Causes of voluntary labour turnover: A case study of a five star hotel in Mauritius

 

Roopnah Moushmi¹, Sanmukhiya Chintamanee²*

¹MSc Managerial Psychology in progress, MAURITIUS, moushmiroopnah@yahoo.com

² Associate Professor, Greenwich University Pakistan, MAURITIUS, drchintamanee@greenwich.ac.mu

*Corresponding author

 

Abstract

With the fast changing economic climate and openness to labour mobility, the concept of labour turnover has been a forefront issue in Human Resources Management. Several occupational psychologists, motivational theorists and academic scholars have carried out research in this area. These professionals have realised that labour turnover is a serious issue in terms of costs and profitability and needs to be addressed.

This research thus investigated into the causes of voluntary labour turnover in a five star hotel in the island of Mauritius. This resort forms part of a conglomerate group with over 30 years of existence in the tourism sector and has generated a record of sustained excellence and accomplishments. It employs around 500 employees and comprises of 255 rooms. For the purpose of this study, questionnaires were randomly distributed among 122 of its employees who were willing to participate in the survey. Non-parametric tests such as Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis H test were deemed to be most relevant because of the categorical nature of the outcome variable. Pearson Chi-Square tests and odds ratio were also calculated.

The findings show that that those who are satisfied with their pay are 16 times more likely to be satisfied with their jobs than those who are dissatisfied with their pay. Age (p<0.05), pay (p<0.05), financial security (P<0.01), recognition for achievement (p<0.05), opportunity to work in teams (p<0.05) and good working conditions (p<0.05) affect a person’s decision to resign whereas leadership style and external factors do not seem affect voluntary labour turnover. The insignificant impact of leadership style on voluntary resignation may be explained in terms of Herzberg’s hygiene factors (1923-2000) whereby supervisory style do not affect job satisfaction and eventually has no contribution in the retention of employees. Also findings suggest that factors other than those external to the hotel seem to be more important determinants of voluntary labour turnover. This study proposes a novel theoretical framework which may contribute towards the retention of effective performers and reduce organisational costs of hotels by decreasing the need of continuous selection, recruitment and training of new employees.

Keywords: Voluntary labour turnover, employee retention, career development, job satisfaction, supervisory style, financial incentives, non-parametric tests.