole country.

The availability of international hotels, particularly star rated hotels, however, is far below the
level needed to meet the demand. There are only five- five-star hotels in Addis Ababa and few
hotels of Four Stars & below found in the regions, even where there are international tourism
attractions. Similar to the supply of international hotels, the supply of qualified labor for the
hotels is also affected by the shortage and high turnover employees. Therefore this study is
intended to study the major causes and consequence of employee turnover intention and their
retention mechanism in selected Four Star Hotels found in Hawassa city.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Hotel industry is a labor-intensive industry, and labor costs on goods and services produced are
very high. It means that labor expenses have an important share on total expenses, almost 40%,
Kuria, (2011). In order to serve quality goods and services with a reasonable price, and compete
with their competitors, hotel administrations must control the labor expenses and satisfy their
employees, and decrease undesired employee turnover.

The actual turnover is most of the time preceded by intention to turnover. Therefore the
statement of the problem is depends on empirical findings of actual turnover as an indicator of
intention to turnover.

The Global picture of turnover rate in the hotel industry is estimated to range from 60 percent to
300 percent annually, which is far higher than the 34.7 percent annual turnover rate reported in
the manufacturing industry (Foley, 1996) in Kuria, (2011).

4
According to Hospitality and Catering Training Company report (2004), labor turnover in the
United States of America was reported to cost the industry £430 million annually (Kuria, 2011).
Subsequently, to Lucas, (1995) cites labor turnover in Britain‟s hotel industry being highest
amongst the personnel of the lower grades. A report by International Labor Organization (2001)
on labor turnover in the tourism and hospitality industry across the world by the year 2000, stood
at 51.7 percent in the USA, 30 percent in Asia, and 42 percent in the United Kingdom among the
lower level employees. Most firms see labor turnover in terms of a cost to the business that could
be reduced by better human resource management, training or rewards.

In Kenya, the hotel industry falls short of the industries turnover average (Republic of Kenya,
Economic Survey, 2004) and still leads in employees‟ turnover. Another research by the ILO
(2001) on labor mobility in the Kenya‟s hotel industry also indicated a similar trend of high
labor turnover with lodges on the lead. (Kuria,2011).

Studies have shown that high staff turnover rates in the hotel industry are not country specific,
but are worldwide (Birdir, 2002). Yang, et al (2012), Kalotina and Sigala (2010), in Brien et al
(2015) also confirm that turnover is a major long-term area of concern for hospitality industry
organizations.

In Ethiopia the hotel industry is in its infant stage. When we compare it with Africa even from
East Africa, the industry had not been grown well because of the political economy policy of the
“Derg” regime. However, for the last 26 years the industry has been growing dramatically both
in Addis Ababa and other regional capitals. Currently the Ministry of Culture & Tourism of
Ethiopia gave star rated rank to 95 hotels in Addis & other regional cities. The labor market
source similar to the hotel Industry has been limited. Although there are emerging TVET
colleges that train junior professionals for the industry, there are very few universities that train
professionals at higher level (MoE, 2016).

Since it is very difficult to get those individual who left the targeted hotels & resort the research
focused on the existing employees and tried to reveal their intention to leave their current job and
it also tried to investigate what major factors made them decided so. Therefore the study
attempted to answer the following basic questions.

1.3 Research questions

The following were the major research questions that this study attempted to answer
1. What is the current status of employee turnover in the selected four star hotels & resorts
in Hawassa city?
2. To what extent do the current employees intend to leave their current job?

5
 3. What are the major causes of employees‟ turnover intention in the selected Four Star
hotels & resorts?
4. What are the effects of employee turnover in the selected hotels & resorts?

1.4 Objective of the study

1.4.1 General Objectives

The major objective of the study was to identify the major cause of employee turnover intention
and effect on the hotels and retention mechanisms used in selected four star hotels and resorts in
Hawassa city.

1.4.2 Specific Objectives

More specifically the study had the following specific objectives

 To study the current status employees‟ actual turnover in the selected hotels & resorts
in Hawassa city.
 To study the level of employee turnover intention in the selected hotels & resorts.
 To assess the major causes of employee turnover intention in the selected hotels &
resorts in Hawassa City.
 To examine the effect of employee turnover in relation to customer satisfaction,
service quality and motivation o f the existing staff on selected hotels & resorts

1.5 Significance of the study

The issue of employee turnover intention in hotel industry seems underestimated. Many
managers and hotel owners think that they can get workers simply in the market and they seem
that it does not affect their business. And unless it is properly analyzed and proposed a workable
strategy it may affect the truism in general and hotel industry in particular. Therefore the result
of this research study may have the following contribution.

 It may help to provide possible suggestion for actors in the sectors to design an
appropriate strategy to have a relatively stable workforce.
 It may also serves as a background for those who want to carry out further in
depth study on employee turnover intention in hotel industry.
 It may also contribute some insights to the existing literature.

6
 1.6 Delimitation of the Study
The issue of employee turnover intention is wide and complex so it is unmanageable to see all
variables of employee turnover in all levels of hotels in Ethiopia. Because of limited experience
of the student researcher, the study was therefore delimited to selected Four Star hotels found in
Hawassa city. Content wise it is delimited to examining the magnitude of turnover from January
2016 to December 2016 on the target hotels. It also tried to assess to what extent the current
employees intended to leave the current organization & what internal & external factors pushed
them to think accordingly. The study also examined the retention mechanisms of the target
organizations. Regarding employees, the study has given particular emphasis to professional
employees particularly Food & beverage kitchen, Food & beverage service, Housekeeping, Front
office, Spa departments. The paper focused on voluntary turnover intention cases.

1.7 Limitation of the Study

This research project is not without limitation. It would be more comprehensive if it would have
been covered more geographic area. Financial problem and shortage of time was also another
challenge that affected the research project. Limited research experience of the student
researcher also has its own impact on the quality of the research.

1.8 Organization of the Study

This study is organized in to five chapters. Chapter one discusses about background of the study,
statement of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, delimitation of the
study, and limitation of the study will be included. Under chapter two relevant literatures will be
reviewed. Under chapter three the details of the research design and method will be discussed.
Date will be presented, interpreted, and analyzed under chapter four. Finally summary of major
findings, conclusions of the study and recommendation will be discussed under chapter five.

7
 CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

This part of the study tries to review theoretical and empirical discussions made by different
scholars and researchers regarding employee turnover and related concepts. More specifically it
tries to present definitions turnover and turnover intention defined by different writers and
authors in the area. Then it presents different theories that explain voluntary turnover intention,
components of turnover intention, causes and influencing factors for turnover intention is also
presented. Next to this effect of turnover on the organization‟ is presented. Finally, employee
retention strategy and theoretical framework of factors affecting employee turnover intention is
presented.

2.1 Definition of Turnover and Turnover Intention

Unlike actual turnover, turnover intent is not explicit. Intentions are a statement about specific
behavior of interest (Berndt, 1981). Turnover intent is defined as the reflection of “the
(subjective) productivity that an individual will change his or her job within a certain time
period” (Sousa- Poze and Henneberger, 2002) and is an immediate precursor to actual turnover.
A broad range of literature examining the relationship of turnover intent and actual turnover
(e.g., Mobley, 1977, Hom and Griffeth 1991) exists. Actual turnover and turnover intention has
been measured separately; however, actual turnover is expected to increase as the intention
increases. The results of the different studies provide support for the high significance of
turnover intention in investigating the individual‟s turnover behavior. Turnover intention
captures the individual‟s perception and evaluation of job alternatives (Mobley et al. 1979). In
Hanneberger and Souse- Poza‟s study, it resulted that the decision on job mobility is rather been
made by hotel industry workers in the short run (Hannberger and Souse- Poza, 2007).

Turnover intention is employees plan to leave their jobs or when the organization plans to fire
the employees. Turnover intention can be either voluntary or involuntary. In voluntary turnover,
employee leaves the organization willingly. It occurs when the employee have an alternative best
opportunity. While involuntary turnover intention occurs when organization is not satisfied with
an employee performance and makes decision to fire him (Lon, 2011).

Turnover refers to retirement, resignation and redundancy. Employee turnover is considered to

be one of the persisting problems in organizations (Armstrong, 2009 cited in Hana and Lucie,
2011). Abassi and Hollman (2000: 305) define turnover as the “rotation of employees around the
labour market; between firms, jobs and occupations; and between the states of employment and
unemployment”. The term “turnover” is defined by Price (1977) as: the ratio of the number of

8
organizational members who have left during the period being considered divided by the average
number of people in that organization during the period.

Employee turnover is the replacement cycle each time a position is vacated either voluntarily or
involuntarily (Woods, 2006). Turnover intention reveals the subjective probability that an
individual will leave the organization and thus reflects one‟s attitude towards the organization.
Actual employee turnover represents an outflow of skills and may consequently seriously hinder
competitiveness, efficiency and quality service (Redman and Mathews, 1997), which is
dichotomous (Demir, & et.al2007).

2.2 Theories Explaining Voluntary Turnover Intention

Here it is tried to review different theories that have relationship with and explains turnover
intentions, namely, Equality theory ( Brinkmann and stapf , 2005), Human capital theory (
Becker, 1993), Matching theory ( Mace, 1990), Organizational equilibrium Theory (Mano,
1994), Search theory (Stigler, 1961) and Social exchange theory (Thaibaut and et al: 2001). The
theories are discusses and some kind of relation has been made with the subject of this study.

2.2.1 Equity Theory

Equity theory, also known as justice theory, was developed by Dohn Stacey Adams in 1963 and
can be categorized in job motivational theory. It proposes that individuals determine whether the
distribution of resources is fair to both relational partners (Brinkmann and stapf, 2005). In hotel
industry, the equality theory of hotel industry professional motivation describes the fair balance
to be struck between the employees‟ inputs, such as hard work, skill level, tolerance or
enthusiasm and the out puts, such as salary, benefits or intangibles issues. Justice is existent,
when inputs and out puts are fairly distributed among the employees and the hotels, where as the
empirical criteria of the situation are less important than the ways, how individual estimate the
value and the relevant of the inputs and out puts of the different participants ( Brinkmann and
Staf, 2005). Thus a highly motivated worker perceives his rewards to be equal to his
contributions. He will judge to be treated fairly, when he feels that he is working and being
rewarded at about the same rate as his peers. It should be emphasized that factor can affects each
person‟s assessment and perception of their relationship with their relational partners differently

Based on equity theory, if a hotel employee perceives the distribution of resources as unfair, then
turnover intent will emerge.

9
2.2.2 Human capital theory

The core thesis of human capital theory is that human is learning functions are comparable with
other natural resources which are involved in the production process (Becker, 1993). The
theory‟s roots are in the work of Adama Smith or William Petty. Yet it was Gary Becker who
extensively developed the human capital theory in 1964. The concept of human capital claim that
not all work is equal and that the employees quality can be increased by investing in them (
Becker, 1993). According to Becker (1993), education and trading are the most important
investment in human capital.

Learning capacity is closely related to earning level, thus it can raise a person‟s income. The
earnings of more educated people are mostly above average. The education, experience and
skills of a worker have an economic value for employers and for the economy as a whole. Hence
occupational wage differentials refer to the amount of investment in human capital
(Hennebergary and Sousa, 2007).

There are two major forms of human capital investment; schooling and on- the-job training,
Beker defined a school as an “institution specializing in the production of training” (Becker,
1993); such as university or high school. On- the job training related to the increasing
productivity of employees by learning new skills and perfecting old ones while on the job
(Becker, 1993). If the acquired skill can also be used in another company, for example, a
specialized cook trained in one hotel finds his skill also beneficial at other hotel ( Becker, 1993).
The development of capability requires both specialization and expectance and can be gained
partly from schools and partly form companies. Based on this theory, it can be assumed that
those employees who have better schooling preparation and on job training would assume that
their knowledge and skill will have a better value in the human capital market and then turnover
intention would have come.

2.2.3 Organization Equilibrium Theory

Barnard provided a systematic framework where he discussed human motivations that are
involved in the decision to belonging, which is also known as the organizational equilibrium. He
argued that “the equilibrium of an organization means the capacity to maintain efficiency of an
organization “(Mano, 1994). Organizations are dependent on the continuity of participant‟s
contribution and in order to maintain this, organization has to offer equitable inducements. Thus
Barnard‟s specific evolution is the decision to participate, in other words “balancing of burdens
by satisfactions which results in continuance” (Barnard, 1938).

According to Barnard, if the personal sacrifice is bigger than the inducements he gets, than the
person will withdraw his contributions and will leave the company, Simon extended Barnard‟s
theory into the Barnard- Simon organizational equilibrium theory, which builds on Barnard‟s
observations. Simon argued that the achievement of organizational equilibrium contains the

10
condition that the sum of contribution of all worker ensures the kinds and quality of necessary
inducement ( Mano, 1994).

2.2.4 Matching theory

Matching Theory describes a process where human or other organisms “distribute their
behavior in relation to the rate of reinforcement for response alternatives” (Mace, 1990). It
gives an understanding about the appearance and the termination of a work contract uncertainty.
Employees strive for those positions which much best with their capability that correlate with
appropriate wages. Employers tend to fill positions, so that they can minimize their benefit (
Heneberger and Souse, 2002 ).

Therefore, younger employees launch an experimental stage at the beginning of their

professional life, where they gain experiences and diminish lack of information. In this context,
job mobility can be understood as a mechanism for correcting marching failures (Henneberger
and Sousa- Poza, 2002).

2.2.5 Search theory

The Search Theory can be traced back to George Stigler‟s analysis how buyers (or sellers)
acquired information as an investment. He argued that “Buyer” (Stigler, 1961). A special
consumer, in our case the workers,‟ optimal strategy when choosing from various potential
opportunities in the labor market. The individuals imperfect knowledge of labor market various
requires the usage of a so called “reservation price” for the search of employment various
alternatives (Morrell et al, 2001). Reservation price is defined as the lowest salary or wage at
which a person will consider accepting job and can be thought of as short hand heuristic.

It is seen as endogenously determined, suggesting that it dependents on opportunities in the labor

market (Morrell et al, 2001). For employees, search generates alternative positions or work place
outside the present organization which can lead to actual turnover. Therefore job search was
detected as an important precession to quitting in several studies ( Morrell et al, 2001). Job
search can also lead to the appreciation of one‟s present job after comparing it with the
alternatives (Morrell et al, 2001).

2.2.6 Social Exchange Theory

Social exchange is based on the idea that social behavior is the result of an exchange process,
whose purpose it is maximizes benefit and minimizes costs. The Beginnings of this Theory can
be traced to the studies of Thibaut and Kelley, Homans and Bleu (Brinkmann and Stapf, 2005).
The exchange can be understood in terms of materials and non materials goods, such as the
symbols of approval or prestige (M. Homans, 1961). According to this theory, individuals
consider potentials reward and risks of social relationships. Further it implies that all human
relationships are shaped by using a subjective reward cost analysis and the comparison of

11
alternatives. Someone who gives much will expect to get at least the same amount back from
others and in return persons that receive a lot from other will be under pressure to give much
back to them. People will terminate or a abandon the relationship as soon as the costs out weight
the benefits (Farmer and Fedor, 1999).

The viability of social exchange theory is based on the assumption that individuals recognize
one‟s life situations and notice each one‟s needs. It also refers to the principals of reciprocity,
where by privileges granted by one are returned by the other. The interaction between humans
will be noticed consciously and in some way reciprocated. The willingness to generate an
advance performance will be responded with a payback, either soon or with a time delay.
(Brinkmann & Stapf, 2005).

2.3 Components of Turnover Intention

Turnover intention is a multi-stage process entailing three components which are psychological,
cognitive and behavioral in nature (Takase, 2009).

2.3.1 Psychological

Turnover intention is seen as a psychological response to negative aspects of organization‟s or

jobs (Chiu, Chien, Lin & Hsiao, 2005 & Susskind, 2007). Psychological responses are believed
to trigger employee‟s emotional and attitudinal withdrawal reactions.

These emotions and attitudes include frustration and dissatisfaction with organizations (Vigoda-
Gadot & Ben-Zion, 2004). Moreover, they include an affectively neutral form of organizational
attachment (McDuff & Mueller, 2000) and employee‟s evaluation of future organizational
commitment. Overall, the psychological component of turnover intention was seen as the starting
point of the multi-stage turnover reaction.

2.3.2 Cognitive

The psychological component is seen as the starting point of turnover intention while the
cognitive component is seen as the core of turnover intention. Many researchers characterize
turnover intention as a cognitive manifestation of the decision to leave, hence, the term was used
interchangeably with withdrawal cognition (De Coninck & Stilwell, 2004). In other words,
turnover intention is also defined as the final cognitive step leading to actual turnover (Lambert,
Hogan & Barton, 2001).

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2.3.3 Behavioral

Another component that formed the core of the process of turnover intention is withdrawal
behavior. The manifestations of withdrawing from jobs were behavioral and/or verbal. The
behavioral manifestations included employees daydreaming during work, being less enthusiastic
at work, coming in late and being absent from work (Chiu et al., 2005 & Susskind, 2007). The
verbal manifestation consisted of stated or expressed intentions to leave jobs (Freund, 2005). The
future-oriented behaviors comprising the facets of turnover intention were the actualization of
employees‟ cognitive intentions (Takase, 2009).

These behaviors were operationalized as the actual job search (Brough & Frame, 2004; Castle et
al., 2007) and willingness to take an alternative job when available. These behaviors were often
operationalized to explore employee‟s turnover intention (Takase, 2009).

2.4 Causes and Influencing Factors for Turnover Intention

Different causes/sources of voluntary employee turnover have been identified by different

researchers on their studies dating back to the 1950‟s because employee turnover is considerably
studied phenomenon (Curtis & Wright, 2004; Lema & Durendez, 2007; Torlak & Koc, 2007;
Wheeler, Richter &Sahadevan, 2004). Hence, causes of employee turnover have been
documented in literature. Those causes includes job not matching new employee‟s expectations,
lack of attention from line managers, lack of training, lack of autonomy, lack of challenge and
variety within the work, disappointment with the promotion and development opportunities,
disappointment with standards of management, including unapproachable, uncaring and distant
behavior and a failure to consult, low salary, poor benefits, lack of job securities, poor
recognition and lack of flexibility in scheduling (Pendulwa, 2011) .

In line with this, those identified turnover causes/sources affect the organization activities and
hampered the successes of the organization at large. Besides, organizations are nothing without
its employee and difficult to survive in a dynamic environment; hence, managers should play a
big role to achieve the objectives of the organizations and treating their employees as one of their
assets which needs a lot of attention (Samuel and Chipunza, 2009). So, Managers should
examine the sources of employee turnover and recommend the best approach to fill the gap of
the source and they can be in a position to retain employees in their organization to enhance their
competitiveness in the business world.

To improve or reduce employee turnover rates first requires an understanding of the sources and
causes of turnover for taking action (Rampur, 2009). Adjusting salary, for example, may not
reduce turnover if most of employees leave because of dissatisfied working conditions or lack of
career advancement. Hence, for the purpose of this study from the many causes/sources of

13
employee turnover the following are identified and categorized through reviewing different
findings from various studies.

2.4.1 Benefits and salary packages

Adequate and flexible benefits can demonstrate to employees that a company is supportive and
fair, and there is evidence to suggest that benefits are at the top of the list of reasons why
employees choose to stay with their employer or to join the company in the first place. Many
companies are responding to the increasingly diverse needs of their employees by introducing a
greater element of choice in the range of benefits from which their workers can choose.
Flexibility in benefits packages can enhance retention, as it creates responsiveness to the specific
needs and circumstances of individual employees (Rampur, 2009).

Employees always look for companies who offer more benefits and compensation package. This
is the most common factors in remaining with the company. Besides, compensation and lack of
challenge and opportunity were the most common factors in contemplating leaving the
organization (Ramlall, 2003 and Rampur, 2009). In addition to this, unequal or substandard wage
structures fall under salary and benefits category as a reason to leave the organization. This is
clearly shown by Handelsman (2009)

“When two or more employees perform similar work and have similar
responsibilities, differences in pay rate can drive lower paid employees to
quit. Ina like vein, if you pay less than other employers for similar work,
employees is likely to jump for higher pay, if other factors are relatively
equal.”

On top of this, the most common reason for employee turnover rate being so high is the salary
scale because employees are usually in search of jobs that pay well. Those who are desperate for
a job may take the first one that comes along to carry them through searching for better paying
employment. Also, employees tend to leave a company because of unsatisfactory performance
appraisals. Low pay is good reason as to why an employee may be lacking in performance (Cook
and Crossman, 2004). Employees prefer other companies which may provide them with higher
posts and increased compensation packages. Hence, the salaries of employee need to be
increased, which will not only retain the present employees but will attract employees of other
organization as well (Irshad, 2009). Guthrie (2000) identified that paying employees according to
their knowledge and skills is a traditional approach so that pay is attached to the performance.
High employee turnover could also be due to no potential opportunity for advancements or
promotions.

14
If the job is basically a dead-end proposition, this should be explained before hiring so as not to
mislead the employee. The job should be described precisely, without raising false hopes for
growth and advancement in the position. Since employees generally want to do a good job, it
follows that they also want to be appreciated and recognized for their works. Even the most
seasoned employee needs to be told what he or she is doing right once in a while (Shamsuzzoha,
2007).

Career advancement may affect turnover decision through several different channels such as the
current level of career attainments, recent upward mobility, and the future prospect of career
advancement along the job ladder in an organization (Zhao and Zhou, 2008).

A lack of training, development and career opportunities are some of the major reasons for
voluntary turnover. Irshad (2009) in his study finds that training and career development was
found motivating factor which leads to retention and career development. Besides, Phillips &
Connell (2003) concluded that provide development opportunities for individual employees is
vital for the organization in order to enhance employees proficiencies and improve their chances
of getting higher posts. Employee training is also an inference of management dedication to
build a life-long relationship with the employees thereby influencing their turnover decisions
(Wright, McMahan and McWilliams, 1994).

It is vital for an organization to create an environment in which important information is freely

communicated and in which employees are knowledgeable and perceptive of opportunities for
further self-development. In addition to this, various forms of training will logically a key to an
organizations array of business practices (Vandenberg, Richardson and Eastman, 1999).

In line with salary and benefit packages, assistances or voluntary benefits provided by the
organizations encourage employees to stay in the company (Rion, 2009). Organizations also used
such assistances for creating harmony relationship in the organization with employees.

2.4.2 Orientation about the company and the job

Orientation is the process of familiarizing the selected/ new employee with organization. It is
done through oral communication, arranging work place visit, documents referral including
manual, policies, rules history of the organization, etc. “A successful orientation process will
help new employees from an attachment to your companies mission as well as improve their
productivity within their positions ” (Brown, 2007). To get new employees off to a good start, a
formal orientation program is a must. One way to take off the new employee is to assign them a
supporter (Mondy, 2010). Formal orientation programs are effective in retaining and motivating
employees, reducing turnover, and increasing productivity. In addition, to helping new
employees assimilate rapidly into the culture of the employing organization. An orientation

15
program should not consist of a one-day introduction, but should be planned and paced over a
few days or weeks (Brown, 2007).

2.4.3 Relationship of Managers and Supervisors with subordinates.

Lack of fixing issues or problems, particularly from supervisors, decreases workers' ability to
cope with their stressful jobs and increases the likelihood that they will leave their jobs (Michal,
Nissly, J.A and Levin2001). According to Griffeth and Hom (2001) management researchers
have blamed bad supervision as a prime malefactor of turnover.

The relationship between managers and employees influences employees‟ decision to stay in a
job. Supervisors and managers have an important impact on employee turnover. Hence, the
length of time that employees stay in an organization is largely determined by the relationship
between employees and their managers (Dobbs, 2001). Likewise, the quality of supervision was
a significant influence on intent to leave the organizations. Besides, little supervision and less
support from manager in conducting the assignment will lead towards high level of stress and
turnover intention (Mondy, 2010).

Employee‟s demands treated fairly and respectfully with support from managers and supervisors.
Taylor (2002) mentions that employees need managers, who know and understand them and who
treat them fairly. Employees also choose managers who can be trusted. If employees feel that
their managers are fair, reasonable and supportive, their levels of job satisfaction increase.
Besides, if the manager shows interest in the well-being of employees and is supportive and
sensitive towards employees emotionally, employee job satisfaction also increases (Egan, Yang
& Bartlett, 2004).

2.4.4 Job Satisfaction and Related factor

Job status may play an important role in reducing turnover and organizations use it as a career
reward and incentive to retain qualified employees (Zhao and Zhou, 2008).A bad match between
the employee's skills and the job can also be a reason for an employee to leave an organization.

"Employees who are placed in jobs that are too difficult for them or
whose skills are underutilized may become discouraged and quit.
Inadequate information about skill requirements that are needed to fill a
job may result in the hiring of either under skilled or overqualified
workers'" (Handelsman, 2009).

16
The content of the work itself is a major source of satisfaction and research related to the job
characteristics approach to job design shows that feedback from the job itself and autonomy are
two of the major job-related motivational factors. Moreover, autonomy is valued by employees
and decreases turnover (Luthans, 2002).

Job satisfaction is perceived as sentimental or emotional response to the job done by an

employee‟s comparison of the true results achieved with the results the employee expects from
the job environment. Job satisfaction is the extent to which people enjoy their jobs. Hence, like
employees of other organizations, bank employees also give different evaluation of the job they
do. The outcome of the evaluation reveals whether the job is satisfying or not. Job satisfaction is
a positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one‟s job or reaction to work
experience, how workers feel about their jobs, aspects of their jobs, and work situations (Landy
& Conte, 2004). In addition, Sharma & Bhaskar (1991) note that the actual job done by
employees and the nature of the job given to the employee has a direct influence on job
satisfaction.

Employees decided to leave their organization when they become dissatisfied with their Jobs.
Job satisfaction with the current job reflects an indicator to predict employee turnover in the
organizations may be low in finding another job due to a positive experience with their
organization‟s policies (Rehman, 2012).

Although review of literature revealed a modest correlation between job satisfaction and
performance, Greenberg and Baron (2003) stated that "Naturally, as working people, we all want
to be satisfied with our jobs. Not only does satisfaction keep us from withdrawing from our jobs,
but it is also makes them more pleasant and enjoyable. And this, of course, is an important end in
itself". Consequently, the two authors had suggested very important guidelines for promoting job
satisfaction and avoiding job dissatisfaction at work as make jobs fun, pay people fairly, match
people to jobs that fit their interests, avoid boring and repetitive jobs.

2.4.5 Working environment, work load and fairness

Effective career management means that at all levels in the organization there are well qualified
workers who can assume more responsible positions as needed and that as many members of the
organization as possible are highly motivated and satisfied with their jobs and careers (Hicks-
Clarke & Ilis, 2000 ; Lawler, 2005; Savolaine, 2000 and Mondy, 2010) .

Irshad (2009) in his finding, the area of work environment found that it is key factor in employee
retention, it is also found that employee leave the job due to work environment and
organizational justice (distributive justice and procedural justice). It also play pivotal role in
employee retention, it is reveled from study that, if organization want to retain their prowess

17
employees, organization must fallow fairness formula. So, organizations should be realized that,
working conditions in an organization have a role to play in deciding whether to stay or leave.
These are the gaps that may be explored. Good working conditions may serve as a motivating
factor to employees, in order to stay in an organization.

In line with this, the overall working environment of the organization should be favorable to
employees and the organization working environment was not conducive to most of the
employees it contributed to employee turnover. A stimulating work environment that makes
effective use of people‟s skills and knowledge, allows them a degree of autonomy on the job,
provides an avenue for them to contribute ideas, and allows them to see how their own
contribution influence the company‟s well-being (Luthans, 2002). In an unfavorable working
environment employees do not want to stay; due to this, some employees jump from company to
company because they prefer a working environment that is suitable for them. Recent studies
conducted by Handelsman (2009) shows that if working conditions are substandard or the
workplace lacks important facilities, such as proper lighting, furniture, clean restrooms, and other
health and safety provisions, employees won't be willing to put up with the inconvenience for
long. Likewise, if an employee finds an appropriate work environment which is suitable for them
in a specific company, they may work in that organization for several years.

According to Catherin (2011), employees should always be rewarded and recognized for work
well done but not basing on only policies of the organizations. Bajpai & Srivastava (2004) notes
that, promotion are offer prospects of growth and career advancement. Since fair promotion
policies are important to employees, they seek promotion policies and practices that they
perceive to be fair and unambiguous, and in line with their expectations. Hence, satisfaction with
promotion determines employees‟ attitudes toward the organization‟s promotion policies and
practices (Robbins, 2003). In addition to this, Bajpai & Srivastava (2004) postulate that
promotion provides employees with opportunities for personal growth, more responsibilities and
also increased social status. Research indicates that employees who observe that promotion
decisions are made in a fair and just manner are most likely experience job satisfaction (Pergamit
& Veum, 1999).

Regular performance appraisal (PA) tends to be linked with improved performance and greater
job satisfaction (Cook & Crossman, 2004). Furthermore, research indicates PA tends to focus on
appraiser understanding of the situation and instruments validity rather than examining the views
of appraise who are the subjects of PA. PA will not be effective unless it is perceived to be fair
and equitable by both employer and employee. Eventually, unfair usage of PA would be
reflected in widespread dissatisfaction amongst employee. This is generally the gap between
expectations and results in the mind of the employees that fuels dissatisfaction and leads to
turnover (Lawler, 2005 & Cook and Crossman, 2004).

18
 2.4.6 Intention of employees to leave or stay in the organization

As turnover intention or intention to quite or leave is an individual desire or willingness to leave

employer organization, turnover intention has been found to be one of the major determinants of
turnover behavior (Malik, Danish & Munir, 2011).

Although, all over the world, organizations have recognized that experienced and qualified
people exploit the organization for better incentives, how to reduce employee‟s turnover
intention is a very crucial challenge for today‟s HR managers since pay better incentives and
employee‟s motivational techniques have been useless and old practices of the human resource
management (Malik, Danish and Munir, 2011).

Ramlall (2003) one of the primary conclusions from his study is that, the factors that most
significantly contributed to an employee‟s satisfaction with a position were similar to the factors
that contributed to the likelihood of an employee seeking employment with another organization.
The common factors affecting employees‟ satisfaction and the likeliness to leave were
satisfaction with rewards and recognition, task identity, feedback, number of positions held at the
company, age, and satisfaction with position as an indicator for likeliness to seek a position with
another organization (Elangovan, 2001).

It is important for the organizations to conduct exit interviews in order to find out the reasons as
to why employees leave for the purpose of developing plans and strategies that will assist in
curbing employee turnover. Hence, some organizations utilize exit interviews to find out the
reasons as to why employees are leaving in order to rectify and improve the situation that may
lead to some good retention strategies. However, research indicates that exit interviews are not a
trustworthy informational basis for the identification of factors that cause turnover in an
organization since certain employees may not provide accurate information in interviews. Hence,
as a result of the exit interviews inaccuracy, most academic researchers concerned with
employee turnover use the exit interview only as a secondary data collection tool (Griffeth and
Hom, 2001).

2.4.7 Effort to Retain Employees

To be effectively retaining workers, employers must know what factors motivate their employees
to stay in the organization and what factors cause them to leave. So, reducing employee turnover
is a primary goal for almost every human resource professional (Catherine, 2002). By reducing
employee turnover, organizations save money on recruitment and training, as well as
encouraging a stable and experienced workforce. Since retention of employees is one of the most
important ongoing practices of human resource management, efforts to increase employee
retention start with improving the recruitment and training process, but continue on to providing

19
challenging, interesting work, a cooperative work environment, and comparable compensation
programs (Irshad, 2009). Additional factors that contribute to reducing employee turnover
include opportunities for professional growth, additional training, and organizational stability.
Therefore, it is always important to keep professional employees in any organization in order to
improve the kind of service that is provided to the relevant customers (Nadeem et al. 2011).

2.5 Effect of Turnover on Organization’s Performance

The impact of turnover is varying from institution to institution depending on employee position.
Employee turnover is expensive from the view of the organizations. Voluntary quits which
represents an exodus of human capital investment from organizations and the subsequent
replacement process entails manifold costs to the organizations.

These replacement costs include for example, search of the external labor[employee]… for a
possible substitute, selection between competing substitutes, induction of the chosen substitute,
and formal and informal training of the substitute until he or she attains performance levels
equivalent to the individual who quit John (2000). Addition to these replacement costs, output
would be affected to some extend or output would be maintained at the cost of overtime
payment. The reason so much attention has been paid to the issue of turnover is because turnover
has some significant impacts on organizations (DeMicco and Giridharan, 1987).

Many researchers argue that high turnover rates might have negative effects on the performance
of organizations if not managed properly (Hogan, 1992; Wasmuth and Davis, 1993; Barrows,
1990). Turnover has many hidden or invisible costs Philips (1990) and these invisible costs are
result of incoming employees, co-workers closely associated with incoming employees, co-
workers closely associated with departing employees and position being filled while vacant. And
all these affect the profitability of the organization.

As the above researcher‟s mentioned the turnover have the negative effects so, it have the impact
on the productivity or on the training process of the organizations. Therefore, if employee
turnover is not managed properly it would affect the organization adversely in terms of personnel
costs and in the long run it would affect its liquidity position.

According to Hom and Griffeth (1995:13- 27), as cited by Ongori (2007), there are various
reasons, aside from the costs directly associated with the resignation, for employers to minimize
the numbers of employees leaving. These include productivity losses, impaired quality of
service, lost business opportunities, an increased administrative burden and employee
demoralization. Though, it is the direct costs associated with turnovers that have received the
most attention from writers on this topic, and organizations strive to reduce the frequency of
voluntary resignations from such point of view. One of the most important questions relating to
20
employees turnover is at what point does turnover become excessive. For CIPD (2006) there is
no such thing as universally applicable target for an ideal turnover rate. According to CIPD
(www.cipd.co.),

Where it is relatively easy to find and train new employees quickly and at
relatively little cost (i.e. where the labour market is loose), it is possible to
sustain high quality levels of service provision despite having a high turnover
rate. By contrast, where skills are relatively scarce, where recruitment is costly
or where it takes several weeks to fill a vacancy, turnover is likely to be
problematic from a management point of view. This is especially true of
situations in which you are losing employees to direct competitors or where
customers have developed relationships with individual employees as is the case
in many professional services organizations.

The above researcher tried to related employee turnover with cost in the case of replacement,
recruitment and selection, hiring and retraining of new temporary employees.

Effective employee utilization is critical, not only for the good of the organization but also for
the good of individual employees and their teams. Underutilized employee is a lost resource to
the organization in terms of opportunity cost because even if the employee has enough work to
earn/ get a salary, the added marginal worker value will not be realized. The employee will also
not have the advantage of utilizing his/her full potential and get extra rewards. However, over
utilization of employee will lead to stress, fatigue, and other health problems or even the risk of
loss of life. It is the duty of the line manager to put in place job strategies, objectives and targets,
which are challenging enough, but not overstretching the employee ability Josephat, S.I. (2011).

2.6 Basic Strategies to retain employees

It is imperative for organizations through the employment process, to attract quality employees
to the organization. However, it is more important for managers to device strategies with which
to retain these talented employees in the service of their organizations in order for employers to
benefit from the investment already made in them.

Creating a retention strategy means placing the employees‟ needs and expectations at the centre
of the organization‟s long-term agenda in order to ensure the professional satisfaction of the
employee and create a trusted relationship. In this stable relationship, the employee remains in
the organization by personal choice based on free will and considered decision. Retention of
employees is crucial to the overall success of any organization. Talented and high performing
employees should be encouraged to remain in the organization by designing retention policies
that will provide individual employees with opportunities to demonstrate their skills and ensure

21
that they are matched with the right jobs. Such retention policies should, in the view of Nyoka
(2006) also include strategies that will enable employees to balance their work life demand with
their family life by establishing family friendly policies and enabling flexible work arrangements
to accommodate essential personal commitments. With such effective retention policies in place,
managers are able to keep the employee turnover at a manageable rate.

I. Competitive and Fair Compensation

Competitive and fair compensation is a fundamental starting point in most strategies to attract
and retain good employees specially those employees whose gives outstanding performance or
unique skill which is necessary to the organization because company finance more amount on
their training and orientation (Lawler 2005 and Smith 2006). However, there is general
agreement that compensation levels do not single-handedly guarantee employee retention.
Common best practices include the use of industry surveys to benchmark and position wage and
salary structures to be fair and competitive.”

Employers would be able to retain and attract well-qualified and professional employees if they
would make it a point to offer salaries that would be competitive in order to achieve better
financial position (Hansen, 2002). This would possibly resolve the problem of employees leaving
based on low salaries. Employers should also offer attractive benefit packages.

There are many employees who are not aware of the benefits that are provided to them in their
compensation package. The employers need to reduce their bureaucratic procedures in order for
the employees to receive the best available benefits without any difficulty. They should make a
note of what all benefits other organizations are providing, which may attract their current
employees. Also, companies need to evaluate and modify their promotion policies in a fair way
which would enable promotions for candidates only on the basis of employee performance
(Rampur, 2009).

II. Recognition and Rewards

Recognition and reward for well-done employees were found to have significantly accelerates
retention of employees in the organization. Besides, it can contribute to a workplace culture of
respect and appreciation for employees and work well done, and thereby reinforce employee
commitment to the firm. Rotundo (2002) in his study contends that reward systems should be a
weighty domain of innovation for employer. Recognition and Rewards include a diverse range of
formal and informal, financial and non-financial incentives given to individual employees or

22
groups of employees or to an entire staff. They include such things as employee of the month
awards, company sponsored sports teams and social events, prizes, clothing, and so on.

Employees, especially those with esteem and self-actualization drives want to be appreciated and
rewarded, not necessarily with money, but by openly acknowledging their achievements and
contribution to the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. This corresponds with the
findings by Johnson (2007) which shows that two-thirds of respondents in the research known
that lack of appreciation was the major factor in driving them to leave their organizations. Hence,
it is important to let your employees know that their work does not go unnoticed since employees
are more willing to stay with a company if they feel a sense of pride and success in their work.
Besides, when employees meet or succeed your expectations, show your appreciation for a job
well done.

III. Training, Professional Development, and Career Planning

Training, professional development and career planning are effective ways to enhance employee
retention. Training constitutes a visible investment that the company makes in the worker,
providing him or her with new skills, and greater competencies and confidence. Training often
leads to work that is more intrinsically rewarding. Combined with effective communication
about how an employee‟s efforts at developing skills will lead him or her to more challenging
and meaningful positions within the company and training encourages workers to make longer
term commitments to their workplace. It permits them to see a future with the company. Many
have put in place effective internal promotion programs that allow even their unskilled and semi-
skilled workforce to move towards positions of greater responsibility and remuneration within
the company (Dobbs, 2001). Catherine (2002) indicated that career development plan for the
employees play a vital role in the retention of employees. Providing these career development
opportunities helps to restrict employees from leaving the organization and increase in loyalty.

IV. Orientation

Good initial orientation to the newly-hired employee can not only help to effectively integrate
that person into the workplace but can also help to make the new person feel welcome and
provide him or her information about how to cope with the demands of the workplace, and any
possible problems that may arise. The employee customizes the work environment as soon as
possible through induction process and it can help to retain employees to employer (Robbins,
2003).

23
 V. Conducive Working environment

It takes on a variety of forms, including those directed at the physical work environment
(cleanliness, safety, ergonomics, etc.); health practices (supporting healthy lifestyles, fitness,
etc.); and social environment and personal resources (organizational culture, a sense of control
over one‟s work, employee assistance programs, etc.). Healthy workplace initiatives not only
improve the health and well-being of individual employees, but contribute to business
performance objectives including employee retention (Rehman, 2012). The researcher is forming
the conclusion that flexible work schedule will increasingly be an important issue in the efforts
to retain an organization‟s critical employees (Dobbs, 2001). Hannay & Northan (2000) argued
that future opportunities for the employees also help in retaining employees because these
opportunities are associated with more pay, additional work responsibilities, superior work
environment and different incentives plans. Enhancing open lines of communication between
managers and employees can improve the overall quality of working relationships. Many
interventions designed to make the workplace more hospitable can lead to improved retention
(Griffeth & Hom, 2001).

2.7 Conceptual Framework of Factors affecting Employee Turnover

Intention

Past studies relating to turnover intention have shown that organizational commitment and job
satisfaction are regarded as two important antecedent variables that affect the turnover intention
of employees (Clegg, 1983; Karsh, Booske, and Sainfort, 2005). In fact, the findings of empirical
studies on the relationship between organizational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover
intention have confirmed that the two variables have significantly negative effects on turnover
intention (Bartle, Dansby, Landis, and McIntyre, 2002; Parker and Kohlmeyer, 2005). This
suggests that employees with high job satisfaction levels have a higher level of work efficiency,
organizational commitment, and willingness to sacrifice for the organization, making it more
difficult for them to leave their jobs.

Factors affecting employee turnover today have become increasingly complex. Many studies
have confirmed that salary level has a significantly positive effect on organizational commitment
(Folger and Konovsky, 1989), as well as on turnover intention (Ghiselli, La, and Bai, 2001;
Summers and Henfrix, 1991).

It is apparent that the effect of work environment, salary level, and coworker relationships are
important to turnover intention.

Therefore this study tries to see to what extent coworkers‟ relationship, work environment, salary
and benefits packages, job satisfaction and organizational commitment (independent
variables)contributes to turnover intention.(dependant variable)

24
 Co workers
relationshi
p hip Dependant Variable Effect of High turnover intention

Job Decreased Motivation

Satisfaction of the Existing
Independent Variables

Employees

Turnover
Work Intention
Environme
nt

Lower Quality of the

Organizatio
Service
nal
Commitme
nt

Salary &
Benefit
level

Figure 1: Models of theoretical framework of Factors for Employee Turnover Intention( adapted from Lee, Huang & Zhhao, 2012)

25
 CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Description of the Research area

This study was conducted in Hawassa city. Hawassa city is a political administration seat of the
SNNPRS which hosts more than 56 nations, nationalities & peoples. It is a fast flourishing resort
city that lays 273 kms south of Addis Ababa on the Trans African highway that runs from Cairo
to Cape Town via Nairobi. It has a beautiful setting in its lakeside position. It is one of Ethiopian
most attractive safe & friendly city.

According to Hawassa City Tourism & Culture Bureau, in the city there are 14 „International‟
hotels which provide different service to local and international tourists and customers. Among
the hotels that are rated as “Star Hotels” by the Ministry of Tourism & Culture,) in 2015 there
are four hotels & resorts that were rated as “four star hotels.” Namely Haile Resort, Lewi resort,
South Star international Hotel and Ker Awed Hotel (MCT, 2015).

3.2 Research Design

To attain the objectives of the study descriptive survey research design was employed. As Best
and Khan (2006) explained, descriptive survey research method helps to assess the status,
situation or magnitude of certain phenomena. Accordingly this study tried to investigate the
magnitude of turnover intention of the target samples, major causes of intention to leave, and the
retention strategies of the target hotels in Hawassa city which necessitates collection of data from
wider area.

3.3 Population of the Study

The population of the study included all permanent employees of selected Four Star hotels &
resorts found in Hawassa City which were 638. The sampling frame of the study was Food &
beverage- kitchen (Kitchen) departments, Food & beverage- service (Service) department, Front
office department, and Spa department. Two hundred and ten (210) professional workers in the
specified departments in the three hotels and resort hotels were taken as sampling frame of the
study.

3.4 Sampling Technique

Among many “international” hotels found in the city of Hawassa, there are few hotels & resorts
that are rated as Four “Star Hotels” by the Ministry of Truism & Culture, (MCT, 2015) last year.

26
These are Haile Resort, Lewi resort, South Star international Hotel and Ker Awed International
Hotel. For this study Ker Awed International Hotel was purposely omitted for its latest entry to
the industry.

To get the representative sample size different sampling technique was used. Strata were made
based on the existing departments. Accordingly to determine samples size from each department,
proportionate stratified sampling technique was used since departments had different staff
numbers and training background and to give them proportional chance to be included (Kothari,
2004). To select respondents from each department systematic random sampling technique was
used. The table below (table 3.1) shows population & samples selected from the target
population. From the total population professional workers (Food & Beverage- kitchen, Food &
Beverage- service, Front Office & Spa) of 210 a sample size of 132 (62.8%) was selected based
on the sample size determination procedure set be Krejcie & Morgan (1970).

HR mangers and deputy general managers were also included in the sample using purposive
sampling technique because they were few in number and important informants for the study.
Therefore, a total 138 respondents of which 6 senior managers (HR mangers and deputy general
managers) and 132 line workers were included in the sample.

3.5 Sample Size Determination

A sample size of 132 (62.8%) was selected based on the sample size determination procedure set
be Krejcie & Morgan (1970). The table is annexed on annex 4.

Sample size of each department was determined based on proportional allocation method using
the following procedure (Kothari, 2004).

nk= Nk *n

Where nk= sample size of each department

Nk= the population size of each department

N= the total population size of the research (all permanent employees of the hotels)

n= the total sample size determined to select

27
 Table 3. 1 Population of the Study, and sample selected.

Hotel & Department Total

Resorts Food & Food & Beverage- Front Office Spa
Beverage- service
kitchen
Populati Sample Population Sample Popul Sample Populat Sample Populati Sampl
on size size ation size ion size on e
Haile 13 8 33 20 22 14 19 12 87 54
Resort &
Hotel
Lewi Hotel 12 7 16 10 14 10 14 9 56 36
& Resort
South Star 15 9 18 11 18 11 16 11 67 42
Hotel
Total 40 24 67 41 54 35 49 32 210 132
Source: HR department of the target Hotels

3.6 Type and source of data

To collect appropriate data both primary & secondary data were used. The primary data was
collected from professional workers of the target hotels working in four departments namely
Food & Beverage-Service, Food & Beverage-Kitchen, Front Office and Spa. In addition to this
the respective hotel deputy managers and Human resource managers were used as primary data
sources. The existing HR documents, attendances and pay rolls were used as secondary data
sources for the study.

3.7 Data collection Method and Procedure

Relevant data for the study was collected through questionnaire, interview and available
documents. A 5 point Likert scale of standardized questionnaire was employed to cooks,
waiters/waitress, and front office and spa workers. The items were taken from standardized
questionnaires set by Balzer et al. (1997); Dabke et al. (2008) Cammann et al. (1979) and
Michaels & Spector (1982) in (Lee, Huang & Zhao, 2012). After permission was obtained from
each hotel‟s officials the questionnaires were distributed & effectively filled and returned.

A structured interview was conducted with HR managers and deputy general managers of each
hotel based on the pre set schedule arranged. Documents, particularly, attendances, payrolls,
vacancy posts, and other relevant documents were reviewed.

28
 3.8 Method of Data Analysis
The data which were collected through questionnaire, interview and documents were analyzed
differently but synchronized during analysis. Data obtained through questionnaire was analyzed
using descriptive statistic method, mainly using percentage and mean. One way ANOVA was
also used with the help of SPSS version 20 to test if group mean difference was statistically
significant or not.

In most of the items in the questionnaire a 5 point Likert scale type of questionnaire was
arranged scaled from 1-5. The value for each scale is as the following.
1= strongly disagree 2= Disagree 3= Undecided 4= Agree and 5= Strongly Agree.
A mean value of 3.00 was taken as cut point to decide individual‟s response for a given item.
Data obtained from interview and documents were analyzed and interpreted using narrative form
and presented with quantitative analysis in synchronized way.

3.9 Ethical issues

Confidentiality – the respondents were assured that their response would remain confidential.
The information they provide was confidential and used for academic purpose.

Organizational approval – A written letter that explains the research idea as well as a copy of
the research proposal was provided to the hotels.

Informed consent- Cover letter explains the purpose of the questionnaire and the right to accept
or refuse to participate in the research activities were be given to the respondents of this study.
As well as explaining the purpose of the study and for Purpose the study is conducted

29
 CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
This chapter tries to present, analyze and interpret data collected through questionnaire,
interview and documents related to the research questions raised in chapter one. Accordingly the
chapter is divided in to two major parts, the first part tries to present, analysis and interpreted
data related to the demographic characteristics of the research participates and the second part
mainly focus on the presentation, analysis and interpretation of data related to the research
question.

The questionnaire was completed by the target employees of the sampled three „four star‟ hotels.
Four departments were included in the sample namely, Food and Beverage-Kitchen, Food and
Beverage-service, Front Office and Spa. Out of 132 questionnaires distributed, 110(83.3%)
questionnaires were effectively filled and returned. In addition to this six middle and top level
managers (three human resource and three assistant general managers) of the respective hotels
and resorts were interviewed based on prior schedule arranged. Finally documents related to the
concern of the study were reviewed, analyzed and interpreted.

4.1 Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents

The demographic characteristics of the respondents were assessed from the point of view of sex,
age, marital status, qualification and year of services in the hotel they are working at the time of
the survey. Accordingly, analysis and interpretation of the data obtained from the respondents
are presented as follows

Table 4. 1 Demographic Characteristic of the Respondents

Variable Category Frequency Percent

Sex M 56 48.6
F 54 47.3
Total 110 100
Age 20-24 27 24.8
25-29 60 55.0
30-34 15 13.8

35-39 7 5.5
40-44 1 0.9
≥45 0 0
Marital Status Single 71 64.5

Married 38 34.5
Divorced 1 0.9
Total 110 100
Educational Level TVET level I 10 9
TVET level II 22 20

30
 TVET level III 19 17.3
TVET level IV 19 17.3
Diploma 14 12.7
1st Degree 26 23.6
Ma/Msc 1 0.9
Total 110 100
Work Experience <2 years 36 32.7
2-4 Years 53 48.2
5-7 years 13 11.8
≥8 years 8 7.3
Total 110 100
Department F&B-Kitchen 17 15.5
F&B Service 37 33.6
Front Office 29 26.4
Spa 27 24.5
Total 110 100
Source: Survey data 2017

Table 4.1 is above illustrates the demographic characteristics of the respondents. As it shown the
proportion of male and female respondents are almost equal, 56(48.6%) are male respondent and
54(47.3%) are female which may imply the hotels under the study encourages females during
recruitment.

With regard to age distribution of the respondents as it is shown in the table majority (55%) are
between the age range of 25-29. which is a young age or at the developing stage of their career.

Majority of the research participants were young and single. As it is seen on the table 4.1,
71(64.5%) of the respondents were single. As some research findings revealed that young ages &
unmarried employees are more unstable in their work places than the older and married ones
(Barnard, 1938). Hence, this implies that hotels under the study are more prone to high turnover
intention and actual turnover.

Concerning the respondents educational level 26 (23.6%) of them have 1st degree, 14(12.7%) of
them have diploma and the rest 70(56.3%) have technical and vocational training from level I to
IV. This implies that majority of the worker in the target hotels have educational preparation
from lower to higher level and have positive contribution to the quality of the responses.

Regarding the respondents work experience as it is seen from the table above, most of the
respondents were at their entry level to the profession. Thirty six (32.7% and 53(48.2%) have
experience < 2 years and between 2-4 years respectively. Some research findings reviled that
turnover intention has negative correlation with work experience (Malik, Danish and Munir,
2011).This implies that those employees who were at the target hotels seem prone to high
turnover intention.

In terms of department, the study includes all available departments in the hotel. Accordingly,
among the participants 17(15.5%), 37(33.6%), 29(26.4%) and 27(24.5%) of them were kitchen,
service, front office and Spa employees respectively.

31
4.2 Data Analysis Pertaining to Research Questions
4.2.1 The Status of Employee Turnover
Table 4.2 A. Turnover Rate as rated by the Respondents

Department N Mean Sig

Kitchen 17 4.7059
Service 37 4.3514 .533
front office 29 4.3793
Spa 27 4.4074
Total 110 4.4273
Source: Survey data 2017 Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3

As it is presented under chapter two, one of the greatest challenges in the hotel industry is the
presence of high turnover among the professional employees. In this regard the research
participants (cooks, waiters/waitress, front office workers and spa workers of the target hotels)
were asked to rate the magnitude of employee turnover in their respective hotel.

Accordingly majority of the respondents rated that the rate of turnover as a high and very high
with av. mean value of 4.42. With regard to department specific turnover, Food & Beverage-
Kitchen (Kitchen) (4.7), Food & Beverage-service (Service) (4.3), Front office (4.3) and Spa
(4.4) mean values. One way ANOVA was also calculated to see if there is significant difference
among the departments towards the rate of turnover in their hotel. Accordingly the result shows
the difference is not statistically significant at α= 0.05 (P value of 0.533.) This implies that
majority of the respondents had similar perception regarding the presence of high turnover rate in
their respective hotels.

In addition to the perception of the respondents towards rate of employee turnover, documents
were reviewed to investigate the rate of turnover among professional employees of the target
hotel and resorts. Analysis was conducted from January 2016 to December 2016(12 months).
The table below (table 4.2B) shows the number of employees who were in the payroll and those
who left in the particular time zone.

Table 4.2 B Turnover rate of professional employees of the target Hotels from Jan. 2016-Dec. 2016

S.N Name of the No. professional No. of employees % of turnover

employees who were who left the hotels
employed b/n Jan. b/n Jan. 2016-Dec.
2016-Dec. 2016 2016
1 Haile Resort 87 23 26.4
2 Lewi Resort 56 21 37.5
3 South Star Int. Hotel 67 31 46
Total 210 75 35.7
(Source: respective hotels’ HR departments)
32
From the total professional employees which were 210, the turnover rate ranged from 27% to
46% during the specific period. The interview conducted with the HR managers and deputy
managers also reported that they were experiencing high turnover rate between the specified
periods. Both the perceived and observed data shows that there is high turnover rate in the
sample hotel and resorts.

Table 4.2 C Turnover rate by department as rated by the respondents

S.N Department Professional employees who left Percent

b/n Jan. 2016-Dec. 2016
1 Kitchen 28 25.7
2 Service 41 37.6
3 Front office 26 23.9
4 Spa 15 12.8
Total 110 100.0
(Source: Survey data 2017)

Participants were also asked to identify which department was experiencing high turnover rate.
As many of the respondents 41 (37.6 %) reported that department of Food and Beverage- Service
experienced higher turnover. This finding is also supported, by the document analysis conducted.
As it is found out from the document, the total employees who had left the organization from
January 2016-December 2016, 39.4 % of them from Food & Beverage-service department. This
implies that waiters and waiters took the highest in number in leaving their jobs.

Table 4.2 D Turnover rate by moth as rated by the respondents

S.N Month Frequency Percent

1 Sep-Nov 53 48.2
2
Dec-Feb 25 22.7
3
March-May 16 14.5
4
June-Aug 15 13.6
Total 110 100.0
(Source: Survey data 2017)

It was also tried to identify during which month did to the hotels and resorts experience high
turnover. As it is shown in the table, most of the respondents 53 (48.2 %) reported that there is
higher turnover rate between the months of September to November. However the document
analysis showed, there were high turnover rate between the months of December – February. The
document analysis conducted also confirmed that it was between the months of December-
February. This difference may be due to the limitation of the respondents remembering the actual
season of higher turnover rate.

33
4.2.2 Employee Turnover Intention
Intention to leave is referred to the employee‟s intention of leaving the organization they are
currently employed (Cho, Johanson & Guchait, 2009). It is defined as employee‟s willingness or
attempts to leave the current workplace voluntarily.

Table4. 3 Turnover Intention as Perceived by the respondents:

S.N Item Department N Mean Sig.

1 Seriously considering leaving current job Kitchen 17 4.1765 .934

Service 37 4.1892
front office 29 4.0690
Spa 27 4.1852
Total 110 4.1545
2 Frequently scan newspaper & job posts kitchen 17 4.2941 .430
service 37 4.0811
front office 29 4.2414
Spa 27 4.4444
Total 110 4.2455
3 Likely of leaving the current organization kitchen 17 4.0000 .574
service 37 4.0000
front office 29 4.1724
Spa 27 4.3333
Total 110 4.1273
.684
4 Leaving the job as soon as I get any other kitchen 17 2.3544
job service 37 2.4443
front office 29 2.0336
Spa 27 2.7006
Total 110 2.3831
5 Other workers usually talks about kitchen 17 3.5294 .314
leaving the organization service 37 4.0541
front office 29 4.0000
Spa 27 3.7778
Total 110 3.8909
Total
3.7602
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3 Source: Survey data 2017

34
In this regarded the research participants were asked to rate their agreement –disagreement level,
regarding their possibility of leaving their current organization soon. As it is depicted on table
4.3 item 1, majority of the respondents, with the av. mean value of 4.15 reported that they were
seriously considering leaving their current job. Among the department, kitchen 4.17, Service 4.1,
Front office 4.06 and Spa 4.18 mean scores, replied that they were seriously considers their
current job.

The second item on the same table is tried to assess the respondents‟ practical intention to leave,
whether they frequently scan news paper and job posts. As it is observed in the table majority of
the respondents with av. mean value of 4.24, agreed and strongly agreed that they frequently
scan news paper and job posts by aiming at searching a new job. This implies that majority of the
respondents‟ desire to leave has already moved to concrete decision of searching for a new job.

Among the departments, the mean score ranges from 4.08 of Service department to the highest –
mean value 4 .44 of Spa department.

The third item tries to investigate the likely of the respondents leaving their current organization
soon. Accordingly majority of the participants were agreed or strongly agreed with the av. mean
value of 4.12 that they thought that there was a highly possibility of leaving their job. Among the
group, the mean value is between 4.0 Kitchen and service to mean value of 4.38 of Spa.

The fourth item tries to investigate the respondents‟ determination of leaving their current
organization and their profession too. In this regarded majority of research participants did not
have the intention of leaving their profession and they showed their disagreement with the av.
mean value of 2.38. This implies majority of the respondents seems happy with the content or
type of job they were working.

The respondents were also asked to rate their colleagues intention to leave. As item 5, tries to
measure if other worker usually talks about leaving their current organization. As it is depicted in
the table above, majority of the respondents agreed with av. mean value of 3.89 that most of
other workers also had higher intention to leave their current organization.

One way ANOVA was also computed with help of SPSS version 20 if the mean difference
existed in each item among the departments statistically significant, hence result showed that the
mean difference is not statistically significant at α=0.05. This implies that there was no
perception difference on the intention of turnover among the departments.

Generally, as it discussed above in most of the issues related to turnover intention, majority of
the participants had higher intention to leave their current organization, which implies there is
either a missing element in their works environment or a very high attractive environment in
other organization in the same industry.

35
4.2.3 Internal Causes for Turnover Intention
This part of the analysis tries to identify what major internal factors that are pushing the
employees intend to leave their current organization. The internal factors to turnover are many
and complicated but the study tried to focus five major variables which were used by which
includes co-workers relationship, work environment, salary and benefits, job satisfaction and
organizational commitment (Lee, Huang & Zhao, 2012). The instrument were standardized
which were constructed by Clegg, 1983; Karsh, Booske, and Sainfort, 2005. In the following
table each variables or factors are presented, and analyzed to see if they are the main reason in
the context of this study

4.2.3.1 Co-worker Relationship

Coworker relationship is defined as to what extent employees works in friendly environment,

and to what extent employees get support from their colleagues as well as from their supervisor
(Lee, Huang and Zhoo, 2012).

In this regard participants were asked to put their agreement- disagreement level, whether the co-
worker relationship affects their turnover intention.

Accordingly, as it is seen in table 4.4 majority of the respondents disagreed and strongly
disagreed on the item „co-workers are not friendly‟ with the av. mean value of 2.22. As it is seen
from the table, the score among the groups, the mean value range from 1.88 of Kitchen to 2.40 of
Front office.

The second item tries to investigate, if the respondents did not get support from their coworkers.
As it is shown, the majority of the respondents did not agree for the items „coworkers do not
support me at work‟ with av. mean value of 2.39. This implies that there is good cooperation
among the workers in the hotels.

The third item tries to identify whether respondents did not get support from their supervisor at
work. As it is shown in the table, more than half of the respondents disagreed for the proposition
presented with average mean value of 2.21. Department wise Kitchen department respondents
rated the item mean value of 1.94, the Service, (waiter and waitress) rated the issue 2.27 mean
value, the Front office workers rated it 2.48 and finally the Spa department workers rated the
issue 2.21 mean value. This data implies that majority of the workers in the target hotels received
good level of support from their supervisors.

The fourth and fifth item tries to investigate if the respondents did not have good interaction with
their co-workers and supervisor respectively. Accordingly as it is depicted on table 4.3, item 4,
the research participates disagreed for the notion they had no good interaction with their co-
workers with average mean value of 2.32. Similar most of the research participants responded
that they didn‟t believe that their intention to leave is not related to their interaction with their

36
supervisor with the average mean value of 2.32. These data implies that majority of the workers
enjoyed good interaction among their colleagues as well as with their supervisors.

Table 4.4 Co-workers Relationship as a factor for turnover intention

S.N Item Departme N Mean Sig

nt
1 Coworkers are not friendly Kitchen 17 1.8824 .486
Service 37 2.4054
front office 29 2.2414
Spa 27 2.1852
Total 110 2.2273
2 Coworkers do not support me at work Kitchen 17 1.9412 .296
Service 37 2.6216
front office 29 2.3103
Spa 27 2.4444
Total 110 2.3909
3 My supervisor do not support me in Kitchen 17 1.8235
.238

work Service 37 2.2703

front office 29 2.4828
Spa 27 2.1111
Total 110 2.2182
4 I do not have good interaction with my Kitchen 17 1.9412 .437
coworkers Service 37 2.2973
front office 29 2.4483
Spa 27 2.4815
Total 110 2.3273
5 .260
I do not have good interaction with my Kitchen 17 2.1765
supervisor Service 35 2.5143
front office 29 1.9310
Spa 27 2.2222
Total 108 2.2315
Total 2.274
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3 Source: Survey data 2017

One way ANOVA was also calculated to see if the existing mean difference among the groups is
statistically significant. Accordingly the result showed that the difference is not statistically
significant at α=0.05 which implies that there were no variation among the group in relation to
the point discussed.

37
Generally it can be inferred from the above data, majority of the respondents did not believe that
co-workers relationship as a factor for their intention to leave their current organization, which
implies that the both collegial and supervisory relationship in the hotels was healthy and friendly.

4.2.3.3 Work Environment

Another frequently mentioned variable that contributes for high turnover intention and actual
turnover in many organizations, including in the hotel industry is the work environment of the
organization. It refers that, to what extent the workers have sufficient freedom to perform their
duty, to what extent they are provided with the necessary equipments and tools, the presence of
healthy work environment, performance expectation and the general policy of the of the
organization. In addition to this the location of the location of the hotel also included as
determining variable of work environment (Curtis & Wright, 2004; Lema & Durendez, 2007).

In this regard the respondents were asked to rate their agreement -disagreement level based on
the above assumptions of work environment, whether the factor listed made them to think about
leaving their current organization. Accordingly as it is depicted in item 1, 2 and 3 of table 4.5
above, the respondents were asked that if they don‟t have enough freedom to perform their duty,
absence of the necessary equipment and tools, and whether the hotels were not providing them a
health work environment. More than half of the respondents did not agree with preposition
presented with the av. mean value of 2.17, 2.30 and 2.08 respectively. This implies that the
hotels under study provide sufficient freedom to their employees as well as provide the necessary
equipment for their workers.

A one way ANOVA was calculated and it showed that the difference existed is not statistically
significant at α=0.05, which implies that majority of the respondents did not report that work
environment as their major reason for their intention to leave.

The fourth item is about whether the hotels‟ unrealistic expectation of performance and the
general policy of the hotels was their major reason for their intention to leave. Accordingly
majority of the respondents reported that unrealistic expectation of work environment and the
general policy of the hotel they were working was one of their major reasons for them to intent to
leave with av. mean. 3.17. To see if there is significant difference among the departments
regarding the issue, one way ANOVA was calculate and resulted p= 0.772, at α=0.05 implies the
difference is not statistically significant.

The last item in this table tries to discuss if the location the hotel contributed to their intention to
leave their job. As it is seen in the table majority the respondents did not agree on the issue, with
the av. mean score of 2.40. Among the departments, the scale seems similar which ranges from
2.17 mean score of Kitchen to 2.48 mean score of Service departments. This implies that
majority of the respondents were comfortable with the location of the hotel. The one way

38
ANOVA result showed that the mean difference among the departments is not statistically
significant at α= 0.05.

Table 4.5 Work Environment as a factor for turnover intention

S.N Item Department N Mean Sig

1 I do not have enough freedom to Kitchen 17 1.9412 .773

perform my duty Service 37 2.2432
front office 29 2.2414
Spa 27 2.1481
Total 110 2.1727
2 I do not have the necessary equipment Kitchen 17 1.8824 .143
& tools Service 37 2.1892
front office 29 2.7241
Spa 27 2.2963
Total 110 2.3091
3 The hotel does not provide me an Kitchen 17 1.8235 .533
healthy work environment Service 37 2.0541
front office 29 2.3448
Spa 27 2.0000
Total 110 2.0818
4 Unrealistic expectation of work Kitchen 17 3.1632 .772
performance & policy of the hotel Service 37 3.2686
front office 28 3.1543
Spa 27 3.1023
Total 109 3.1721
5 The location of the hotel is not Kitchen 17 2.1765 .861
comfortable Service 37 2.4865
front office 29 2.4483
Spa 27 2.4074
Total 110 2.4091
Total
2.4289
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3 Source: Survey data 2017
Generally as it is clearly seen from the data obtained from the research respondents, work
environment was not the major reason for intention to quit their job or organization, with over all
av. mean score of 2.42.

Although some research findings revealed that organizations‟ work environment as the major
factor for many employees intention to quit their job (Curtis & Wright, 2004; Lema & Durendez,
39
2007, Lee, Huang and Zhoo, 2012).The data obtained in the sample did not support it, which is
may be due to the fact that the hotels are well equipped with necessary equipment and facilities
and provides enough freedom to their employees. However among the elements of work
environment majority of the respondents reported that unrealistic expectation of work
performance and the general policy of the hotels as their major reason to intent to leave.

4.2.3.3. Salary and other Benefit Packages

In this point of the study it is tried to present, analyze and interpret data obtained from the
respondents whether the salary and benefit packages the organization providing was a major
factor for their intention to leave. Accordingly four items related to salary and benefit packages
were presented.

Table 4.6 Salary & Benefits as a factor for turnover intention

S.N Item Department N Mean Sig.

1 Not satisfied with the salary Kitchen 17 4.5294 .571

Service 37 4.3514
front office 29 4.1379
Spa 27 4.2963
Total 110 4.3091
2 The benefit system is not very Kitchen 17 3.9412 .487
good Service 37 4.1081
front office 29 4.0690
Spa 27 3.7037
Total 110 3.9727
3 The transport facility is poor Kitchen 17 2.4706 .796
Service 37 2.3514
front office 29 2.4483
Spa 27 2.6667
Total 110 2.4727
4 No incentive mechanism for Kitchen 17 3.8824 .750
additional or good performance Service 37 3.8108
front office 29 3.9310
Spa 27 3.6296
Total 110 3.8091
Total 3.6409
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3 Source: Survey data 2017

As it is shown item 1, of table 4.6, the majority of the respondents reported that they were not
satisfied with the salary that they not getting, with av. mean value of 4.30. The second item also
40
tries to see if the benefit system that they are getting is as not a good one. As it is depicted in the
same table, the majority of the respondents agreed for the motion‟‟ the benefit system is not very
good with average mean scale of 3.97. This implies that the inadequacy of the salary and benefit
packages were one of the pushing factor for turnover intention of the employees under the study.

Item three tries to check if the transport facility that the hotels were providing is poor so that
forced the respondent to think about leaving there organization. Accordingly as it is reviled in the
table 4.6 the transport service being provided was not the pushing factor for their intention to
quit, with the av. mean value of 2.47. The mean score of individual departments also ranges from
2.35 to 2.66.

The last item in this table is about existing incentive mechanisms for additional work and good
performance was not the good one and led the respondents to intent to leave. As it is seen from
the table with av. mean score of 3.8, majority of the respondents reported that the incentive
system was not a good one which implies that it is one of the pushing factor for higher turnover
intention existed in the target hotels and resorts.

Generally, as it is depicted in the table 4.6, majority the respondents reported that the existing
salary level and benefit package was considered as the major factor for higher turnover intention
with the overall av. mean score 3.64. This finding is similarly to (Lee, Huang and Zhoo, 2012)
they reported that one of the major factors for higher turnover intention and actual turnover is the
pursuit of to better salary and benefits package.

4.2.3.4 Jobs Satisfaction

It known that job satisfaction of employees is a function of many variables. However this study
is not aiming at verifying this proposition, rather to identify to what extent the employees‟
dissatisfaction led to intent to leave their current job.

Accordingly, participants were asked to rate their agreement-disagreement level whether they do
not like their job or not. As it is observed in table 4.7, item 1 majority of the respondents reported
that they decided to leave their job because they did not like it with the av. mean score of 3.69.
Among the departments, Kitchen, Service, Front office and Spa scored mean value of 3.76, 3.72,
3.79 and 3.48 respectively. Finally one way ANOVA was calculated to check whether the mean
difference is statistically significant and as it seen in the table below with P-value of 0.678
(α=0.05) the difference is not statistically significant.

41
The second item tries to verify if the respondents were satisfied with the current job they were
engaged. As it is seen from the same table above the av. Mean score of 3.69 revealed that more
than half of the respondents were not satisfied with their current job.
Table 4.7 Job satisfaction as a factor for turnover intention
S.N Item Department N Mean Sig

1 Do not like the job Kitchen 17 3.7647 .678

Service 37 3.7297
front office 29 3.7931
Spa 27 3.4815
Total 110 3.6909
2 Not satisfied with the job Kitchen 17 4.0000 .614
Service 37 3.7838
front office 29 3.9310
Spa 27 4.1111
Total 110 3.9364
3 Do not like working in the hotel Kitchen 17 3.8235 .337
Service 37 3.5676
front office 29 3.3103
Spa 27 3.2222
Total 110 3.4545
Total
3.8169
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3 Source: Survey data 2017
The last item in the same table presents about whether the participants like working in the current
hotel. As it is observed from the table with av. mean score of 3.45 implies that many of the
participants did not like working in their current organization. One way ANOVA test was
calculated to see if the observed mean difference among the group in each item is statistically
significant Accordingly as it is seen the mean difference is not statistically significant at α= 0.05
Generally as it is observed from the table below, majority of the respondents reported that one of
the major reasons for their intention to quit their job is due to low job satisfaction (over av. mean
av. score of 3.89). This finding is also supported by (Handelsman ,2009)
4.2.3.5 Organizational Commitment
The last variable presented under internal factor to employee turnover intention is organizational
commitment of employees. Many research findings in the area assert that the lower
organizational commitment leads to higher turnover intention and actual turnover. In this regard
this study also tried to analyze how the employees‟ level of organizational commitment
contributed to their higher intention to leave their current job.
42
Table 4.8 Organizational Commitment as a factor for turnover intention

S.N Item Department N Mean Sig

1 I Often tell to friends that the hotel I Kitchen 17 2.4706 .093
am working is not very good one
Service 37 2.9189
front office 29 3.1379
Spa 27 2.5926
Total 110 2.7800
2 I am not willing to accept additional work Kitchen 17 3.5882 .512
assignment
Service 37 3.6757
front office 29 3.4828
Spa 27 3.2222
Total 110 3.5000
3 I am not comfortable with the policies of the Kitchen 17 3.6471 .334
hotel towards employees
Service 37 3.8108
front office 29 3.5172
Spa 27 3.2593
Total 110 3.5727
4 I cannot see any future if I continue in this Kitchen 17 3.4118 .143
hotel
Service 37 3.7027
front office 29 2.9655
Spa 27 3.1852
Total 110 3.3364
5 It is wrong to stay in this hotel Kitchen 17 2.7059 .218
Service 37 2.3243
front office 29 2.9655
Spa 27 2.7778
Total 110 2.6636
6 I am not willing to help the development of Kitchen 16 2.6250 .152
the hotel
Service 37 2.7027
front office 29 2.1034
Spa 27 2.0741
Total 109 2.3761
7 I do not care about the future development Kitchen 17 1.8235 .004
of the hotel
Service 37 2.6486
front office 29 2.0000
Spa 27 2.1111
Total 110 2.2182
Total 2.9209
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3 Source: Survey data 2017

43
Accordingly seven questions were presented to the participants to rate their agreement-
disagreement level. Item 1 tries to verify whether they tell to their friends that the hotel that they
were working was not the very good one. Majority of the respondents showed their disagreement
with the av. mean score of 2.78.

The 2nd & the 3rd items try to discuss if the respondents were not willing to accept additional
responsibility and if the respondents were not comfortable with the existing policy towards the
employees. Accordingly majority of the respondents showed their unwillingness to accept
additional responsibility with av. mean score of 3.5 and reported that the uncomfortable policies
of the organization with av. mean score of 3.57

The fourth item tries to check if they really see future professional advancement opportunity in
their current organization. Accordingly as it is depicted in table 4.8, majority of the respondents
reported that they do not see further professional development opportunity in their current
organization with av. mean score of 3.33.

The fifth item is about if they really think that it was wrong to stay in their current organization.
In this regard more than half of the respondents did not agree with the presented notion with the
av. mean score of 2.66 . This implies that most of the respondents might have some hope with
their current organization for improvement.

The six and the seventh item of table 4.8 above tries to identify to what extent the respondents
were willing to participate and cares about the future development of their organization.
Accordingly, as it is depicted majority of them disagreed with the idea that „they were not
willing to help the development of their organization‟ and weather they did not care about the
future development of their organization, with av. mean score of 2.37 and 2.21 respectively. This
implies that the majority of the existing staff was still willing to work with the organization if
some conditions are improved.

One way ANOVA is also computed if the mean difference existed in each item statistically
significant. Accordingly, except the last item, in all of the items the mean difference is not
statistically significant. In the last item, although the mean score is below 2.5 the statistical test
showed the difference is statistically significant at P-value of 0.04, (α= 0.05).This may be due to
perception difference among the groups.

The interview conducted with HR mangers and deputy general managers in relation to the
organizational related factors also found out similar results. The managers were asked to share
the major internal factors to employees‟ turnover intention. Accordingly most of the managers
frequently mentioned salary and benefit as the major factor. In addition to salary and benefits,
they mentioned work load and scheduling as pushing factor for the employees intention to leave.

44
Generally when we see the overall av. mean score of respondents towards organizational
commitment, which is 2.92, majority of the participants had strong organizational commitment
and from this it can be inferred that, organizational commitment was not their major issue on the
process of their intention to leave their job.

4.2.4 External Factors to Turnover Intention

Apart from internal factors, many research findings revealed that external factors such as the
influence of other similar organizations and the geographic location and the socio economic
setting of the organization have been cited as external factors to higher turnover intention and
actual turnover. In this regard this study tried to investigate to what extent the influence of other
similar hotels and the physical and socio-cultural setting of the hotels forced the respondents to
think to quit their current organization. Accordingly, the following two tables depict data related
to the points raised above.

4.2.4.1 The Influence of Other Similar Hotels

Under chapter one it has been already discussed that the presence of skilled manpower in hotel
industry remained as one of the biggest challenges. Because of this it highly suspected that there
is a high probability completion among similar hotels to get highly qualified and experienced
professionals.

In this regard the respondents were asked if the external market as well as well coordinated
management practice in other hotels pushed them to intent to leave.

As it is seen in item one & two o table 4.9 below respondents were asked if salary system &
benefit packages of other similar hotels was influencing factor for higher turnover intention.
Accordingly, as it is seen, majority of the respondents reported that better salary & benefit
package system as the major factor for high employee turnover intention with av. mean score of
3.76 and 3.69 respectively.

The 3rd and the 4th items‟ of the same table above, tries to see if the overall management and
organizational policy of other similar hotels was better and pushed them to intent to leave.
Accordingly, as it is observed from the data, table 4.9, more than half of the participants agreed
that better and well coordinated management system and better human resource policy of other
similar hotels, as among the major factors to higher turnover intention with av. mean score of
3.07 and 3.77 respectively.

45
Table 4.9 The Influence of other similar hotels as a factor for turnover intention
S.N Item Department N Mean Sig.

1 Better salary in other similar Kitchen 17 4.1765 .157

hotels & resorts Service 35 3.5429
front office 29 3.9655
Spa 27 3.5926
Total 108 3.7685
2 Better benefits in other similar Kitchen 17 3.5294 .252
hotels & resorts Service 36 3.9167
front office 29 3.8276
Spa 27 3.3704
Total 109 3.6972
.337
3 Better & well coordinated Kitchen 17 3.1706
management system in other Service 37 3.0216
similar hotels & resorts front office 29 2.9621
Spa 27 3.1333
Total 110 3.0719
4 Suitable organizational policy Kitchen 17 4.0000 .444
for workers Service 36 3.8889
front office 29 3.6897
Spa 27 3.5556
Total 109 3.7706
Total
3.5770
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3 (Source: Survey data 2017)

One way ANOVA was also calculated to see the observed mean score difference among the
departments is statistically significant. As it seen from the table the mean difference is not
statistically significant at α 0.05 which implies that the groups had more or less similar
perception towards the issue presented.

Generally as it is observed from the data in table 4.9 the influence of other similar hotel with
better salary and benefit package and organizational system considered as the major pulling
factor the for existing employees with overall mean av. score of 3.57. This finding is also similar
with the findings of (Zhao and Zhou, 2008) that they reported that the high remuneration system
and attractive human resources policy as the major reason for many employees to intent to leave.

46
4.2.4.2 The Influence of Geographic Location and Socio cultural Context

In addition to the influence of similar organizations in the industry, the geographic location and
the socio-cultural context o the hotels are sometimes mentioned as a major factor for higher
turnover intention and actual turnover.

Table 4.10 The Geographic location & socio-cultural context of the hotels as major factors for turnover intention
S. Item Departmen N Mean Sig.
N t
1 The geographic location of my Kitchen 17 2.6471 .519
place of employment not Service 37 2.4054
comfortable front office 29 2.2069
Spa 27 2.2593
Total 110 2.3545
2 The level of infrastructure is poor Kitchen 17 1.9412 .395
Service 37 2.3784
front office 28 2.4286
Spa 27 2.1852
Total 109 2.2752
3 The level of crime is high Kitchen 17 2.1765 .428
Service 36 2.3889
front office 28 2.2143
Spa 27 1.9259
Total 108 2.1944
4 The quality of social service is Kitchen 17 1.8824 .697
not good Service 36 2.2222
front office 29 2.0345
Spa 27 1.9630
Total 109 2.0550
5 The people who lives in my Kitchen 17 2.3529 .785
neighborhood are not friendly Service 37 2.2703
front office 29 2.0690
Spa 26 2.1923
Total 109 2.2110
Total
2.2180
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3 (Source: Survey data 2017)

In this regard the respondents were asked in item 1and 2 whether the geographic location of the
hotels they were working and the level of infrastructure was their major reason to intent to leave.

47
As it is seen from the table, majority of the participants replied that both factors were not really
their problems with av. mean score of 2.53 and 2.27 respectively.

The third item in table 4.10 above tries to investigate if the level of crime in the area that the
respondents were working contributed to their decision to think about leaving. The av. Mean
score obtained from the respondents reviled that it was not really the case in their work area with
av. mean value of 2.19. The fourth item tries to verify that the quality of the social service
available around their organization pushed them to think quit their current organization. As it is
observed from the data majority of the respondents did not consider much as their factor for their
higher turnover intention with the av. mean score 2.0

The last item tries to identify if the socio-cultural context of their workplace contributed to their
higher intent to leave their current job. As it is seen, from the table, table 4.11 majority of the
respondents disagreed about the idea presented with the av. mean score of 2.21

One way ANOVA was also computed to check if the existing mean difference among the groups
in each item is statistically significant. As it is depicted in the table, the result showed that the
mean difference is not statistically significant at α=0.05

4.2.5 Effects of High Turnover on the Existing Employees and performance of the Hotels

This section of the study tries analyzing the effect of high turnover on the existing staff and on
the quality of service being provided by the target hotels. Accordingly the following two tables
present and analyze data obtained from the research participants.

4.2.5.1 The Effects of High turnover on the Existing Staff

It usually assumed that when there is high turnover in an organization there will be a emotional
as well as task related burden on the remaining staff. In this regard the respondents were asked
how do they fill and in what way they react when employees or their coworkers leave the
organization.

In item 1 and 2 the respondents were asked if they felt that it was only them remaining in the
organization and if they decrease their work interest and motivation when employees leave the
organization. For these two items the respondents reported that they felt low self esteem and
decreased work motivation with the av. mean score of 3.22 and 3.61 respectively. This result
implies that the existence of high employee turnover negatively affects staff motivation.

The third item tries to assess whether the respondents react to search for a new job when they
observe high turnover in their organization. As it seen from the table below majority of the

48
respondents witnessed that they themselves start looking a new job when employees leave with
av. mean score of 4.11.

Table 4.11 Effect of high turnover on the Existing Staff

S. Item Departmen N Mean Sig.
N t
1 I feel that it is only me Kitchen 17 3.1765 .397
remaining in the hotel Service 37 3.2973
front office 28 2.9286
Spa 27 3.4815
Total 109 3.2294
2 I decrease my work interest Kitchen 17 3.6471 .292
& motivation Service 37 3.8919
front office 29 3.4483
Spa 27 3.4074
Total 110 3.6182
3 I start looking for other hotel Kitchen 17 3.8235 .358
Service 37 3.6216
Front office 29 3.3448
Spa 27 3.2593
Total 110 3.4909
4 I feel that I cannot leave b/c Kitchen 17 2.5882 .122
I am incompetent Service 37 2.5405
Front office 29 2.7931
Spa 27 2.1111
Total 110 2.5091
5 I feel that more tasks will be Kitchen 17 4.2353 .017
added on me Service 37 3.9459
front office 29 3.3448
Spa 27 3.8148
Total 110 3.8000
Total
3.3295
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3 (Source: Survey data 2017)

The last item in this table tries to analyze to what extent the existing high employee turnover
increased work burden on other employees. In this regard majority of the participants revealed
that the existence of high staff turnover was adding more burden on them with av. mean score of
4.23.

49
One way ANOVA was also computed to if there is statistically significant difference among the
group on the effect of employee turnover on the existing staff, the test result showed the mean
difference is not statistically significant which implies that the respondents had similar
observation on the issues.

Other researchers on the area also support this finding. For example(Lee, Huang and Zhoo,2012)
reported that higher turnover rate usually affects the motivation of the remaining staff due to the
development of negative self image as well as an increase work burden on the remaining staff.

The interview conducted with general managers and HR mangers of the target hotels also
revealed similar result. As the three of HR mangers reported majority of staff are unhappy when
their colleagues left the hotel mainly due to the expectation of additional work load until
replacement is made.
4.2.5.2 The Effects of Staff Turnover on the Quality of the service being provided
It is obvious that when an employee is missed from her/his duty both the volume and the quality
of the work are affected.

In this regard the participants were asked to rate their agreement-disagreement level whether the
quality. Item one tries to examine whether the capacity of the hotels was affected due to the
existing high staff turnover. As it is observed from table 4.12 below, majority of the respondents
did not think that the capacity of the hotel they were working was limited due to staff turnover
with an av. mean score of 2.63.

However the interview conducted with hotel mangers and HR managers of the target hotels
reported that sometimes their service were significantly affected when key professionals left,
particularly when specialized cooks left.

The second item tries to examine if additional job burden was experienced due to high staff
turnover. In this regard majority of the participants reported that high task burden affects the
remaining staff with the av. mean score of 3.98

Item 3, 4 and 5 tries to examine to what extent customers were affected by the existing high
turnover as perceived by the respondents. Accordingly the majority of the respondents reported
that customers wait unnecessarily longer time, unhappy by the service being provided and
experience inconsistent service with av. mean score of 3.92, 3.50 and 3.40 respectively

One way ANOVA is also computed to see if there is statistically significant difference among
the group on the issue presented. Accordingly the result is confirmed that the mean difference is
not statistically significant at α 0.05 which implies that there is no perception difference among
the group regarding the effect of employee turnover on the quality of service.

50
Table 4.12 The Effect of higher turnover rate on the quality of service being provided
S. Item Departmen N Mean Sig
N t
1 The hotel is not Kitchen 17 2.5882 .846
providing its full service Service 37 2.6757
front office 29 2.5172
Spa 27 2.7407
Total 110 2.6364
2 There is high burden on Kitchen 17 4.1176 .750
the remaining staff Service 37 4.0541
front office 29 3.8966
Spa 27 3.8889
Total 110 3.9818
.551
3 Customers await for Kitchen 17 3.6471
unnecessarily longer Service 37 3.6486
time to get the right front office 29 3.5517
service Spa 26 4.9231
Total 109 3.9266
4 Customers are Kitchen 17 3.8235 .324
unhappy for the service Service 37 3.6486
they are getting front office 29 3.3793
Spa 26 3.2308
Total 109 3.5046
5 Customers usually Kitchen 17 3.1176 .448
experience inconsistent Service 37 3.6216
satisfaction of the front office 29 3.4138
service Spa 27 3.2963
Total 110 3.4091
Total
3.4917
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3 (Source: Survey data 2017)

The data obtained through interview also showed a similar finding. As the three of deputy
managers and HR mangers of the sampled hotels reported that the service quality and customer
satisfaction is affected due to high staff turnover. As they reported the recruitment and training
process takes much time and during this time the service quality and customer satisfaction was
being affected.
From the above discussion it can be inferred that the existing higher turnover rate affected the
target hotels and resorts in their service quality and customer satisfaction. The finding of this
study is also similar with (Lee, Huang and Zhoo,2012).

51
4.2.6 Major Strategies used to Retain Best Employees

Table 4.13 Major strategies used by the target hotels to retain best employees
S. Item Department N Mean Sig.
N
1 Making the job more kitchen 17 2.4706 .694
secured service 37 2.4324
front office 29 2.1724
Spa 27 2.3333
Total 110 2.3455
2 Providing better salary & kitchen 17 2.0000 .180
benefit packages service 37 2.0811
front office 29 2.4828
Spa 27 2.3333
Total 110 2.2364
3 Providing convenient kitchen 17 4.1765 .264
transport service service 37 4.0541
front office 29 3.7931
Spa 27 4.0000
Total 110 3.9909
4 Good location of the hotel kitchen 17 3.8824 .405
service 37 3.9459
front office 29 3.7931
Spa 27 4.1111
Total 110 3.9364
5 Arranging training and kitchen 17 2.0588 .998
scholarship service 37 2.0811
front office 29 2.0690
Spa 27 2.0370
Total 110 2.0636
6 Convenient organizational kitchen 17 1.8824 .127
management and system service 37 2.7297
& work policy front office 29 2.2759
Spa 27 2.5185
Total 110 2.4273
Total
2.1682
Mean difference significant at p < 0.05 , df 3(Source: Survey data 2017)

52
Many research works on the area of employee turnover and turnover intention recommended
different strategies that help managers and organizations to retain their best performing
employees.

In this regard the respondents were asked what strategies their organizations employed to retain
their employees. Accordingly as it is depicted in table 4.13 item1, which investigate to what
extent the hotels make the job secured as a strategy to retain employees? In this regard majority
of the respondents reported that their hotels did not use it as a strategy to retain employees with
av. means score of 2.34. The second item tries to examine if their organization used better salary
schema and benefit packages as a strategy to retain best employees. As it is seen from the data
most of the respondents did not agree with the notion presents with av. mean score of 2.2.3. This
implies that the hotels under the study had limitation of retaining best employees through
attractive salary, benefit packages and job security.

The interview conducted with top and middle level managers of the target hotels however,
revealed that they believed that were trying to retain best employees by both making the job
more secured and by instav.ing attractive salary and benefit packages. This difference may be
existed due to either higher expectation of the employees or the relative capacity of the hotels.

Item 3 & 4 of table 4.13 tries to examine further if the hotels under the study provide transport
service as well as hotels‟ location helped them to retain their employees. In this regard, majority
of the respondents reported that the hotels that they were working tried to retain their employees
by providing transport service and the location of the hotels also contributed positively with av.
mean score of 3.99 & 3.93 respectively.

The last item tries to analyze to what extent the hotels under the study used training and
scholarship as a strategy to retain their best employees. In this regard majority of the respondents
replied that the hotels do not use training and scholarship as a strategy to retain best employees
with av. means score of 2.0. This implies the hotels under the study had big limitation in
providing training and scholarship for their limitation.

One way ANOVA was also computed to see the mean difference existed statistically significant
and as the test shows the mean difference is not statistically significant implying that there is
similar perception towards retention strategy of the hotels at α 0.05

In this regard the hotel managers also witnessed that they had limitation in the area of training
and scholarship as a strategy to retain their best employees.

Generally from the above discussion it can be inferred that the hotels and resorts under the study
has limitation of retaining best employees except facilitation of transport service and relative
advantage of their location
53
 CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS, CONCLUSION &
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of the Major Findings
The general objective of this research project was to examine the status of employee turnover
and turnover intention and finding out the major factor for turnover intention in selected Four
Star hotels found in Hawassa to achieve the above objectives four research questions were
raised.

In order to answer those basic questions, questionnaires, document analysis, and interview were
used as data collecting tools. The subjects of this study were hotel professional in the selected
four star hotels, namely cooks, waitress/waiters front office workers, spa professionals
department heads, HR managers and deputy hotel managers. Descriptive research method was
employed to explain the issue under study. To select the hotels availability sampling technique
was used since the number of four star hotels in the city were few in number. Respondents,
particularly cooks, waiters, front office and spa workers were selected using stratified random
sampling systematic random sampling. Department heads, HR and deputy managers were
selected using purposive sampling technique. Some theoretical and empirical works were also
reviewed from different sources and discussed under second chapter of this study.

Depending on the nature of the data, different statistical tools were used. Thus percentage,
means, and one way ANOVA were employed throughout the study. Accordingly, the major
findings of the study are summarized below.

54
Major Findings

5.1.1 The Status of Actual Turnover and Intention to Turnover Rate

 Both the document review and perceived rate of the respondents reviled that there is high
turnover rate in the hotels under the study. Majority with av. mean score of 4.42 of the
respondents rated the rate of actual turnovers as high and very high. The document
analysis result also indicated the turnover rate ranged between 27% 46& between January
2016-December 2016
 The intention to turnover rate of the employees in the target hotels also found out as high.
According to the perceived measure of the participants‟ av. mean score of 3.46 implies
the presence of high turnover intention among the employees.

5.1.2 Internal Factors to turnover Intention

 Unattractive salary & benefit package (av. mean score 4.30 ),

 Lower job satisfaction (av. mean score 3.81 ),
 Poor incentive for good performance & additional work (av. mean score 3.80 ),
 Absence of training and scholarship opportunity (av. mean score 3.48 ),
 Unrealistic expectation of work performance & inconvenient organizational policy
towards employees (av. mean score 3.17 ),

5.1.3 External Factors to Turnover Intention

 Attractive salary system in other similar hotels and resorts (av. mean score 3.76 ),
 Better benefit packages in other similar hotels and resorts (av. mean score 3.69 ),
 Suitable organizational policy and well coordinated management system of other similar
organizations (av. mean score 3.4. ),were reported as a major external factors the
contributed to higher intention to turnover in the selected hotels and resorts

5.1.4 Effect of High turnover on the Existing Staff and on the Performance of the
Hotel
 The respondents reported that the presence of high turnover intention in the selected hotel
affected the motivation, work interest and self esteem of the existing staff with (av. mean
score 3.61 ),
 It was also reported that the presence of high turnover affected the quality & efficiency of
service being rendered by the hotels (av. mean score 3.92 ),
 The satisfaction of the customers was also affected due to the presence of high turnover
rate as perceived report of the respondents (av. mean score 3.40 ),

55
 5.1.5 Major Strategies Used to Retain Best Employees

According to the data obtained from the respondents, the hotels used the following strategy to
retain best employees
 By providing convenient transport system to all employees (av. mean score 3.93 ),
 By providing better salary and benefit packages to highly qualified and experienced
professionals and to department heads and supervisors as reported by the HR mangers
and deputy mangers.

56
 5.2Conclusion

Based on the major findings of the study it can be concluded that waiters/ waitress and cooks are
identified as the leading group in leaving their organization and many of the employees tend to
leave between the months of December to February. The existence of high actual turnover rate
and intention to leave is mainly due to unrealistic expectation of work performance from the
workers & inconvenient organizational policy towards employees, unattractive salary & benefit
package, absence of training and scholarship opportunity weak low job satisfaction of the
employees and absence of future career development programs of the hotels and resorts.

Other similar hotels attractive salary and benefit packages convenient organizational policy also
contributed for the increase of high turnover and turnover intention. The presence of high actual
turnover and intention to turnover is affected the service quality, efficiency and satisfactions of
the customers

Co-workers relationship and work environment (in terms of provision of the necessary
equipment, healthy work environment and presence of enough freedom to perform tasks) were
not considered as a major pushing factor to turnover intention among the employees of the
hotels.
With regard to retention of best employees the hotels in the study do not have clear & effective
strategy to retain their valuable employees.

57
 5.3Recommendation

Based on the major finding and conclusion made the following recommendations are forwarded
1. The managers and owners of the hotels most importantly should be aware of the high
prevalence of both actual turnover and intention to turn over among the existing
employees. To do so the HR department of respective hotels and resorts should organize
data in relation to the actual & intention to turnover and communicate the result to the
general managers as well as the owners. It is also important to conduct exist interview
focusing on why the employees determined to leave which gives the most accurate
answer for causes of employee turnover and make any adjustment in the policy of the
hotels under study.

2. Most employees reported that they were not happy with the high performance expectation
and tight scheduling of their organization. It is known that profitability of the hotel and
resort business is highly related to customer satisfaction which usually comes from
standardized service. To bring the required customer satisfaction well trained and
experienced workers should be hired and to decrease the burden of high work load more
number of workers should be hired. Therefore the managers and owners of the hotels
should revisit the organizational policies in relation to performance expectation,
scheduling and other personnel related issues.

3. Currently many big hotels and resorts are being opened in Hawassa city and other major
cities including Addis Ababa which makes getting well trained and experienced
professional competitive. These hotels definitely need and hunt the most experienced and
trained professionals in the area. Therefore, the managers and owners of the hotels should
design a mechanism to retain the best employees and revise the existing salary and
benefit system in order to retain their valuable employees as many new hotels are being
expanded in the city. Competitive salary schema in relation to the existing labor market
price should be adopted to retain best employees. Bonus and better service charge system
are widely applicable strategy in many international hotels which help both the
employees & employers to work for mutual benefit.

4. Another important mechanism to retain best performing employees is to arrange on and

off job training and scholarship programs both to improve the skill of the employees and
to satisfy their professional career needs. The managers and owners of the hotels should
devise consistent on job and off job trainings and scholarship that would develop the
existing staff skill as well as satisfaction level. The on job training can be given by
internal staffs that have better experience and skill without affecting the service of the
hotels. Off job training and also scholarship programs is also helpful to get the future
middle and top level managers.

58
5. The managers and owners of the hotels should design a workable professional
development opportunity for all employees to help them see advancement in their career
path. Apart from on job and off job training the respective hotel managers and owners
need to design a clear career development path to each position in each department. In
doing so employees can plan and aspire a certain professional position which probably
helps most employees to stay in a relatively longer time.

59
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66
 Annex 1

Hawassa University
College of Business & Economics
School of Management & Accounting
(Questionnaire to be filled by employees)

Dear respondents!

My name is Hiwot Demissie I’m MBA student in Hawassa University college of Business &
Economics. I’m conducting a research thesis entitled Causes and Effect of Employee
Turnover Intention and Retention Mechanisms in Selected Four Star Hotels in Hawassa
City. This questionnaire is designed to collect relevant data for the study.

The major objective of the study is to assess causes and effect of employee intention to quit their
jobs and retention mechanisms of the selected Four Star hotels in Hawassa City which is for the
partial fulfillment of Masters of Business Administration in Human Resource Management.
Therefore your genuine, timely and frank responses are vital to determine the success of this
study and you are kindly requested to contribute in the filling of the questions responsibly.

NB

 There is no need of writing your name

 All information you provide will be strictly kept confidential
 All data will be aggregated and will not be personalized

Part I. Demographic data

1. Sex 1. Male 2. Female
2. Age: 1. 20-24 2. 25-29 3. 30-34 4. 35-39 5. 40-44 6. >45
3. Marital Status 1. Single 2. Married 3. Divorce
4. Educational Level

1. TVET level I 2. TVET level II 3. TVET level III 4. TVET level IV

5. Diploma 6. 1st Degree 7. MA/Msc

5. Work Experience in the present organization in current position

1. < 2 years 2. 2-4 years 3. 5-7 years 4. > 8 years
6. Department you are working & Responsiblity _______________________

Page 1 of 6
Part II. Research Questions

Section One: Turnover rate

1. How do you rate employee turnover in the hotel/resort you are working (from January,
2016- December, 2016)
1. Very low 4. High
2. Low 5. Very high
3. Moderate 6. I don’t know
2. At what time (which Month) do you think that most workers leave their job?
_______________________________________________________________
3. Based on your observation which department or job position is facing higher turnover in
the hotel/ resort you are working in?

1. Food & Beverage -Kitchen 4. Spa

2. Food & Beverage- service 5. Department heads
3. Front Office,

Section Two: Turnover Intention

Turnover intention is defined as employee’s willingness or attempts to leave the current work
place voluntarily. Therefore, based on your observation please, rate level of turnover intention in
the hotel you are working.

1= Strongly disagree 2=Disagree 3=undecided 4=Agree 5= Strongly Agree

S.N ITEMS Rating

1 2 3 4 5
1 I often seriously consider leaving my current job.
2 I frequently scan newspapers & job posts in search of alternative job
opportunities
3 It is likely that I will leave this organization very soon
4 I would leave this organization as soon as I got any other job
5 Many of the workers usually talks about leaving the organization

Page 2 of 6
Section Three: Internal (Organizational Factors) of Turnover Intention

The following are list of possible causes of employees’ intention to turnover in hotel industry.
Based on your experience and observation you are kindly asked to rate your level of agreement-
disagreement

1= Strongly disagree 2=Disagree 3=undecided 4=Agree 5= Strongly Agree

S.N ITEMS Rating
1 2 3 4 5
Coworker Relationship
1 Coworkers are not friendly
2 Coworkers do not support me at work.
3 My supervisors do not support me in work.
4 I do not have good interactions with my coworkers.
5 I do not have good interactions with my supervisors
Work Environment
1 I do not have the enough freedom to perform my duty
2 At work, I do not have the necessary equipment and tools to facilitate my
job
3 At work, my company does not provide me an healthy work environment
4 The location of the hotel is not comfortable for me
5 Unrealistic expectation of work performance & policy of the hotel affects me
Salary level & Benefits
1 I am not satisfied with my salary.
2 The benefit system is not very good.
3 The transport facility is poor
4 There is no incentive mechanism whether ever additional/good performance
I made
Job Satisfaction
1 In general, I do not like my job.
2 In general, I am not satisfied with my job.
3 In general, I do not like working here
Organizational Commitment
1 I often tell my friends that the hotel I work for is not a very good one.
2 I am not willing to accept any additional work assigned by my supervisors
3 I am not comfortable with the policies of this hotel toward employees
4 I cannot see any future if I continue working in this hotel
5 I think it is wrong to stay in this hotel.
6 I am not willing that much to help the development of this hotel and gain
success.
7 I do not care about the future development of the hotel that I work for.

Page 3 of 6
Section Four: External factors to Turnover Intention
There are a number of reasons outside of the working environment, which may influence person
to leave their job. Please provide your opinion of the degree of agreement of the following
factors to remaining or leaving your current job.

1= Strongly disagree 2=Disagree 3=undecided 4=Agree 5= Strongly Agree

S.N ITEMS Rating
1 2 3 4 5
The influence of other similar Organizations
1 Better salary in other similar hotels & resorts
2 Better benefit packages in other similar hotels & resorts
3 Better & well coordinated management system in other similar hotels &
resorts
4 Suitable organizational policy for workers (scheduling, supervision ...)
The location of the organization
1 The geographic location of my place of employment not comfortable
2 The level of infrastructural development (e.g. condition of roads, public
transport system, shopping centers) is poor
3 The level of crime in area is high
4 The quality of basic social service available not good
5 The people who live in my neighborhood are not friendly

Section Five: Effect of Employee Turnover

Page 4 of 6
 1. Effect of Employee turnover on the existing employees

Dear respondents the following are some of the possible effect of employee turnover on
organizations as stated in different literatures in the area. So would you rate your level of
“Agreement-disagreement” where, 1= strongly Disagree 2=Disagree 3=undecided 4=Agree 5=
Strongly Agree

S.N ITEMS Rating

1 2 3 4 5
Whenever other employees leave this hotel/resort
1 I feel that it is only me that remaining in this hotel/resort
2 I decrease my work interest & motivation
3 I start looking for other hotel/organization
4 I feel that I cannot leave because I am incompetent
5 I feel that more tasks will be added on me

2. Effect of Employee turnover on customer service and Quality

1= Strongly Disagree 2=Disagree 3=undecided 4=Agree 5= Strongly Agree

S.N ITEMS Rating

1 2 3 4 5
Because there is high employee turnover in this hotel/resort
1 The hotel is not providing its full service
2 There is high burden on the remaining staff
3 Customers awaits for unnecessarily longer time to get the right service
4 Customers are unhappy for the service they are getting
5 Customers usually experience inconsistent satisfaction of the service

Section Six: Major strategies used to retain Employees

Page 5 of 6
Dear respondents the following statements are taken from different literatures that why most
employees wants to remain in their organization for reasonably longer period of time. Here you
are also requested to indicate your level of “Agreement….. Disagreement” how the situation in
listed below pulled you remains in your current organization where 1= Strongly Disagree
2=Disagree 3=undecided 4=Agree 5= Strongly Agree

S.N ITEMS Rating

1 2 3 4 5
Most of the staff wants to work in this hotel because the hotel
administration uses the following strategies to retain best employees
1 By making the job more secured
By providing Better salary & benefit packages
2 By providing convenient transport system
3 Good location of the hotel
5 By arranging training & scholarship opportunity
6 Convenient organizational management System & work policy

Thank You for Completing This Questionnaire!

Page 6 of 6