Literature Review: Motivation's Impact on Reducing Employee Turnover

This literature review examines the significant impact of motivation on employee turnover within organizations. It delves into various factors influencing employee retention, including human resource management practices, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and the role of leadership. The review analyzes several studies and theories, such as Alderfer's ERG theory and the Cognitive Evaluation Theory, to understand how motivation affects employee behavior and productivity. Key findings highlight the importance of fair remuneration, a positive work environment, career growth opportunities, recognition, and open communication in fostering employee engagement and reducing turnover rates. The review also discusses the influence of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, emphasizing that a balanced approach is essential for creating a motivated workforce. The literature suggests that organizations should focus on developing strategic motivational practices to build strong relationships with their employees, ultimately leading to increased productivity and reduced staff turnover.

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
The impact of motivation in reducing employee turnover in working organization
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Author’s Note
Introduction

LITERATURE REVIEW
Motivation
Motivation is the force and the desire that makes an individual behave in the way they do.
It is the driving force within one self to achieve a certain goal or to do a certain task. Motivation
is an abstract concept and no certain definition can explain how motivation works on an
individual because every individual’s thought process and way of thinking is different from
another. Motivation is something that can be acquired from within one self or it can be an
external force, for example a motivational speech from the teacher can inspire the students to
perform better in the class. Another example of motivation can be more materialistic for example
the bonus incentive of an organization can inspire or make people increase their production.
Employee Turnover
Employee or staff turnover is a modern concept that has gained limelight in the recent
past. In any organization weather it large scale or small scale the Employees are the back bone of
it. Employee turnover is the amount of people joining and leaving the organization in a specific
period of time. So, if the employee turnover of the organization is high it means that more and
more employees are leaving their job (Deci and Ryan 2014).
Most employees feel that they have too much work and fewer amounts of hours, the pressure
of the work cannot be handled by them and hence they decide to leave the organization.
The impartial behavior of the immediate senior towards the junior is very important.
There are times that some staff feels that they have been treated differently for whatever
reason and this could lead to resignation from the post.

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Salary and remuneration is one of the biggest reasons why the staffs leave an
organization. The employees come to work and they have a certain expectations from
themselves as well as the organization they are joining if the salary the institution is offering
does not live up to the expectations of the staff they look for new jobs for a better salary.
Work environment is a factor which makes an employee wants to come to the office
every morning. If the work culture in the organization not friendly and is not at par with the
employee they tend to leave the organization.
If the employee finds out that the career growth in the organization is low or very slow
paced then possibilities are that he or she will leave the organization in the long run. Career
growth is something that everyone looks forward to when joining an organization it is also
one of the most commonly asked question by the staff to the management during the
interview.
It has been noticed that if the staff and the boss relation is not healthy then the staff is
most likely to leave the organization. It is very crucial for productivity of the staff to have an
understanding and a positive relation with the boss if that is absent the employee tend to
develop a negative attitude towards the organization that may also hamper the productivity of
the person in the long run.
Recognition and reward are important. When an employee is working hard for he
institution it is important for the management to recognize that and reward it in any way. If
this recognition is absent the staff may feel lost and clueless about the effort he or she is
giving to the organization and this also may lead to leaving the job (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe
and Jackson 2012).

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Literature Review
According to the authors Heavey, Holwerda, and Hausknecht (2013), they have come up with
six causes that can effect employee retention. Firstly, investing in human resource management
and implementing the administration in that way. Secondly, expectation-enhancing practices like
monitoring and organizing the scheduling of the work etc. Thirdly, the attitude of the employee
and the employer towards the organization should be at par with one another. Fourthly,
maintaining a healthy relation with the employees and the bosses. Next is the external factors of
an organization, which affect the lives and the work space of the employees. Sixthly, job
embeddedness it is the factors which help retain the employees.
The report also argues about how the HR practices may have a negative impact on the
employee retention and in turn increase the staff turnover.
In this report the authors have paid attention to the antecedents of employee turnover of an
organization through various hypotheses. What is missing in the report is some of the external
factors that affect the company which leads to staff turnover.
The methodology followed by the authors is first to identify the relevant literature that has been
studied previously and Pearson correlation is used for the collection information on collective
turnover and a unit-level antecedent or consequence, or data from which a correlation could be
derived, as well as sample size (Kuznetsova 2017).
In this report the authors have discussed about the tendencies and the expectations of the
employees in the tourism sector. The job satisfaction of an employee depends upon the
organizational commitment as well (Zopiatis, Constanti and Theocharous, 2014).

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Kehoe and Wright (2013), suggest that employees who think that they are being managed
by high performance human resource practices show a elevated commitment towards the
organization they are associated with this is based on a sort of compulsory reciprocation in their
exchange this in turn effects the working nature of the staff and there are two reasons for this the
mutual benefit that the staff and the employer have when an employee is positively committed
towards the institution it creates a balance of benefits in the process. To level up with the
investment of the organization in the high performance based human resource practices the
employees put further efforts and contributions to balance the benefits. Apart from this
committed employees of an organization act in a way that nurture this bond in between the
management and the staff.
On the contrary the argument that is presented by the duo is that the high performance
practices push the employees in a way that is not evident but the pressure is constantly felt by
them.
The fundamental basis of the report is collected form secondary data and the primary research
has been conducted which consists various types of job categories. The diversification of these
categories broadens the perspective of the authors.
Kehoe and Wright (2013), state that sometimes employees are committed and are comfortable
with the job in such a way that their productivity is stagnant which may lead to involuntary
employee turnover. The emergence and influence of profiles can be understood through three
drivers, i.e., the internally regulated force which is associated with the commitment of the
employees and his positive mindset about the company, the perceived desirability and ease of
movement, and the within-person contextual effects among profiles.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Kuppuswamy et al. (2017), discuss in their report the importance of motivation in a business
organization. They say that strategic and planned motivational practices helps an organization
build a firm relationship between its works. It is important to develop job satisfaction and hence
high performance Human resource management policies are is a crucial part of the process of job
satisfaction.
They state that in their findings treatment of staff in a similar way franks first in the
criteria of an employee. Then comes job security, proper remuneration, healthy work space
environment and growth opportunities and satisfying career goals are the reason of retention for
employees.
The Alderfer’s ERG theory is a predecessor to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory
here the categorization is divided into three sections which is existence needs, relatedness needs
and growth needs. Unlike the Maslow’s theory the ERG theory may change with the perspective
of the case. It is the states that the management of the organization should understand that there
are different requirements of an individual staff which has to be satisfied at the same time. The
theory states that concentrating on just one needed to fulfill at a time is not effective.
Furthermore, when there is less satisfaction in the higher level of needs the lower level ones
seem to easy to satisfy.
The principle of frustration-regression: if an employee is unsatisfied with the growth
needs form the organization for example salary hike they might regress towards the relatedness
needs. If the needs of an employee are saturated they have no motivation because they are at a
place where nothing can be offered to make a person work hard. They want and the urge to fulfill
requirements is a crucial case in motivating staff.

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There has to be something that works as a force to motivate the staff the induction of this
motivation is in the high performance human resource policies.
According to the authors Olafsen et al. (2015), state that the amount of pay, and perceived
distributive and technical justice regarding remuneration in relation to those for perceived
managerial need support. They argue the topic of remuneration being positively influence by
motivation of the employees to work hard on the behalf of the organization. The authors have
studied the behavior of 277 employees of a banking organization.
Cognitive evaluation theory and self determination theory is the basis if this study. The
writers do not completely agree with the traditional definition of work motivation. They say that
that work-related behavior is missing from the definition. They say that work motivation is not
just related to the Intrinsic or the internal rewards that are paid to the employee but there are
other factors as well like performance and creativity. They say that performance is not
dependent on internal rewards as motivation. Creativity also plays an important role in the
motivation purpose and this is advantageous for both the employer and the employee. They are
of the view that extrinsic rewards are not negative in nature and positively affect the performance
of the workforce hence reducing the turnover in the long run (Gerhart and Fang 2015).
Motivation is directly related to employee retention in an organization. If the employee is
no more motivated by the policies, job culture, job satisfaction, intrinsic rewards etc then he or
she will leave the company. The Human resource policies of the organizations are created to
build a balance between what the employee wants and what the organization can offer. An
employee has more than one requirement at the same time and these requirements can be

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fulfilled one over the other, hence the HR management of the organization has to keep up with
the requirements of the employee to a point that they are inducing more motivation so that the
employees work hard and creates a commitment towards the organization (Arnold 2016).
The authors Vnoučková and Klupáková (2013), in this report have chosen five keywords to
design analysis of motivation principles. First keyword is Positive, inspiring leader, they say that
the manager and the boss has a crucial role to play in the retention of the employees. Second
keyword is care for employees, if the employees feel that the policies of the company are taken
keeping in mind the welfare and the benefit of the company they are more likely to stick to the
organization. The third keyword is creating and sharing goals, tasks and strategies transparency
of the objective and the goals of the organization among the workforce is important it helps them
build confidence in the operation process. Fourth keyword is open communication, it is related to
the third principle where in the communication in the vertical level of the organization should be
clear. Lastly the fifth keyword is praise, recognition and appreciation it is important to recognize
the efforts of the employees it is one of the most important motivational factors which makes the
employee feel that the work they are doing for the company is worthwhile and is being given the
rightful credit.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Reference List
Arnold, L., 2016. Strategies for Reducing High Turnover Among Information Technology
Professionals (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).
Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M., 2014. The importance of universal psychological needs for
understanding motivation in the workplace. The Oxford handbook of work engagement,
motivation, and self-determination theory, pp.13-32.
Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P.R., 2012. Management research. Sage.
Gerhart, B. and Fang, M., 2015. Pay, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, performance, and
creativity in the workplace: Revisiting long-held beliefs. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ.
Behav., 2(1), pp.489-521.
Heavey, A.L., Holwerda, J.A. and Hausknecht, J.P., 2013. Causes and consequences of
collective turnover: a meta-analytic review.
Kehoe, R.R. and Wright, P.M., 2013. The impact of high-performance human resource practices
on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management, 39(2), pp.366-391.
Kuppuswamy, N., Saminathan, V., Udhayakumar, M., Vigneash, L. and Gopalakrishnan, P.,
2017. The Role of Motivation on Employee Performance in an Organization.
Kuznetsova, N.V., Sinitsina, O.N., Gafurova, V.M., Pavluhina, M.V., Salyaeva, T.V. and
Puzankova, E.A., 2017. Motivation as Factor of Improving Efficiency of Trade Company
Operations. European Research Studies, 20(2), p.319.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Olafsen, A.H., Halvari, H., Forest, J. and Deci, E.L., 2015. Show them the money? The role of
pay, managerial need support, and justice in a self‐determination theory model of intrinsic work
motivation. Scandinavian journal of psychology, 56(4), pp.447-457.
Vnoučková, L. and Klupáková, H., 2013. Impact of motivation principles on employee turnover.
Zopiatis, A., Constanti, P. and Theocharous, A.L., 2014. Job involvement, commitment,
satisfaction and turnover: Evidence from hotel employees in Cyprus. Tourism Management, 41,
pp.129-140.