The results of the study have enabled a better understanding of the causes of turnover in The Gambia service industry. It had also enabled the researchers to establish the degree of relationship between the variables in the study. The study pinpointed compensation and job satisfaction as the main factors influencing turnover in the industry.
Conclusions
The study systematically unveiled the factors causing turnover in the service industry in The Gambia. Some of these factors responsible are already stated in previous studies done in other regions of the world even though some are without controversy such as the effects of compensation. Below the findings are summarized in line with our research questions.
Organizational Culture and Compensation Inversely Correlated to Turnover Intention The results of the study showed that both organizational culture and compensation had a negative relationship with turnover intention. Moreover, both results were statistically significant.
This implied both variables are contributing factors to the situation in The Gambia service industry.
It is vital to point out that organizational culture as a whole is essential for any organization to guide behavior and attitudes within the organization. However, its enforcement and application should not necessarily be without regard to the local customs, beliefs and traditions. As earlier indicated studies showed that an organizational culture highly accepted by the workforce has positive implications. This study indicated that a widely accepted organizational culture has potentials to lead to the decline of the rate of turnover intention in the industry and help foster retention.
In additional, the results showed that compensation was significantly negatively correlated to turnover intention. This was the most significant relationship given by the study. The study has given a strong indication that the situation in The Gambia service industry is caused mainly by lack of a proper compensation of the workforce. When individuals are not properly compensated
58
and are therefore unable to cater for their basic needs and those of their dependence, it’s obvious that they tend to quit and pursue other alternatives that they consider better. Therefore, once an employee is not satisfied with their compensation package the risk of their movement would be higher. It is therefore obvious that the provision of better compensation packages to the workforce is an efficient measure to avert turnover intention and keep the workforce productive.
Organizational Culture and Compensation Positively Related to Job satisfaction
The researchers were equally curious to find out if organizational culture and compensation were positively correlated to job satisfaction. The results gave a good indication that organizational culture and compensation were positively correlated to job satisfaction. Both organizational culture and compensation were significantly positively correlated to job satisfaction. Both variables were slightly moderately correlated with job satisfaction. Therefore, a favorable organizational culture and compensation package has positive effects to boost the workforce’s job satisfaction. On the contrary, an unpopular organizational culture couple with poorly structured compensation package has potentials as earlier indicated to lead to job dissatisfaction and subsequently increase turnover intention.
Job Satisfaction Negatively Correlated to Turnover Intention
The findings also indicated that job satisfaction has a negative significant relationship with turnover intention. The implications are therefore clear as it showed a lack of job satisfaction was a major source of turnover in the service industry. The study conducted by Van Vianen et al., (2004) mentioned two motives of turnover intention, one of which was ‘push motives’.
According to the study, ‘push motives’ are the results of turnover when people are not satisfied with their jobs. Therefore, this study buttressed what other studies had established in the past to be one of the key factors causing employee turnover. This situation discovered in other studies around the world is also valid for the situation of the service industry in the Gambia where the condition had not been empirically investigated.
59
Job Satisfaction Partly Mediates the Relationship between Organizational Culture, Compensation and Turnover Intention
Our findings indicated that the relationship between organizational culture with job satisfaction was significant and positive. In the same vain, it gave the relationship of organizational culture and compensation with turnover intention as significant and as well as negative. The influence of the mediating role of job satisfaction was more evident from the results of the hierarchical regression. It was clear that job satisfaction had a strong ability to mediate the effect of organizational culture and compensation in relation to turnover intention.
However, job satisfaction had not in particular been able to cushion completely the effects of compensation. It had nonetheless helped to reduce its impacts but not completely. Therefore, in as much as the results showed the relationship among our variables, the impacts of job satisfaction was of great importance especially in mediating the effects of compensation in the service industry.
Limitations
Like many other empirical studies, this study is also without limitations. First and foremost, the players of the service industry are many like in many other countries and this study had been solely limited to one of the main players of the industry, the financial services. The results might not be safely generalized to cover other players in the industry and therefore must be used with caution since not all sectors of the industry participated in the study.
Secondly, the sample size which comprised 152 respondents were small in comparison to the number the industry employs. The fact that the sample for the study was small implied that we might have missed out a good section of players who could have well provided valuable information. In addition, due to lack of adequate resources and time the researchers could not travel to other regions outside the Greater Banjul Area to administer the questionnaires.
Therefore, those who participated in the study might have shared similar experiences as they are geographically located within the same region.
60
Lastly, the study was cross-sectional in nature implying the data was collected at a single point in time. It was possible that some drastic changes could have occurred soon afterwards that could have affected employee’s behavior though unlikely. Therefore, a potentially richer source for the purpose of unveiling this phenomenon would be to employ a longitudinal approach which catered for the relationship of our variables over a period of time.
Recommendations
Recommendation for Management
In order to keep our teams and mitigate the effects of turnover in the service industry, the workforce - our most valuable resource must be nurtured. One of the ways to do this is to ensure they are provided with respectable compensation packages in return for their services as there exist overwhelming evidence that the main reason why employees work for firms was for compensation which comprises of both financial and non-financial rewards. To that effect, managers must paid special attention to the non-financial compensation in particular as recent empirical studies found it has the strongest link with high turnover (Hayes et al., 2006;
Mathaueur & Imhoff, 2006; Lord, 2002; Shields & Wards, 2001; Walsh & Taylor, 2007). These include promotional opportunities, career growth and development, recognition and work autonomy. Studies showed the failure of institutions to meet these results to high turnover.
Therefore, employers must be acquainted with both extrinsic and intrinsic compensation and realize meeting employees intrinsic fulfillment and working conditions are the best measures against turnover in our workplaces.
Moreover, as lack of job satisfaction is multifaceted, business leaders and managers must always take personnel interest in employee’s welfare and ensure those are put at the forefront of their policy decisions and that they are treated in respectful ways; ensuring their basic human rights are not trample upon in order to retain and keep them productive. Abassi and Hollman (2000) stressed that business leaders must recognize employees as major contributors to the efficient achievement of the organization’s success. Besides, it will also be useful if managers could device means of determining the level of job satisfaction among their employees to predict and prevent turnover. Furthermore, the workforce must be properly managed. Employers must
61
be in constant touch with their workforce so as to be well informed about their work situations.
This could be done by encouraging regular communication between employees and management, whereby employees are accorded the opportunity to express their views on general issues in an ethical manner. A study by the US Department of Labor (1993) on high performance work practices indicated that the involvement of employees in decision-marking help produce job satisfaction and reduce turnover; a finding also shared by Alberts and Motlatla (1998). Besides, people who are entrusted to handle the workforce must themselves be knowledgeable in the area.
Many times turnover caused by lack of job satisfaction is caused by strained relationships between coworkers, superiors and their subordinates (Kinicki & Williams 2008; Phillips &
Connell, 2003). These human deficiencies must be overcome as one of the surest ways to minimize turnover.
Lastly, business leaders and managers must ensure their organizational culture are not necessarily imported and enforced but should be open to modification in order that it reflects local customs and realities to avoid turnover especially in areas with a strong national culture.
This is because the study found organizational culture that is unpopular among the workforce has potentials to result to turnover. The tendencies of multinationals to look more on their organizational culture and sideline the national culture could lead to turnover. Therefore, a sort of balance must be sorted between the national culture and the organizational culture but not necessarily a compromise that could have detrimental effects on the organizations and institutions.
Recommendation for Future Studies
The study indicated that a major cause of turnover is compensation. However, compensation is a broad term encompassing financial and non-financial rewards. It would therefore be proper for a study to be conducted within the region to assess the form of compensation that is most preferable to the people in the industry and why is it preferable. This will be an important component to better understand the current situation and to be able to effectively curb this menace. This is because if the wrong form of compensation is applied the situation might still persist.
62
In additional, since this study indicated that organizational culture is also a factor causing turnover, it would be interesting if a study is conducted within the industry to assess the effects of a national culture and the organizational culture on the workforce in the industry.
Thirdly, an increase sample size that covers the entire country and across the various sectors in the service industry could be most beneficial. This study took all its participants from the Greater Banjul Area who certainly shared a lot of similarities. The inclusion of employees outside of this prime zone could be beneficial as their experience would certainly vary to that of their counterparts as the geographical location differs in many aspects. Employees in those areas could have their own peculiar factors that trigger turnover. Therefore, more industries with an increase sample size could be used in a future study. In additional, besides the variables used in this study, more variables that could determine turnover could be added to further research this phenomenon. The inclusion of more sectors in this industry country-wide and the usage of more variables could help to improve the status of the industry in terms of the retention of the workforce.
Finally, since the study used only the quantitative method, a detailed understanding of some of the variables might not be possible. Therefore, the usage of a mixed approach (quantitative and qualitative) would be more helpful in gaining a deeper and comprehensive relationship between the variables in the study. This approach will also help to minimize the effect of self-administrated questionnaires used in quantitative studies that have potentials to lead to Common Method Variance and other shortcomings of a single method.
Closing Remarks
In sum, this explanatory research presented unique contributions to the existing body of knowledge on the causes of employee turnover in the service industry in The Gambia. The findings re-echoed to a large extend what the literature already confirms as the major predictors of turnover in other parts of the world. Therefore, business leaders and stakeholders in the service industry in The Gambia must take note of these findings and work out appropriate strategies to curb this menace responsible for the huge financial burden of these institutions especially through the recruitment and training of new employees. It is envisage that with sound
63
and judicious adoption of the recommendations of this study, organizations will begin to witness a sharp decline in turnover behaviors which will contribute towards the industry’s continual pursuit for growth, prosperity and profitability.
64
REFERENCES
Abassi, S. M., & Hollman, K. W. (2000). Turnover: The real bottom line. Public Personnel Management, 2(3), 333-342.
Afrol, (2011). Retrieved on November 19, 2011, from
http://afrol.com/Countries/Gambia/backgr-economy-sectors.htm
Aguinis, H. (2009). Performance management. Pearson International Edition, Prentice Hall.
Alberts, E.M. & Motatla, M.D.C. (1998). Human resources management: Textbook for technikon students. (3rd Ed). South Africa: Thomson Publishing.
Allaire, Y. & Firsirotu, M. (1984). Theories of organizational culture. Organization Studies, 5(3), 193-226.
Babbie, E. (2011). Introduction to social research. Belmont, Wadsworth Cengage Learning Battey, J. (2008). Retaining Your Most Valuable Assets. InfoWorld , 22(30), 46-51.
Becker, B. & Huselid, M. (1999). An interview with Mike Losey, Tony Rucci, and Ulrich: Three experts respond to HRMJ’s special issue on HR strategy in five leading firms, Human Resource Management, 38(4), 353 - 353.
Bingley, P., & Westergaard-Nielsen, N. (2004). Personnel policy and profit. Journal of Business Research, 57(5), 557–563.
Bloom, M. C. 1995. The bundle of valued returns: A psychological contracts view of incentive pay and employment security, Working Paper, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Brady, D. (2002). Rethinking the Rat Race. Business Week, August 26, 142.
British broadcasting corporation, (2011). Retrieved on November 19, 2011, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13376517
Broadbridge, A. (2002). Rationalising retail employment: a view from the outside looking in, International Journal of Retail Distribution and Management, 30 (11), 536-43.
Caligiuri, P. M., (2000). Selecting expatriates for personality characteristics: A moderating effect of personality on the relationship between host national contact and cross-cultural
adjustment, Management International Review, 40(1) 61-80.
Cammann, C., Fichman, M., Jenkins, D. & Klesh, J. (1979). The Michigan Organizational
Assessment Questionnaire, unpublished manuscript, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Cappelli, P., & Rogovsky, N. (1994). New work systems and skill requirements. International Labor Review, 133(2), 205-220.
Chew, J., Girardi, A., & Entrekin, L. (2005). Retaining core staff: The impact of human resource practices of organization commitment. Journal of Comparative International Management, 8(2), 23-42.
Cho, S., Woods, R., Jang, S. & Erdem, M. (2006). Measuring the impact of human resource management practices on hospitality firms’ performance, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 25(2), 262 -277
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.).
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Dalton, D., & Todor, W. (1993). Turnover, transfer, absenteeism: An interdependent perspective.
Journal of Management, 19(2), 193-219
Darling, K., Arn, J. & Gatlin, R. (1997). How to effectively reward employees. Industrial Management, 39(4), 1- 4.
65
Deal, T. E. (1986). “Culture change: opportunity, silent killer or metamorphosis”, Gaining Control of the Corporate Culture. Jossey Bass, San Francisco, CA.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self- determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227- 268.
Dickson, W.J. (1973). Hawthorne experiments. In The encyclopedia of management 2nd edition.
Edited by: Heyel C. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 298-302.
Duggar, W. J. (2010). The role of integrity in individual and effective corporate leadership.
Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 6(2), 8-12
Dulebohn, J. H., & Werling, S. E. (2007). Compensation research past, present, and future.
Human Resource Management Review, 17(2), 191-207
Encyclopedia, (2011). Teritary industry (economics). May, 2011, Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com
Gardiner & Parata Ltd. (1998). Maori recruitment and retention project. A report to the Chief Executives Forum of the Public Service.
Gerhart, B., & Milkovich, G. T. (1992). Employee compensation: Research and practice. In M.
D. Dunnette & L. M. Hough (Eds.), (2nd ed.) Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology. Pal Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Grobler, P.A. , Warnick S., M.R. Carrel N.F., Elbert, & Hartfierd, R.D. (2006). Human resource management in South Africa, (2nd ed). UK London: Cornwall Institute of Management.
Griffeth, R. W., Hom, P. W., & Gaertner, S. (2000). A meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: Update, moderator test, and research implications for the next millennium. Journal of Management, 26(3), 463 – 488.
Gupta, N., & Shaw, J. (2001). Pay fairness and employee outcomes: exacerbation and attenuation effects of financial need. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 74 (3): 22.
Guthrie, J. (2001). High involvement work practices, turnover, and productivity: evidence from New Zealand, Academy of Management Journal, 44(1), 180- 190.
Hall, J. (2001). Does your safety program go far enough? Air Conditioning Heating and Refrigeration News, 213 (6), 31.
Harter, J. K. (2008). Why People Change Jobs? Gallup Management Journal, from
http://gmj.gallup.com/content/106912/Turning- Around-Your-Turnover-Problem.aspx.
Hayes, L.T, O’Brian, L.O. Duffield, C., Shamian, J., Buchan, J. Hughes, F., Heather, K., Laschinger, S. North, N. & Stone, P.W. (2006). Nurse turnover: A literature review.
International Journal of Nursing Studies, 43(2), 237-263.
Hegney, D., Plank, A. & Parker, V. (2006). Extrinsic and intrinsic work values: their impact on job satisfaction. Journal of Nursing Management. 14 (4), 271 -281.
Heneman, H.G. III, & Schwab, D.P. (1985). Pay satisfaction: Its multidimensional nature and measurement. International Journal of Psychology, 20(1), 129-141.
Hendrie, J. (2004). A review of a multiple retailer’s labour turnover. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 32(9), 434 - 441.
Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Synderman, B. (1959). The motivation of work in organizations:
Behavior structure and processes. New York, NY: Business Publications.
Hirschfield, R. (2000). Does revising the intrinsic and extrinsic sub-scales of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire short form makes a difference? Educational and Psychological Measurement, 60(2), 255 - 270.
66
IMF Country Report No. 11/15 (2011). The Gambia: ex post assessment of longer- term engagement – an update. Retrieved June 10, 2011 from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2011/cr1115.pdf
Islam, R. & Ismail, A.Z. (2008). Employee motivation: a Malaysian perspective. International Journal of Commerce and Management, 18(4), 344 -362.
Iverson, R. D., & Pullman, J. A. (2000). Determinant of voluntary turnover and layoffs in an environment of repeated downsizing following a merger: An event history analysis, Journal of Management, 26(5), 980 - 983.
Jackofsky, E., Ferris, K., & Breckenridge, B. (1986). Evidence for a curvilinear relationship between job performance and turnover. Journal of Management, 12(1), 105 -111.
Judge, T. A. (1992). Validity of the Dimensions of the Pay Satisfaction Questionnaire:
Implications for Research and Practice. CAHRS Working Paper Series. Paper 297.
http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/297
Kerr, J., & J. W. Slocum (1987). Managing corporate culture through reward systems. Academy of Management Executive, 1(2), 99 - 108.
Kidder, L. H. (1981). Selltiz, Wrightsman, & Cook’s research methods in social relations. New York: Rinehart and Winston.
Kim, W., Leong, J., & Lee, Y. (2005). Effect of service orientation on job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, and intention of leaving in a casual dining chain restaurant, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 24(2), 171-93.
Kinicki, A. & Williams, B. (2008). Management, a practical introduction. New York: McGraw- Hill.
Kirschenbaum, A. & Weisberg, J. (2002). Employee turnover intentions and job destination choices. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(1), 109-125.
Kohn, A. (1993). Why incentive plans cannot work. Harvard Business Review, September- October, 54-63.
Kontodimopoulos, N., Paleologou, V., & Niakas, D. (2009). Identifying important motivational factors for professionals in Greek hospitals. BMC Health Services Research, 9(3), 164.
Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z. (2002). The leadership challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kramer, M. & Schmalenberg, C. (2004). Essentials of a magnetic work environment: part 1, Nursing, 34 (6), 50 -54.
Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A. (2006). Organizational behavior. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.
Lee, G. J. & Rwigema, H. (2005). Mobley revisited, dynamism in the process of employee turnover. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(9), 1671-1690.
Lee, T. & Mitchell, T. (2000). Control turnover by understanding its causes. Handbook of principles of organizational behaviour. Malden, MA: Balackwell Publishers Ltd: 90 -104.
Locke, E. A., & Henne, D., (1986). Work motivation theories. In CL. Cooper and LT. Robertson (Eds.), International review of industrial and organizational psychology , Chichester:
Wiley.
Lord, R.L. (2002). Traditional motivation theories and older engineers. Engineering
Lord, R.L. (2002). Traditional motivation theories and older engineers. Engineering