Link between Human Resource Practices and Employees Turnover

The Concept of Employee Turnover

According to Argyle, (1989) states that employee turnover is the movement of people into and out of

an organization. He found out that turnover is correlated to human resource management, (Zlotnic et

al., 2005) sees employee turnover as those who leave an organization for reasons that include

retirement, death, marriage, parenting, spousal job moves, simple job exit as well as intent to leave,

(Wermelin, 2009) conceptualized turnover as the voluntary leaving of a job, to (Muntaner et al.,

2006) the rate of employee turnover is a measure of the level of commitment of employees to

organizational goals, as cited by Nwagbara, (2011). He further stated that the level of turnover in an

organization is a gauge of the leadership structure.

Turnover means that another organization may gain the new knowledge employee which could

become its competitive advantage. The loss of knowledge thus is a threat for the former organization,

which increases the significance of knowledge continuity.

When an organisation’s managerial structure is not inclusive and distributed, it creates a work

environment that makes it extremely difficult for employees to remain in such organisations since

their welfare, interests, and opinions are not taken into account in the leadership process. This is

crucially important in gauging the level of employee turnover in organisations (Argyle, 1989; Purcell

et al., 2003). Research has empirically demonstrated that there is a strong correlation amongst

leadership, Rewards, work life balance, health and safety and employee turnover. Without properly

harnessed and cultivated human resource, organisations could barely grow or raise their heads above

Assessment of employee turnover is therefore necessary for organizational employee retention and

good return on capital employed (Delerey & Doty, 1996; Pfiffer & Viega, 1999).

Link between Human Resource Practices and Employees Turnover

Managing human resource is one of the main functions that organisations undertake. HRP is a series

of integrated decisions that form employment relationship; it involves developing employees to

maximise their potential in a manner that furthers the objectives of both the individual and the

organisation. Bratton and Gold (2009), HRP is an approach to managing employment relations which

emphasises that leveraging people’s capabilities is critical to achieving competitive advantage, this

being achieved through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programmes and

practice (Beauregard & Henry, 200). All these efforts are aimed at improving HR practices and

workplace relations and, consequently, organisational performance through the shaping of employees'

attitudes and behaviours (Whitener, 2001).

In spite of the various HR functions that can be initiated as practices, this study would concentrate on

four practices namely, rewards, leadership style, workplace health and work-life balance. These

practices are among the common ones which cut across the three major viewpoint or theories of HR

practices. Also it is believed that these practices have the potential of motivating employees as well as

offering them some level of security, autonomy, recognition and improved self-worth leading to

affective commitment. The situation of the floriculture industry in East Africa is not different from the

al. 2002). According to the study made by Dolan et al. (2002), there are a number of problems

affecting Kenyan flower farm workers. These include: employment insecurity, lack of overtime

payment, non-representation, absence of complaint procedure, low wages, lack of promotion, poor

health and safety issues, inadequate transportation, lack of support for pregnancy and maternity leave,

and lack of awareness of rights and codes. Especially, for women lack of adequate maternity leave

creates anxiety about securing women flower farm workers’ income. As a result, pregnant workers

may hide their pregnancies or be forced to abort, thus need for this study to establish how employees

health and safety influences on employee turnover in flower farms.

translated into a visual picture to illustrate the interconnections between the independent, intervening

and dependent variables. Miles and Huberman (1994), also defined a conceptual framework as a

visual or written product, one that explains, either graphically or in narrative form; the main things to

be studied are variables and the presumed relationships among them. For this reason, the conceptual

framework of the study, the system of concepts, assumptions, expectations, beliefs, and theories

supports and informs the research is a key part of the design (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Robson,

2011). The most important thing to understand about a conceptual framework is that it is primarily a

conception or model of what is out there that you plan to study. The function of conceptual

framework is to inform the rest of your design, to help you to assess and refine objectives, develop

realistic and relevant research hypothesis, select appropriate methods, and identify potential validity

defined as: Management styles, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards, Work Life Balance and Health and

Safety while the dependent variable was defined as attrition dismissal and resignation. It is premised

that the independent variable act to affect the dependent variable which is employee turnover. The

conceptual framework is based on Herzberg theory as well as the literature review. It not only

explains the relationship between the independent and dependent variables but also the

interrelationship between the variable themselves.Chapter Summary and Research Gap

This chapter is assessing existing scholarly work on the subject human resource practices Specifically

it has taken a review of different perspectives which is put and aligned together to provide a basis

that will make it possible to lay certain claims. The works on the topic reviewed include books and

journals by eminent authorities on human resource practice. In discussing the rationale for employee

Extrinsic Attrition

Resignation

Work Life

Balance

Health and Safety

Practices

Dependent

retention, the literature pointed to the fact that, retaining employee is an important issue for

organisations because turnover is very costly in terms of the economic impact, time, money and other

resources especially when critical and knowledgeable employees leave the organisation.

To minimise these potential problems forward-thinking organisations must strive to create a positive

organisational climate through various HR practices initiatives to retain valuable employees. Also

from literature several studies have been conducted to establish the relationship between human

resource practices and employee turnover which the researcher finds in critical in terms of

determining whether employers in flower farms have actually put in place effective human resource

practices systems to insure the welfare of their employees’ hence managing employee turnover. The

World (Samuel &

Chipunza, 2009). Hence there is a limited empirical study on employee retention in Africa and

particularly in Kenya; this suggests that, there is limited empirical evidence on HR Practices and

employee turnover in the developing world like Kenya hence there is a research gap. Accordingly,

this study sought to fill this research gap by investigating the influence of human resource practices

on turnover of employees in flower farms in Kenya.

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