Impact of HRM Practices on Employee Retention in Food and Beverage Industry in Qatar

This research project explores the impact of Human Resource Management practices on employee retention in the food and beverage industry in Qatar. It examines the factors and theories related to employee retention, analyzes the HR practices affecting employee turnover, and defines the relationship between employee retention and organizational profitability.

Title of research project: Exploring the impact of Human Resource Management
practices on employee’s retention: Evidence from the Food and Beverage industry in
the state of Qatar
By
Shirley Shamen Jayakody
(Student Number: J00046970)
A research project submitted for the Program Title: Master of Strategic Human Resources
Management
The Business School
University of Roehampton London
February, 2019

DECLARATION FORM
The work I have submitted is my own effort. I certify that all the material in this
Research project, which is not my own work, has been identified and acknowledged.
No materials are included for which a degree has been previously conferred upon me.
Signed Date
Shirley Shamen Jayakody 28 February 2019
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The Abstract
The employee retention is the significant human resource practices adopted in the organization.
This paper comprises the case study of the food and beverage industry of Qatar. The employee
turnover is stated as the huge issue for the concerning business organizations in Qatar. The
employee retention have major role in the overall employee turnover of the organization. The
organisations in the food and beverage industry of Qatar try to retain the employees by using
suitable and appropriate human resource policies. The main issue identified in the Qatar is
employee retention. The literature review is done in order to overview the human resource
management practices taken place in the food and beverage industry. The employee retention
along the factors and theories are critically analysed. The human resource practices have been
analysed affecting employee turnover and retention in food and beverage industry of Qatar. The
paper also defines the relationship between employee retention and organizational profitability.
A scientific research is used to conduct research on the employee retention. The strengths and
limitations of the descriptive research design is specified in the paper. The study comprised
sample size and sampling technique along with the data collection and techniques. The face
validity, content validity and construct validity is performed as a part of research. The
quantitative is used as a part of data analysis technique. The ethical issues have been also
identified in the data collection. The data analysis and findings comprised reliability statistics to
build reliable measurement. The frequency statistics comprised several factors for the analysis
like gender, experience with the current organization, factors contributing to happy work
environment, aim to achieve at work, goals and reason for leaving organization. This factor
analysis helped in understanding the influences which causes to reduce retention of employees in
the organization. It can help to the industry in improving the factors which reduces the retention.
Accordingly, the industry can make improvement. The significance is sufficient enough in
implementing changes in the organization concerning employee’s retention. The factor analysis
has been also used as a part of the data analysis. It covered KMO and Bartlett’s test. The
hypothesis testing is also used as a part of HR practices and employee retention in the food and
beverage industry in Qatar. The relationship and association between the HR practices and
employee retention have been clearly defined with the help of hypothesis.
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Table of Contents
The Abstract
3
Chapter 1: Introduction, organisational context, and research objectives 8
1.1 Introduction 8
1.2 Background of the study 8
1.3 Problem Statement (Organizational Issue) 8
1.4 Significance of the study 9
1.5 Research Objectives 9
1.6 Research Questions 9
1.7 Rationale for the chosen research question 9
1.8 Research Hypothesis 10
1.9 Research environment and the demographics 10
1.10 Literature Gap 11
1.11 Academic relevance 11
1.12 Summary of Chapter 12
Chapter 2: Critical Literature Review 13
2.1 Introduction 14
2.2 Overview of Human Resource Management practices conducted in the food and beverage
industry in Qatar 14
2.3 Overview of the concepts of Employee retention, the factors and theories related to it 15
2.4 Human Resource practices affecting upon employee turnover, retention in Food & Beverage
Industry in Qatar 17
2.5 Relationship and establishing a balance between employee retention and organizational
profitability 19
2.6 Gaps in Literature 21
2.7 Summary 21
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Chapter 3: Research Methodology
3.0 Introduction 22
3.1 Research Design 22
3.2 Strengths and limitations of descriptive research design 23
3.3 Population of the study 24
3.4 Sample size and Sampling technique 24
3.5 Data collection tools and techniques 25
3.6 Validity and Reliability analysis 26
3.7 Data analysis technique 27
3.8 Ethical issues involved in data collection 28
3.9 Summary of chapter 28
Chapter 4:
4.1 Data Analysis and findings 29
4.2 Frequency statistics 29
4.3 Factor analysis 36
4.4 Hypotheses Testing 36
Chapter 5:
Conclusion & Recommendation
5.1 Introduction 45
5.2 Conclusions 45
5.3 Implications of findings 46
5.4 Contribution to the knowledge 48
5.5 Recommendations to the organization 49
5.6 Limitations and Suggestions for future studies 51
References: 53
Appendix 1
Research Questionnaire 58
Appendix 2
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Research Hypothesis 59
Appendix 3
Approval Letters 60
Appendix 4
Ethical Approval 61
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Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my husband, family and friends for the support
extended throughout my years of study and the process of researching and writing this thesis.
My current work place for supporting me and providing me time-off to gather my data
collection.
A special thank goes to my thesis advisor Dr. Olawumi Awolusi for encouraging me, steering me
in the right direction to complete the project and also guiding me and providing valuable
comments on this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without all of these
people’s support.
Thank you.
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION, ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT, AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
1.1 Introduction
The following course of writing provides descriptive information regarding the background of
the study. The problem statement for which that works is provided and the objectives to guide
the research work. The research questions and the significance of the research work are also
provided for extra descriptive and concise work.
1.2 Background of the Study
The fact of employee retention is largely met and satisfied by the kind of Human Resource
practices and policies that are adopted in an organization. In this project, the cases from the food
and beverage industry in Qatar shall be taken into consideration. It can be said that a good human
resource management helps in the accurate amount and kind of employee retention in an
organization as well as in the whole of the food and beverage industry. This amount of employee
retention also affects the overall employee turnover in an organization. Employee turnover can
be stated to be huge issue for any business organization related to this industry in Qatar (Bratton
and Gold, 2017). The organization try their utmost to manage and retain employees by making
use of suitable and effective human resource policies and practices in order to make the
maximum out of the people working in their respective concerns. The issue of low employee
retention has been seen in this specific industry operating in the country of Qatar. In order to see
through the facts of the problem and sort out effective remedies, the study has been taken into
account and specific topic of study has been chosen.
1.3 Problem Statement (Organizational issues)
Employee retention is one of the major concerns for the food and beverage industry operating in
the country of Qatar. It can be said that each year, more than around 100% of the previously
working individuals leave the industry. These results due to high level of competition among the
staffs and lower level of payments and incentives offered to them. The industry has been plagued
with high level of employee turnover, which overall damages and weakens the financial stability
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and capability of the organization and the hospitality concerns associated with the particular
industry in the state of Qatar (Dzeno Poljac et al. 2017). Thus, it is very important to understand
the fact that how HR practices affect the employee retention in the industry. The understanding
of this statement can be said to be the main issue to be covered in this whole assignment.
It can be said that the proper human resource practices has to be brought into action. It is seen
that most of the concerns and institutes in this industry fail to frame up and adopt the right kind
of human resource practices and measures. This leads to rise of dissatisfaction and less amount
of job satisfaction among the staffs and employees (Elbanna. and Kamel, 2015). Thus, they do
not feel interested in working in the same place. This results in mass job shifts, resignations and
absenteeism. This crops up to be a huge issue for the smooth operation of the whole food and
beverage industry operation in the country.
1.4 Significance of the study
This study has a huge scope and significance. In the context of the high level of employee
turnover which can be seen in the food and beverage industry in the land of Qatar. The use of
ineffective human resource policies by the food and beverage industry has been a huge problem
for the retention of employees (Baumann-Pauly and Nolan, 2016). Many a times, it is seen that
due to poor management, high level of competition, lower payments and unsuitable work
environment leads to discern among the employees they take up decisions to leave their jobs
frequently. The right job schedules and long hours of work also catalyses the whole situation of
employee turnover. The right choice of the kind of human resource is very important in order to
make sure that the employee turnover rate remains low. In order to understand the basic of the
right kind of human resource policy, the study can be said to be having a great significance
(Hollis, 2017). The ways by which human resource can help in the retention of employees can be
pointed out after carrying on with this study. The food and beverage industry offer an unsuitable
working space and poor leadership and performance appraisal, which leads to huge amount of
employees being less satisfied with their job profiles. This brings in the decision for them to
leave their work. This becomes a huge matter of concern for the different of the business
organization functioning in this particular industry (Lasrado, 2018). The lack of consistency
among the staffs and the employees also turns out to be less rewarding for them and this
phenomenon is catalysed by the acute lack of proper knowledge among them (Aktaş and
Yeasmin, 2015). Thus, the study of proper HRM practices and their overall impact on the
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employee retention has a greater significance keeping in mind the different issues that crop up
with the increase of employee turnover and fall in the rate of employee retention.
1.5 Research Objectives
Main Objective:
● To examine the influence of the Human Resource Management on employee’s retention
in the food and beverage industry of Qatar.
Specific Objectives:
● To find out the effect of recruitment on employee’s retention in the food and beverage
industry in Qatar
● To examine the training and development on employee’s retention in the food and
beverage industry in Qatar
● To find out the influence of performance appraisal on employee’s retention in the food
and beverage industry in Qatar.
● To find out the effect of reward system on employee’s retention in the food and beverage
industry in Qatar.
1.6 Research Questions
● What is the relationship between recruitments and employee’s retention in the food and
beverage industry in Qatar?
● Is there any relationships between training and development and employee’s retention in
the food and beverage industry in Qatar?
● What is the influence of performance appraisal on employee’s retention in the food and
beverage industry in Qatar?
● To what extent is the relationship between reward system and employee’s retention in the
food and beverage industry in Qatar?
1.7 Rationale for the chosen research questions
It has to be deduced upon the fact that employee retention diuretics affect the profitability of an
organization. The food and beverage industry since the last five years has suffered a high setback
due to huge amount of employee turnover and failure in the retention technique taken up by the
various institutions. It can be pointed out that the high rate of employee turnover takes place due
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to poor rewarding schemes and performance appraisal. Poor working environment and
conditions, high level of competition, lack of interest in work, long and weary working hours,
lack of concerns and capability seen in the leaders and managers and widespread gender and
racial discrimination has led to huge dissatisfaction and demotivation among the workers of the
industry (Davis. and Luiz, 2015). These all factors have thus contributed to the huge amount of
employee turnover seen in this particular industry in Qatar. Thus based on the issues and
problems, the different set of research questions have been designed in order to enquire about the
issue and take steps and alternatives to get rid of the serious problems and their fatal aftermath
on the profitability of the food and beverage industry (Moayeri, 2014). The first question has
been designed in order to know about how and in what manner the HRM practices and
management in the industry affects and influences the phenomenon of employee retention. The
second question has been interrogated in order to know about the several factors, which affects
the employee retention. This shall help in improving the facts so that employee can be easily
retained, and turnover of employees can be decreased. The next question has been designed in
order to know about the different negatives aftermaths that are brought by poor employee
retention in context of the food and beverage industry. The fourth question has been made in
order to know about things, which can be acted upon in order to bring an atmosphere of balance
between employee retention and organizational profitability (Peng, 2016). Last but not the least,
the last question has been asked in order to enquire about the various HRM policies and practices
which can be taken and considered in order to bring forth high employee retention and low
employee turnover (Manalili, 2017).
1.8 Research Hypothesis
HO1: HR Recruitment policy significantly affects employee retention in the food and beverage
industry in Qatar.
HO2: Training and development program significantly affects employee retention in the food and
beverage industry in Qatar.
HO3: Performance appraisal system has significant impact on employee retention in the food and
beverage industry in Qatar
HO4: Reward system in organisations has a positive impact on employee retention in the food
and beverage industry in Qatar.
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1.9 Research environment and the demographics
The research on this particular topic can be said to be much of a new and uncommon one. The
research on the topic of Human Resource practice and its impact on employee retention and
employee turnover has taken place, however, it has been conducted based on other sets of the
industries or other organizations of different industries (such as retail, manufacturing, tourism
etc.). Such kind of research in food and beverage industry has been not much conducted and not
has been conducted by the researchers. However, by looking at the statistics of the last five
years, it has been seen that the employee turnover has been highest in the food and beverage
industry in the state of Qatar (Parsa and Kwanzaa, 2014). Thus, the topic has been chosen and
brought into light of the research and presentation. Considering the need and demand of the topic
and the scope of research offered by it, the research objectives have been setup and on basis of
that, the research questions have been made. The study shall align with the objectives and
questions and in order to find detailed information and analyze them, the right kind of data and
methodology has been considered for this study (Arkalgud, 2017). It can be also declared that I
could easily perform with this research and I did not have to encounter any such kind of
problems while carrying on with my research work. Further, I got enough help from the other
researchers and my guides who have helped me by providing me with an encouraging
environment. All these factors have helped to choose this topic and carry on with an extensive
study on this topic. In order to understand the problem from a universal standpoint, different
articles and research materials by other researchers have been mentioned and critiques in the
literature review part designed in this whole study.
1.10 Literature Gap
The biggest gap in this study is that it is based only on the food and beverage industry. The
context of employee retention and factors affecting it in this industry is somewhat different from
employee turnover and their causes in the other industries (Chen et al. 2014). Thus, this study
cannot be applied to the paradigms of other industries. Further, this study is limited to only the
country of Qatar. Thus, the student the perceptions arising from it are restricted only to that
country. The study has been conducted based on primary and secondary data. Primary data is a
first-hand data and is more authentic than secondary data (Van der Wagen and White, 2014).
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However, the analysis standpoint becomes much strong and balanced when both data are being
simultaneously used. Thus, in this case, the authenticity of secondary data put up in the literature
review part can be put too much question. These all facts can be painted out be major flaws and
gaps present in this study.
1.11 Academic relevance
The study has been conducted keeping in mind the three focus areas of employee turnover,
organization profitability and ways for retaining employees. The study has been conducted based
on the viewpoints laid down by other previous researchers working on this topic. Many of the
articles have been chosen and used in this study, which related to employee retention and HRM
practices, but they are aimed to study the causes in other insurers. However, the overall study can
be said to be reliable as themes from those studies have been considered here and has been
articulated with the food and beverage industry.
1.12 Summary of Chapter
This chapter mainly deals with the introductory part of the whole study. It has made the reader
introduced with the topic and the problem and theme of the study, on which the whole study has
to be designed and carried out. It had raised and jotted down some objectives and based on those
objectives, questions have been formed to guide the line of the research work. Finally, the
hypothesis has been reached at to form a critical understanding of the whole study.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
In this section of the research project, a thorough review of the available information as well as
data related to the human resource management and other aspects of employee relationship
concentrating only on the Food and Beverage Industry of Qatar has been done. The already
available literature and the concepts regarding the impact of the human resource management on
employee retention will be explored. After the analysis and critical evaluation of the data and the
information, the gaps of the existing literature will be available, after which the exploration with
real time new data and information is going to be carried out.
2.1 Overview of Human Resource Management practices conducted in the food and
beverage industry in Qatar
With the growing complexities and competitiveness in the Food & Beverage industry of Qatar,
the essence of multiculturalism in human resource is evident. These counts for the innovative
human resource management techniques needed to be applied within the organizations operating
within the food industry of Qatar (Farouet al. 2016). Concentrating on the Food and Beverage
Industry, irrespective of the country, the performance and approach of the employees in
maintaining the standards is highly determined by the satisfaction of the human resource. This on
the other hand determines the performance of employees. The fact that is worth mentioning here
before delving into the Food industry particularly, is that, the human resource in Qatar and other
Middle East countries are majorly distributed into three sectors that includes: professional sector,
service sector and finally the technical and the scientific sector. This factor is contextual here, in
terms of its indirectly relation to the fact that within the service sector, the Food and Beverage
industry is sub categorized among industries within the service sector. On the top of it, the
service sector possesses the highest rate of labor (Farouet al. 2016). Employees are considered
by the organizations as assets; however, this particular approach does not prevail universally.
The steady increase in the turnover of the employees within the food and beverage industry of
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Qatar reveals the fact that the human resource practices are the key indicators whether employee
retention is taking place or not.
The food and beverage industry in Qatar can be said to be much negligent about the overall
welfare of the employees. It is seen that the whole of the food and beverage industry is plagued
with high work pressure and lower payments, which leads to high level of dissatisfaction among
them. Lack of training, lack of good leadership and communication also brings in different kind
of issues. The employees are less efficient and informed about the things they need to do. They
remain less motivated towards their work, which increases the level of satisfaction among their
minds. The factors off service climate, organizational culture and internal marketing are very
much related (Abston and Kupritz, 2011). These all factors play a great role in shaping up the
kind of HRM practices that need to be adopted in an organization. As per the terms of the Social
Exchange Theory, employees shall reciprocate if the right kind of reward is given to them and
their performance is being recognized (Roloff, 2015). Such kind of performance appraisal is
absent in the poor human resource practices that are carried on in this industry. The employees if
paid well, take it as a debt to the organization and remain faithful to it.
2.3 Overview of the concepts of Employee retention, the factors and theories related to it
Employee retention actually refers to the outcome of the different human resource practices and
the policies implemented by the human resource department of an organization. The very basic
human resource management practices that are capable of employee retention includes employee
appraisals after evaluation, training and career development of the employees, incentives,
compensations and other added benefits. The issue with the food and beverage industry is the
lack of human resource management practices in relation to the development of the employees.
In the first place, the employees are actually majorly not skilled or semi-skilled who are hired
within the food and beverage industry. This is again aimed at providing less salary that does not
match the industry standards. Thus, this particular reason of non-standard salary and low waged
as well low skilled or semi-skilled employees leads to the high turnover (Bratton and Gold,
2017). To be more precise, they persist the low expectations as well as chances of growth
prospects of the employees. Frustrations are ignited leading to the employees turn over.
According to (Selden and Sowa, 2015), one of the major aspects of the human resource
management prospects is achieving the satisfaction of the employees, this is crucial in yielding
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the bond between the employers and the employee. This bonding, eventually gives rise to the
employee relationship which when further established, is going to avail the company with the
approach benefit of employee retention. Employee turnover is the very result of faulty human
resource management practices (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
As per the terms of the Leader Member Exchange (LMX) Theory, the employees expect good
treatment and behavior from their managers or the superiors in return of good quality work. They
try to abide by the terms put forward by their seniors (Bauer and Erdogan, 2015). However,
many a times, the seniors or managers provide ineffective and wrong guidance. Poor training and
communication to the employees also may bring failure in their job, which may demotivate
them, and thus leading to force leaving of jobs. Various factors affect the retention of employee
along with the theories. The factors such as job satisfaction, and job responsibility goes in hand
in hand with the Leader Member Theory, as the leader is responsible for bringing in job
satisfaction among the employees, imparting proper training and education among them and
makes them capable to handle their job responsibilities. Motivation Theory: Needs-Based &
Behavior-Based, suggests that if the job responsibilities become excessive and weary along with
fewer amounts of job satisfaction and education, employees feel burdened up and are forced to
leave their jobs (Glebbeek and Bax, 2004). This brings in high turnover of employees for the
organizations. Another huge factor, which affects the overall standard of employee turnover, is
the age. If the age becomes high, employees fail to be less interested towards their work. These
results in leaving their jobs leading to more pressure burdened on the shoulders of the capable
workers in the industry. The available ones are burdened with workloads and then they are
forced to leave their jobs. Thus, this employee turnover cycle can be said to be continuing and
viscous in nature. As per the Organizational behavior theory, the employee retention depends on
the kind of demeanour that is shown by the management of the organization/industry towards the
employees (Aguenza and Som, 2018). If they are well taken care of, their issues and complaints
are properly addressed to and a good working environment is insured for them, then the rate of
employee retention can be increased.
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2.4 Human Resource practices affecting upon employee turnover, retention in Food &
Beverage Industry in Qatar
In the context of Qatar Food and Beverage industry, the reference to the existing concepts of
human resource management that is universally standardized in general is required. According to
Hollenbeck and Jamieson (2015), the policies and the practices that are developed by any
organization with the aim to effectively manage and utilize the manpower to its fullest as well as
comply with legislation refers to the employee human resource management. The practices that
are integral and universally standardized in the functions of human resource management to
implement the human resource practices includes the recruitment and selection, human resource
planning, training and development, performance appraisal, compensation, job analysis, and
labor relations (Abakeret al. 2018). These are the practices that are monitored and controlled by
the human resource management and senior management of any organization (Hollenbeck and
Jamieson, 2015). This is how the management of the human capital is done by the organization
where the human resource plays the role of bridging the gap between the employer and the
employee. The human resource management by devising the practices, (that are often custom
based) functions in the protection of the rights of the employees as well as providing the
companies with the best potential talent for high productivity (Bratton and Gold, 2017). This is
done through different human resource practices that include training and development,
recruitment through different modes, creating healthy competitive environment for evaluating
and taking the best out of the potentials. The different innovative human resources practices
determine the employee retention capability of the company. In context of the food and beverage
industry, special concern to the handling of the activities are required that has to be well aligned
with the organizational objectives (Bratton and Gold, 2017). In that case, the organization
operating within the food and beverage industry has to go for the development of goals of the
company indicating towards increasing of profitability of the company. According to (Michele
Kacmaret al. 2006), the growth of the company along with its sustainability can be determined
only through overall development of the company that includes the development and growth of
the employees as well. This particular approach is lacking within the organizations operating in
the Food and Beverage industry of Qatar that is contextual here (Farouet al. 2016). The
workforce operates in the base in executing the organizational goals and objectives to achieve the
mission as well as vision of the company.
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As per Institution Theory, environment and social structure of the organization has to be positive
and encouraging in order to bring and inculcate work interests among the workers (Albrecht et
al. 2015). Things such as effective communication, employee participation and decision-making
are necessary in order to bring motivation among the minds of the employees and catering to all
the human resource needs. This fact helps in increasing the amount of employee retention and
thus helps in decreasing the amount of labor turnover that is taking place in this industry. As per
the Human Capital Theory: (Characteristics & Investment model), the kind of human resource
policy that is framed inside an industry and the steps that are taken to bring an overall
development for the employees act in a positive manner and helps in influencing the overall rate
of employee participation in the production and sales activities (Michele Kacmaret al. 2006). As
per the statements put forth by the Neoclassical Theory of Human Resource Management, the
Human Relations approach holds a certain ground in influencing the kind of relation that is held
onto by the employee with the business organization or industry. As per this theory, employees
should be given work independence and their decisions should be taken into account (Zak,
2017). They should be given some discretionary power and should have a say in the
organization. They should have fixed work hours and should enjoy at least a minimum good pay
in order to ensure good work from them. AMO (Ability, Motivation & Opportunities) Theory
explains that effective training is necessary and good career development opportunities are
necessary in order to ensure a good HRM practice to be initiated in an organization. The
employees should be given with good promotions and pay hikes along with the development of
their abilities and the contribution made by them to the organzation. The Optimal Turnover
model as shown by Abelson and Baysinger (2017), depicts the effects of employee turnover in a
business organization or specific industry. It shows that if the employee turnover increases due to
poor HRM practices and management then it affects the profitability of a business concern. The
food and beverage industry of Qatar have to take sharp turns in improving the scenario of HRM
practices and bring proper order in the whole of the industry. All these factors shall help in
increasing the profitability of the industry and this shall further help in the process of best
employee retention practices.
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2.5 Relationship and establishing a balance between employee retention and organizational
profitability
According to Benjamin (2003), the graduates are increasing day by day however, not all matches
the expectations of the organizations in terms of becoming competitive and sustainable within
the market competition. This reveals the fact that encouraging and implementing the effective
human resource practice is crucial in retaining people for the organizations (Stone and Deadrick,
2015). The numbers of graduates with immense potential are increasing day by day but the
organizations that are willing to achieve sustainability within the global are often found to
implement new ways of satisfying the employees (Albrecht et al. 2015). These include the well-
planned and unique human resource management strategies that are being efficiently adopted and
implemented by the leaders and managers as well. The leadership approach introduced in the
management of the human resource is often considered as the key to build employee relationship
and thereby gain the loyalty of the employees. This is, in the long-run, it enhances the
communication between the employers and the employee where the retention is facilitated
(Glebbeek and Bax, 2004). Thus, protecting the company from high turnover can be taken under
control. This is how the management practices are inter-related with the employee retention. The
factors that are considered by researchers as highly active behind huge employee turnover
impacts employee’s retention as well includes the customer dissatisfaction. This leads to the loss
of confidence within the employees on an individual basis as well as loss of the effective
execution of the operations by the company owing to the inefficient management of the
organization (Glebbeek and Bax, 2004). The necessity of skilled employees cannot be denied
because of the requirement of special, proper and efficient services to the people and the
customers visiting. They are well aware of the standards and obligations of the legislations of the
national as well as international standards (Selden and Sowa, 2015) Nevertheless, it is one of the
human resource management practices, that is the training and the development of the employees
is going to provide the companies with the loyalty of the employees that helps in the reduction of
the employee turnover (Glebbeek and Bax, 2004). Therefore, it is quite evident that employee
retention is the extended prospect of the human resource management practices that are very
crucial in this era of globalization. The use of technology in developing the career of the
employees is one of the most noted practices these days that equips the employees with more
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efficiency (Stone and Deadrick, 2015). The use of technology for execution of the organizational
operations or for the purpose of the communication is familiar with the millennial. The
experienced individuals are unaware or hesitant in using the technology in different departments
of any company of food and beverage industry. This is where the turnover of the employees is
often witnessed (Albrecht et al. 2015). The human resource management practices of training
and development of the employees help these kinds of experienced employees who are beneficial
for the company with their experiences as well as insights (Stone and Deadrick, 2015). During
the new recruitments there are often gaps found between the experienced managers and the
fresher end up with lack of vision, preferring techniques that are not suitable, resulting in taking
risk (Bratton and Gold, 2017). Thus, managerial approaches in relation to HRM play the pivotal
of initiating the new employees, the vision, mission as well as objectives of the company. This is
known to reduce the employee turnover, which has to be checked in sustaining the organization
along with organizational structure and culture (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
2.6 Gaps in Literature
The primary limitation of this study is that it cannot be applied universally to all industries. It is
not a totalizing theorisation that shall hold relevance for any kind of industry. However, it can
provide quite accurate insights regarding the human resource practices on employee retention
within the food and beverage industry. Another problem that arises in this aspect is that there are
times when certain nuances under the domain of HRM cannot be empirically determined. Since,
it is a domain concerning human relationships there are a lot of personal and informal factors
involved which cannot be effectively understood while conducting research (Kavanagh and
Johnson, 2017). Employee retention, turnover etcetera is motivated to a large extent by these
personal factors which cannot be studied on theoretical terms. This implies that the way in which
human interactions occur within the workplace is fluid in nature. An overly mechanistic or
rational analysis of the problem of retention might not always hold true in practical contexts.
Moreover, in the age of globalization where workforces have become multicultural, theories on
race, gender and society has to be integrated with studies in human resource (Brewster et al.
2016). Since, such a comprehensive study is beyond the scope of this project, it has to be left out
from my purview.
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2.7 Summary of chapter
The above chapter provides multiple concepts and insights of the HR practices and the
employee’s retention with an inductive approach, focusing on the facts of the already established
HRM and its aspects in the F&B industry. The impact of the HR practices on employee retention
within the existing literature has been analyzed and further focus on the consideration of the
other external factors in HR practices relevant in this era of globalization has been made. These
are also the determinants motivating the employees, building relationships and making the
workforce effective. This is how, the review of the literature done above make acquaintances
with the benefits of the employee retention that is highly crucial in the F&B industry in Qatar.
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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This chapter represents the research methodology for the study on exploring the impact
of Human Resource Management practices on employee’s retention, with a special focus on the
evidence from the F&B industry in the state of Qatar. Research methodology presents the basic
strategy to be followed for data collection and analysis. This chapter will highlight the chosen
data type, research design, its strengths and limitations, sampling technique and size, tools and
technique of data collection, method of analysis, timeline, and ethical issues involved in the data
collection process. The researcher collected primary data through a survey on the employees,
who had left their previous organizations in the Food and Beverage industry in Qatar in the past
6 to 12 months of the survey. The research methodology is as follows:
3.1 Research design
Research design refers to the systematic approach that is used to conduct a scientific
research study. It represents an overall synchronization of the components of research and the
data leading to a plausible conclusion (Lewis 2015). There are four types of research designs,
namely, exploratory, explanatory, descriptive and evaluation research. In the given study, the
researcher focused on exploring the effect of HRM practices on the employee retention, and
hence, the topic could be best explained with primary data. Primary data is the one that is
collected directly from the field of study, that is, people, who are directly affected or involved in
the research subject (Heiman 2013). Thus, to address the research question, the researcher chose
the descriptive research design. Under descriptive design, the researcher got the scope to
observe, study or analyze the subjects and finally describing the behavioral pattern without
influencing the subject (Rovai, Baker and Ponton 2013). Descriptive research design includes
approaches like case studies, survey, and observational research. In this study, the researcher
followed survey approach under descriptive research design.
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3.2 Strengths and limitations of descriptive research design
Descriptive research is beneficial in presenting an in-depth overview of the research
topic. This type of research design presents extremely valuable detailed observations. This
allows the researchers to observe the research participants in an unchanged and natural
environment and results in a more unbiased outcome. It is also beneficial to identify the variables
that can be examined further and thereby creates scope for further research. The data collection
method allows the researchers to gather detailed information about the subjects that can be either
qualitative or quantitative in nature. Thus, it is beneficial for collecting multifaceted data and
large amount of data, which leads to precise outcomes. Survey is one such descriptive research
method that helps in collecting large amount of data within a short time, and hence, it is
commonly used by organisations to gather information about the beliefs, behaviours, habits and
attitudes of the target audience in their natural environment (Nardi 2018). Moreover, the
reliability of primary data is quite high, hence, survey method is mostly used to collect
information directly from the participants.
The limitations of this type of research design include its inability to determine a causal
relationship, and lack of guarantee that the participants provide truthful data. The information
gathered through this study does not always help to determine the cause and effect relationship
between the variables. The researcher must be very careful while observing the participants as
they can change their behaviour if they know that they are being observed. Similarly, during a
survey, the researcher must choose their words very cautiously, especially for a sensitive issue,
as the participants might get offended or might be scared to answer truthfully due to social
norms. Moreover, confidentiality can be an issue during the survey, which would make the
participants about answering the questions truthfully and that might lead to unscientific and
unreliable outcome (De Vaus 2013). At the same time, the outcome or interpretation may be
affected by researcher’s biasness. Moreover, this type of research design, that is, survey method
cannot target a big geographical region and focus only on a smaller region.
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3.3 Population of the study
Population of a study refers to the group of individuals sharing common characteristics (Levy
and Lemeshow 2013). Such population must have the similar characteristics as that creates the
foundation of the data collection for the study. In this aspect, the study used the target population
are 35 employees working in two F&B industries in Qatar.
3.4 Sample size and Sampling technique
There are two types of sampling technique, probability and non-probability (Palinkas et
al. 2015). Probability sampling technique illustrates that all the respondents are able to
participate in the research and can get equal opportunity. In other words, all the samples have
equal chance of being selected and selection is random. On the other hand, Levy and Lemeshow
(2013) highlight that non-probability sampling technique does not provide equal chances for
getting equal opportunity for participating in the research. The judgment of the researcher
influences the chance of being chosen of the samples. The most commonly used probability
sampling techniques are simple random sampling, cluster sampling, stratified and systematic
sampling, and some of the most common non-probability sampling techniques are purposive
sampling, quota sampling, snow-ball sampling (Setia 2016). In the given study, the researcher
used simple random sampling method to select the employees in the Qatar F&B industry in order
to minimize the chances of sampling error or fluctuations and biasness in the data.
Sample size
z is the z score
ε is the margin of error
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N is population size
p is the population proportion
1.282 * 2 (1-2)/10
Sample size = --------------------------
1+ (1.28 * 2
(1-2))/10*257000
Sample size = 41
According to the sample size calculation, 41 sample was used for data collection. But
unfortunately, 35 respondents were given response to questionnaire filling. Therefore, 35
samples were only used in this study.
3.5 Data collection tools and techniques
As mentioned earlier, researcher used primary data for data collection purpose by
applying the survey method. Thus, a survey questionnaire was the research instrument. The
questionnaire contained 14 close ended questions, divided in two sections, demographic and non-
demographic.
The demographic section contained questions on gender, experience with current organization,
and few workplace related factors, such as, top five reasons of leaving previous organization,
factors that made the respondents happy at work, their achievement, desires and goals at the
workplace. This section aimed to gather an overview of the attitude of the respondents about
their current or previous workplace.
The non-demographic section contained two parts, quantitative study on the effective HR
practices and factors of employee retention. These sections cover 5-point Likert scale questions,
in which 1 denotes ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 denotes ‘strongly agree’. These questions were
framed in a way that would best describe the factors influencing employee retention and HR
practices (Joshi et al. 2015). The aim of this section was to gather information on the elements
that influence the employees to stay associated with the organizations in food and beverage
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industries or leave the organizations. The survey questionnaire was designed by using Google
form.
Researcher have chosen two large food and beverage companies in Doha, Qatar and with
the help of HR database the names and contacts of the employees who had joined the
organization within the past 6 to 12 months was gathered. The chosen survey respondents were
contacted via e-mail or face to face to inform them about the purpose of the survey and its terms
and conditions. They were given the link to the questionnaire through their emails or hardcopies
by meeting them in person. The survey was conducted for 5 weeks.
3.6 Validity and Reliability analysis
Validity and reliability analysis were performed after the research instrument was
prepared. Different types of validity processes are there, that are used to examine the accuracy of
the research instrument. Those are face validity, content validity and construct validity. Face
validity is the estimate of if a test appears to evaluate a certain criterion (Bolarinwa 2015).
However, there is no guarantee that it would actually measure the research phenomena. Content
validity refers to a non-statistical type of validity involving a systematic evaluation of the study
content. This is done with a purpose of testing of whether it was covering all the relevant aspects
or characteristics of the representative sample (Escamirosa et al. 2015). Lastly, construct validity
refers to the concept of measuring the extent of accuracy of the instrument, that is, to what extent
the instrument is accurate in measuring the research topic is the concept of construct validity
(Heale and Twycross 2015).
In the given study, the survey questionnaire was designed to find out the HR factors that
affects the employee retention in the food and beverage industry in Qatar. The survey
questionnaire is attached in the Appendix section. Going by the questions, it can be seen that, it
had face validity as well as content validity as all the questions contained elements addressing
HR practices and employee retention. The aspect of construct validity was examined by
conducting a pilot study to check how far it was measuring the objective of the research.
Reliability is also a measure of quality of the instruments used for research. The results
would only be considered valid when the measurement procedure is reliable (Heale and
Twycross 2015). It primarily measures the consistency of data collected using the research
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instrument. Cronbach’s alpha is used to examine the reliability of the data. A score of 0.7 or
more is considered as the acceptable score for reliability. Hence, in the given research, the
internal consistency of the data was measured by applying the reliability test.
3.7 Data analysis technique
Data analysis techniques are of two types, qualitative and quantitative in general. The
qualitative data analysis methods emphasize more on the words than on the numbers. This type
of research is beneficial for getting a bigger and generalized picture and identifying the factors
that have a scope for further research (Neuman 2013). On the other hand, quantitative data
analysis techniques deal with the numbers and thus, apply the statistical methods for analysis of
the numbers (Bryman and Bell 2015). This type of analysis technique or research method
focuses on a specific issue and then draws inferences about the general picture. Considering the
study objectives, researcher applied quantitative data analysis method in this study. The survey
responses were converted into numeric values as those were collected through replicable scale.
This was done for the purpose of applying the scientific data analysis tools (Barua 2013).
Inferential, reliability, correlation and, multiple regression analysis was applied to test the
hypothesis.
3.8 Ethical issues involved in data collection
There are some ethical issues in any research that involve humans for data collection.
Therefore, researcher considered ethical issues in each and every research phase. Firstly, the
legal, personal, and bureaucratic compliances met by the researcher. Informed consent was taken
from the participants and also from the concerned organisation before proceeding with the data
collection as per the statement of (McDaniel and Gates 2013). The researcher further explains
clearly the purpose of the study and also the rules of participation. The participants were also
informed that they can withdraw from the survey at any time. They do not harm, forced or bribed
to answer the questions or manipulate the answers. Secondly, the researcher explains the
confidentiality and anonymity agreement to the survey respondents. Moreover, it is made clear
that the data will be kept secret and to be used only for educational purposes. The researcher has
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followed all these ethical aspects before conducting the survey to avoid any type of ethical issues
in future.
3.9 Summary of chapter
This chapter presented the methods followed to conduct the study on the impact of the
HR practices on the employee retention with a special focus on the F&B industry. Descriptive
research design was followed in this study. As this research design is beneficial in gathering
detailed and huge information by observing the participants in natural environment. 35
employees was used from two large food and beverage industry in Qatar through simple random
sampling technique. Inferential and descriptive analysis was carried out to attain the study
objectives.
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Chapter 4
Data presentation, analysis and Discussion of Findings
4.0 Introduction
This section described the process of data collection and presentation, analysis and discussion of
findings.
4.1 Data Analysis and findings
Table 1: Reliability statistics
The process leading to the reliability table ensure the validity and precision of the statistical
analysis. The term reliability denotes to a function defining the profitability of failure. It is
applied to the product quality. The reliability statistics is used to build reliable measurement
scales, to improve existing scales and evaluate the scales already in use. The term reliability
signifies a function defining the probability of failure.
Cronbach's Alpha N of Items
.700 22
Table 1 represents Reliability statistics. Cronbach’s Alpha is used to determine the internal
consistency. The items measure the same thing and should be correlated with each other. The
alpha coefficient of 22 items is .700. It is the acceptable and a good value. The Cronbach's Alpha
offers a simple way to measure whether a score is reliable or not.
4.2 Frequency statistics
Table 2: Gender
Frequency Percent
Female 16 45.7
Male 19 54.3
Total 35 100.0
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Table 2 represents the gender ratio in an organization. The total number of employees in the
organization is 35. Male are more compared to female in an organization with 54.3% with the
frequency of 19 males whereas 45.7% are belonging to female with the frequency of 16. The
organization is mainly dominated by the males.
46%
54%
Female
Male
Table 3: Experience with current organization
Frequency Percent
Less than 1 year 14 40.0
1-3 years 11 31.4
More than 3 to 5 years 6 17.1
More than 5 years 4 11.4
Total 35 100.0
Table 3 represents employee experience with current organization. To the maximum 40% of the
employees are working in the organization for less than a year. 31.4% employees are belonging
with the experience of 1- 3 years. 17.1% of the employees belonging with the experience of more
than 3 years to 5 years. Minority of the employees are with the experience of more than 5 years
with 11.4%. It can be assumed that there are more of new employees in the organization which is
40%. The retention rate is low in the organization represented from the people having experience
more than five years which is 11.4%.
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Less than 1 year 1-3 years More than 3 to 5
years
More than 5 years
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Table 4: Factors contributing to happy work environment
Frequency Percent
Workplace environment 3 8.6
Support from leaders 4 11.4
Transparency in the workplace 4 11.4
Clear promotional goals 15 42.9
Opportunities for growth 9 25.7
Total 35 100.0
Table 4 represents factors contributing to happy work environment. The job satisfaction is
closely linked with the happy work environment. Majority of the employees feels clear
promotional goals are one of the essential criteria for happy working environment with 42.9%.
25.7% of the employees prefer opportunities for growth. 11.4% of the employee prefers
transparency in the workplace and another group of 11.4% of the employees prefers support
from leaders. 8.6% of the employees feel that workplace environment to be the important criteria
for happy working environment.
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Workplace environment
Support from leaders
Transparency in the workplace
Clear promotional goals
Opportunities for growth
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Table 5: Aim to achieve at work
Frequency Percent
Promotion 7 20.0
Social recognition 3 8.6
Appreciation 7 20.0
Extra rewards and benefits 8 22.9
Experience 3 8.6
Effective management and
support from the top 2 5.7
Healthy environment to work in 1 2.9
Happiness at work 4 11.4
Total 35 100.0
Table 5 represents aim to achieve at work. There is always role of the motivations in the in
accomplishing the work. Promotion, social recognition, experience, extra awards, health
environment and more have role in attaining aims. Majority of the employees with 22.9% thinks
that extra rewards and benefits can help to achieve aim at work. It has great role in enhancing
aims towards the organization. 20% of the employee thinks that promotion will help to achieve
the aim. It gives kind of recognition to the employees. Another 20% of the employees think
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appreciation will help to achieve the aim. 11.4% of the employees prefer happiness at work.
8.6% of the employees think social recognition will help to strive for the goal. Another 8.6% of
the employees think experience will help to achieve aim at work. 5.7% of the employees prefer
effective management and support from the top will help to achieve the aim. Least 1% of the
employees think healthy environment will assist to obtain the goal at work.
20%
9%
20%
23%
9%
6%
3
% 11% Promotion
Social recognition
Appreciation
Extra rewards and
benefits
Experience
Effective management
and support from the top
Healthy environment to
work in
Happiness at work
Table 6: Goals
Frequency Percent
Remain in the organization for a longer time 5 14.3
Search for other companies where you can
showcase your skills better 15 42.9
Lead other members and guide them in
critical situations 3 8.6
Become a leader after a certain number of
years of experience 12 34.3
Total 35 100.0
Table 6 represents goals of an employee. Majority of the employees with 42.9% are willing to
search for some other companies where they can showcase their skills better. 34.3% of the
employees are willing to become a leader after certain number of years of experience. 14.3 % of
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the employees prefer to remain in the organization for a longer time. 8.6% of the employee are
willing to lead other members and guide them in critical situation.
Remain in the organization for a longer time
Search for other companies where you can showcase
your skills better
Lead other members and guide them in critical
situations
Become a leader after a certain number of years of
experience
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Table 7: Reason for leaving organization
Frequency Percent
Work-life imbalance 5 14%
Discrimination/bias from the management 11 31%
Poor communication 15 43%
Feeling undervalued 11 31%
Lack of decision-making ability 5 14%
Improper promotional activities 22 63%
Lack of growth opportunities 29 83%
Poor communication 23 66%
Lack of inclusion in the organization 11 31%
Ineffective relationship with team members 0 0%
Regular changes in job responsibilities 2 6%
Insufficient rewards, recognition, and benefits 10 29%
Lack of employee welfare 8 23%
Misalignment of culture and value system in the
organization 12 34%
Lack of support from line managers 11 31%
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Table 7 represents the employee’s reason for leaving an organization. The employees are
anticipated to leave the organization when they are not satisfied with the working conditions.
Majority of the employees with 83% leaves the current job because of the lack of growth
opportunity. It is the growth opportunity which goes to take employees from one level to
another. 66% of the employees leave due to poor communication. The communication has role in
interaction with other departments. It has main role in carrying the process. 63% of the
employees leave because of improper promotional activities. 43% of the employees leave due to
poor communication. 34% of the employees leave due to misalignment of culture and value
system in the organization. 31% of the employees leave because of feeling undervalued. 31% of
the employees leave because of discrimination/bias from the management. 31% of the employees
leave because of lack of inclusion in the organization. 31% of the employees leave due to lack of
support from line managers. 29% of the employee leaves due to insufficient rewards,
recognition, and benefits. 23% of the employees leave because of lack of employee welfare. 14%
of the employees leave due to lack of decision-making ability. 14% of the employees leave due
to work-life imbalance. 6% of the employees leave due to regular changes in job responsibilities.
None reasoned ineffective relationship with team members to leave the job.
Work-life imbalance
Poor communication
Lack of decision-making ability
Lack of growth opportunities
Lack of inclusion in the organization
Regular changes in job responsibilities
Lack of employee welfare
Lack of support from line managers
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
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4.3 Factor analysis:
Table 8: KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling
Adequacy. .383
Bartlett's Test of
Sphericity
Approx. Chi-Square 373.872
df 231
Sig. .000
Table 8 represents two tests that show the adaptability of the data for structure detection. The
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy is a statistic that represents the proportion
of variance in the variables that could be occurred because of underlying factors. The lower
proportion leads to the suitable data. The value is .383 which represents the need to remedial
action to be taken. Such results are probably not very useful. Bartlett’s Test of sphericity
examines the hypothesis that correlation matrix is an identity matrix that represents that variables
are suitable and hence appropriate for structure detection. The small impact here represent that
analysis may be useful for the data.
4.4 Hypotheses Testing
H1: HR Recruitment policy significantly affects employee retention in the food and
beverage industry in Qatar
Table 09: Relationship between HR practices and Employee Retention
HR practices Employee
retention
HR practices 1 .364*
Employee
retention .364* 1
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-
tailed).
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Table 09 represents the relationship between HR practices and Employee Retention. If the value
of HR practices 1 then the employee retention is .364*. When the value of employee retention is
1 then HR practices is 364*. *. Represents the correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Table 10: Association between HR practices and Employee Retention
Model
Unstandardized
Coefficients R
Square F value p value
B Std.
Error
(Constant
) 1.059 .364
.133 5.051 .031*
HR
practices .429 .191
a. Dependent Variable: Employee retention
Table 10 represents the association between HR practices and Employee Retention. The
dependent variable in this table is employee retention. The unstandardized Coefficients for the
constant the value of unstandardized beta (B) is 1.059 and standard error is 0.364. The
unstandardized Coefficients for HR practices of unstandardized beta (B) is .429 and standard
error is 0.119. The value of R square is 0.133, 5.051 is the value of F and 0.031 is the value of p.
It was hypothesized that HR Recruitment policy positively and significantly affects employee
retention in the food and beverage industry in Qatar. From table 11 and 12, results confirm the
same. This implies the impacts of the HRM rehearses on retention of employee depends on HR
Recruitment policy. Michele Kacmar et al. (2006) uncovered that the sort of human resource
policy that is encircled inside an industry and the means that are taken to bring a general
improvement for the representatives demonstration in a positive way and aides in affecting the
general rate of employee interest in the sales and production activities. This examination anyway
expresses that HR enrolment strategy altogether influences retention of employee in the sales and
production activities in Qatar. Hollis (2017) additionally expressed the equivalent. The correct
decision of the sort of human asset is vital so as to beyond any doubt that the employee turnover
rate stays low.
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H2: Training and development program significantly affects employee retention in the food
and beverage industry in Qatar
Table 11: Relationship between Training and development program and Employee
Retention
Training and
development program
Employee
retention
Training and
development program 1 .683**
Employee retention .683** 1
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 11 represents the relationship between training and development program and Employee
Retention. If the value of Training and development program is 1 then the employee retention is
0.683**. When the value of employee retention is 1 then training and development program is
0.683**. **. Represents the correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 12: Association between Training and development program and Employee
Retention
Model
Unstandardized
Coefficients R
Squar
e
F
value
p
value
B Std.
Error
(Constant) .354 .286
.683 28.80
2
.000*
*
Training
and
developmen
t program
.774 .144
a. Dependent Variable: Employee retention
Table 12 represents the association between Training and development program and Employee
Retention. The training and development programs are the initial thing to go when the
organization is expecting to lower costs. The dependent variable in table 12 is employee
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retention. The unstandardized Coefficients for the constant the value of unstandardized beta (B)
is 0.354 and standard error is 0.286. The unstandardized Coefficients for training and
development program of unstandardized beta (B) is 0.774 and standard error is 0.144. The value
of R square is 0.683, 28.802 is the value of F and 0.000 is the value of p.
It was hypothesized that between training and development program positively and significantly
affects employee retention in the food and beverage industry in Qatar. The training and
development program solves the problems faced by the organizations and fulfils their needs time
to time. This was in line with the previous study of (Abaker et al. 2018) revealed that the
practices that are fundamental and generally institutionalized in the elements of human resource
management to actualize the human asset rehearses incorporates the performance appraisal, job
analysis, human resource planning, recruitment and selection, remuneration and labour relations.
AMO (Ability, Motivation and Opportunities) Theory clarifies that successful training is vital
and great profession advancement openings are fundamental so as to guarantee a decent HRM
practice to be started in an association. One of the human asset the board rehearses, that is the
preparation and the advancement of the employees will give the organisations the devotion of the
representatives that helps in the decrease of the employee turnover (Glebbeek and Bax, 2004).
The practices of human resource management of training and improvement of the representatives
help these sorts of experienced employees who are valuable for the organization with their
encounters just as bits of knowledge (Stone and Deadrick, 2015).
H3: Performance appraisal system has significant impact on employee retention in the food
and beverage industry in Qatar.
Table 13: Relationship between Performance appraisal system and Employee Retention
Performance
appraisal system
Employee
retention
Performance
appraisal system 1 .630**
Employee
retention .630** 1
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
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Table 13 represents the relationship between performance appraisal system and Employee
Retention. The performance appraisal system maintains the employee retention rate. It also has
role in shaping the employment relationships. If the value of performance appraisal system is 1
then the employee retention is 0.630**. When the value of employee retention is 1 then
performance appraisal system is 0.630**. **. Represents the correlation is significant at the 0.01
level (2-tailed).
Table 14: Association between Performance appraisal system and Employee Retention
Model
Unstandardized
Coefficients R
Squar
e
F
value
p
value
B Std.
Error
(Constant) .248 .351
.397 21.69
7
.000*
*
Performanc
e appraisal
system
.829 .178
a. Dependent Variable: Employee retention
Table 14 represents the association between performance appraisal system and Employee
Retention. The dependent variable in this table is employee retention. The unstandardized
Coefficients for the constant the value of unstandardized beta (B) is 0.248 and standard error is
0.351. The unstandardized Coefficients for performance appraisal system of unstandardized beta
(B) is 0.829 and standard error is 0.178. The value of R square is 0.397, 21.697 is the value of F
and 0.000** is the value of p.
The food and beverage industry provide an unacceptable working space and poor performance
appraisal and initiative that prompts tremendous measure of representatives being less happy
with their activity profiles. This acquires the choice for them to leave their work. This turns into
an immense matter of concern for the diverse of the business association working in this specific
industry (Lasrado, 2018).
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Table 15: Association between Reward system and Employee Retention
Model
Unstandardized
Coefficients R
Square
F
value
p
value
B Std.
Error
(Constant
) .186 .327 .450 26.981 .000**
Rewards .866 .167
a. Dependent Variable: Employee retention
Table 15 represents the association between Reward system and employee retention. The
dependent variable in this table is employee retention. The unstandardized coefficient of the
constant the value of unstandardized beta (B) is 0.186 and standard error is 0.327. The
unstandardized coefficient of reward system the value of unstandardized beta (B) is 0.866 and
standard error is 0.167. The value of R square is 0.450, 26.981 is the value of F and 0.000** is the
value of p.
The outcome contrasts with past investigations by Chew and Chan (2008) and Hong et al. (2012)
who discovered that viable remuneration diminishes employee turnover and expands retention
rate. Chew and Chan, (2008) utilized a Structural Equation Model to build up that compensation
decidedly anticipated hierarchical responsibility and expectation to remain on work; Hong et al.
(2012) utilized regression examination and discovered that, there is an essentially positive
connection among remuneration and retention. According to the terms of the Social Exchange
Theory, representatives will respond if the correct sort of reward is provided to them and their
execution is being perceived (Roloff, 2015).
Another motivation behind why reward impacts retention is that employees who get great
remuneration may feel that they are valued by the associations for their execution and
commitments (Lai, 2011). They may then be persuaded to contribute more and furthermore
remain with the association. Along these lines’ representatives place a ton of significant worth on
rewards and it is in this way not astounding that compensate has a positive huge connection on
employee retention.
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Table 16: Association between HR Recruitment policy, Training and development
program, Performance appraisal system & Reward system, and Employee Retention
Model
Unstandardized
Coefficients R
Square
F
value
p
value
B Std.
Error
(Constant) -.379 .351
.640 13.360 .000**
HR practices -.091 .169
Training and
development
program
.511 .196
Rewards .299 .201
Performance
appraisal
system
.430 .176
a. Dependent Variable: Employee retention
Table 16 represents the association among HR Recruitment policy, Training and development
program, Performance appraisal system & Reward System and Employee Retention. The
dependent variable for this table is employee retention. The unstandardized coefficient of the
constant the value of unstandardized beta (B) is -0.379 and standard error is 0.351. The
unstandardized coefficient of HR practices the value of unstandardized beta (B) is -0.091 and
standard error is 0.169. The unstandardized coefficient of training and development program the
value of unstandardized beta (B) is 0.511 and standard error is 0.196. The unstandardized
coefficient of reward system the value of unstandardized beta (B) is 0.299 and standard error
0.201. The unstandardized coefficient of performance appraisal system the value of
unstandardized beta (B) is 0.430 and standard error is 0.176. The value of R square is 0.640,
13.360 is the value of F and 0.000** is the value of p.
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4.5 Discussion of Findings
The data is analysed regarding the human resource practices and policies of the food and
beverage industry of Qatar. The analysis is helpful in analysing the employee retention of the
organizations. The employee retention affects to the overall employee rate. The data analysis has
comprised reliability statistics which helped in building reliable measurement scales. Cronbach’s
Alpha has been used in determining internal consistency which is .700 of 22 items. It represented
an acceptable and good value. The frequency factors are resulted from various factors like
gender, experience with the current organization and factors contributing to happy work
environment. The gender statistics revealed that there are 54.3% males in the organization
compared to 45.7% females. The experience with the current organization revealed that there are
more of new employees in the organization who have spent less than one year in comparison to
the persons 11.7% of the males having experience more than five years. It reveals that the
retention rate is low in the F&B industry of Qatar. The lower employee retention is faced due to
the less promotions taking place in the industry. The struggle is faced for the factors contributing
to the happy work environment in the F&B industry of Qatar. These factors have important
criteria for the happy working environment but the industry lacks this criteria. The aim towards
achieving at work comprised factors like extra rewards, benefits and healthy environment to
work in. the industry is aiming to provide extra benefits but lacks in maintain the healthy
working environment. The goals of employees in the F&B industry is having aim to search for
the other companies which can showcase the skills in a better way. The employees are likely to
remain in the organization for a less time. The major reason identified for leaving organization
by the employees is lack of the growth opportunities. As a part of the factor analysis, KMO and
Bartlett’s test represented the higher value which demonstrated the need of the remedial actions
to be taken. The hypotheses testing comprised relationship and association between HR practices
and employee retention. The training and development program affects employee retention and
represents the significant correlation at the 0.01 level. The relationship between performance
appraisal and employee retention also represent the significant correlation at the 0.01 level.
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4.6 Summary of Chapter
The employee satisfaction has a role in the employee retention. The employee satisfaction can be
attained from promotions, incentives, rewards, training and more. This chapter analysed the data
to understand the factors behind the employees’ retention. The frequency statistics, factor
analysis, reliability test and hypotheses testing are used to find the significance of the retention of
the employees.
The study is conducted on the impact of the HR practices on the employee retention with a
special focus on the F&B industry.
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Chapter 5
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
5.0 Introduction
The summary of the research has been represented in this last chapter. Moreover, it deliberates
the key discoveries and obtains the required inferences. Contribution to future directions,
recommendations, knowledge, and inferences of findings for upcoming research are presented.
5.1 Summary
HR management practices are very much essential in the modern day business. HRM practices
towards employee retention, HR recruitment, performance appraisal system needs to be designed
properly. Reward systems influence the overall employee retention program. There are more
numbers of male workers as compared to female workers. Relationship performance appraisal,
training and development, reward system between employee retention and is very high. It is
evident from the above analysis results.
5.2 Conclusion
This study aimed to analyse the impact of HRM practices towards employee’s retention and
further identify certain practices which show major impact on retention. The following are the
conclusions obtained in this study.
Initially, the conclusion of the study indicates the fact that HR Recruitment policy, Training, and
development program, Performance appraisal system; Reward system are important and indeed
influence employee retention in the food and beverage industry in Qatar.
Then, this study gives proof that the reason for employees for leaving the organization because
of the lack of growth opportunity in their current job. In addition to this, poor communication,
improper promotional activities, misalignment of culture and value system, feeling undervalued,
discrimination/bias from the management, lack of inclusion, lack of support from line managers,
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insufficient rewards, recognition, and benefits, lack of decision-making ability, employee
welfare, work-life imbalance and regular changes in job responsibilities.
Further, the study noticed that the employees have some goals include willing to search for some
other companies where they can showcase their skills better, employees are willing to become a
leader after a certain number of years of experience, some employees prefer to remain in the
organization for a longer time, they are willing to lead other members and guide them in critical
situation.
Another conclusion drawn from the study is that the majority of the employees aim to achieve at
work because of extra rewards and benefits provided by the organization. Additionally, they
prefer social recognition, appreciation, promotion, experience and effective top management
support.
Although it is evident that some factors contributing to a happy work environment which include
clear promotional goals, opportunities for growth, transparency in the workplace, support from
leaders and workplace environment.
5.3 Implications of findings
The study findings comprise a few useful implications for organization and practitioners
similarly. This mainly helps the organization to insight on how they will enhance their employee
retention approach. Likewise, this study has a few important lessons for the practitioners of
HRM and gives effective answers for the employee turnover problems.
 First of all, F&B industries facing retention problems could be among other things, HRM
practices such as HR recruitment policy, training and development program, performance
appraisal system; reward system as part of their mitigation measures. The reason behind
this is such practice was proved to give a positive impact on retention and so necessary
HRM instruments. But such HRM practices should not be used extensively instead a
correct determination of the requirement of the employee particularly people at a various
level should be done first in order to initiate the appropriate practices for assisting their
strategic management.
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 Secondly, the types of HRM practices introduced by organizations should differ
periodically. This is due to the employees’ requirement for human resource could
eventually get modified. Therefore, if the given practice continued for a period of time,
then its effectiveness would evade and so not accomplish the deliberated reasons.
 Thirdly, in concert with many other studies Reward system and Performance appraisal
system has once again been identified as an important determinant of retention.
Numerous organizations would have definitely known that benefits and wage are
essential for the employees. Thus, the organizations should try out and find other modern
functions of HRM like employee engagement and work-life balance which can retain and
attract the employees instead of using the conventional ones only. The combination of
contemporary and fundamental practices finally may intensify the efficiency and
productivity in the food and beverage industries processes and also may enhance the
image of the organization.
 The study further gives the latest proofs on practices such as HR Recruitment policy,
Training, and development program; Performance appraisal system; Reward system and
this will help to shape HRM policies and practices of the food and beverage industries.
Further, this implies that the HR managers should create a useful retention program so
that the employee satisfaction and best performance of more caliber employees are
sustained. In addition, it offers food and beverage industries with repeated pursuing of
practices for supporting their employees to retain and provide them with an impulse on
their competitors.
 However, several pieces of training give to the employees in order to make the excellent
work; it looks like there are insufficient career advisers or mentorship to direct the
employees regarding the selection of accurate career. It does not matter that how much
opportunities are available in banks but there should be mentorship and direction in
respect of how do they follow their career else employees might get frustrated about the
job and chooses to quit. Thus, it is important that food and beverage industries intensify
or introduce mentorship programs in order to make the employee be clear with the idea
regarding the ways to develop in the careers.
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5.4 Contribution to the knowledge
 This study mainly gives the evidence that employee engagement and work-life balance
problems as HRM practices may expect retention of the employee. Such modern HRM
practices were getting more important and famous for application in the workplace. In
contrast, HRM’s conventional functions were the developing problems in people
management.
 Another important contribution to knowledge is that the study also illustrates that the
food and beverage industry in Qatar need to introduce new HRM practices if they are to
retain their valued employees and remain competitive.
 Besides from giving both practical and theoretical solutions regarding how to handle the
crucial management problems of employee income, the study even links the interval in
the literature over the impact of HRM practices on retention of the employee in the food
and beverage industry, Qatar. Additionally, it functions as a secondary data for the future
researchers and allusion for upcoming studies.
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5.5 Recommendations to the organization
The current study gives certain necessary suggestions are as follows:
 HRM managers must struggle to seek out the given reasons and carry out the innovative
practices of employee retention as it looks like the employees are clear about it. In this
regards company must take help of their entire employee in the policy making process.
This will bring new ideas to come up in the industry. Innovative practices must be
justified by the laws and guidelines present in the country.
 HR managers need to understand their employee's views about their present organization
and based on which they need to give proper motivation and training to retain them. This
is possible when the company brings most suitable communicational process in the HR
management system. This will ensure that everyone will have their say in the process
design and the way policies are made within the organisation. This is a key to motivation
as they understand that company also thinks about them.
 HR managers need to consider rewards and benefits for employees since they prefer this
reward in the work environment. Further promotion and appreciation need to be given
based on their performance in the job this would help the organization to retain its
employees. Rewards and benefits must be provided according to the country’s guidelines
and at the same time it must be provided as per the capacity of the organisation. There
must be universal within each department of the organisation for giving rewards and
benefits. There must be use of performance evaluation system that helps them to evaluate
each and every individual’s performance in a better manner so that no feeling of partiality
comes in the minds of people. There must be use of pre-defined metrics that could help in
distributing the rewards and appreciation in a better way so that higher employee
retention can be ensured.
 However, compensation has a major part in the employee’s life but the employees were
suggested not to interpret since it has been the only foundation to retain the employees
within the other things, deserving compensation should be given to the employees.
Indeed, their productivity, qualifications, and experiences should be appropriate with the
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compensation they get. Company must design effective compensation plans that are
elaborated with common policies which apply to all the employees irrespective of their
position in the common. In future company must ensure that they distribute
compensations in a timely manner.
 Social recognition needs to be given at the appropriate time. In the modern day HR
management practices, this has a greater role in the employee retention as people thinks
that their higher needs are being addressed. Social recognition needs to be given higher
importance when it comes to motivating people.
 Efficient top management support has been preferred by employees in general. Therefore
this kind of support needs to be given by top management to retain their employees.
Support in the areas such as helping them in achieving their personal goals as well as
managing their work life balance. Along with this, top management support is also
required in the areas such as building leadership skills in them. Personal development of
any employee helps them in grabbing opportunities that are available in the organisation
and hence ensures retention.
 Even now, training and development are the basics of HRM and the significance of
employees with great skills and knowledge can never be overlooked. Training and
development certainly have a significant part in every organizations and it has been
considered as the main strength for executing the strategies. Moreover, it is essential to
strengthen and nurture the employee’s competencies.
 It is also recommended that in future there must be effective use of technology in the
process of HR management. This is essential as sometimes in the larger organisation
mistakes can happen due to the human flaws. This demotivates people and often led to
conflict.
 In future, the nature of job is going to get complex. In such an environment, it is crucial
that HR managers design the job roles in an appropriate manner. This is not only
necessary for increasing the motivational level of the employees that they must stay in the
company but it also ensures higher performance from the side of the employees. This is
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supported by the practice where HR must give importance to the fact that employees are
able to perform better when they get job roles that are suitable to them hence HR
managers should understand employee’s interest and then make recruitment and selection
accordingly.
 In future, there will be reduction in the amount of jobs being available within the
organisation. This is because there is increase in the use of technology which is removing
people out of the organisation. This is demotivating people and they are searching for
safer jobs. This is the major reason why the job retention in the unorganised sector is
increasing and for resolving it skill development programs needs to be conducted by the
company which ensures that their skills are being developed as per the requirement of the
skills.
5.6 Limitations and Suggestions for future studies
Moreover, certain expansions in the present study might give an understanding of necessary
problems of employee retention. The following are some of the recommendations for upcoming
studies:
 Initially, because of the significance of human resources, the research about the HRM
practices and the impacts of it towards employee retention became an important field. But
the studies were mostly performed in the western world which requires the present study.
Thus, it is vital that more researchers, particularly from Qatar, should carry on
investigating this field empirically.
It is suggested that in order to resolve this issue, researcher can take help of the social
media and other technological mediums so as to interact with employees and take
feedbacks from them. Questionnaires can be made about the work related problems in
that area and should be distributed on different platforms. The use of advanced interactive
platforms can be beneficial for the researchers. At the same time, researchers can also
take use of information available on the company’s reports on their HR management that
are operational in Qatar. Mobile technologies can be very effective in this regards as
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large numbers of people are connected with this technology and they can easily submit
their feedbacks on this platform which can be analysed so as to gain the desired outputs.
 In Qatar, the study was delimited to F&B industries because of time limitations. Thus, in
the future, the new researchers were recommended to take upon different industries for
examining the practices that give an impact on retention. This might support the
management every time while taking the decision. The study further might be simulated
in other areas.
For this it is suggested that companies take the help of different platforms so as to
understand the behaviour of employees in different industries. Researchers should
concentrate on the developments in different industries and take the help of the experts
from that industry to gain data that is helpful in understanding the practices of the
employees. In the mining and production industry it is not easy to do analysis as
contacting these employees is not easy. In this regards, it is essential that industry specific
research needs to be carried on. It is also seen that in other industries lots of people
working are from different cultural backgrounds and hence company must use research
methodologies that covers these people. It is necessary that companies also support each
other in providing details so that an exact research can be carried out and problems can be
evaluated so as to find the results.
 This study also significantly used quantitative techniques. So, further studies were
recommended to use mixed techniques i.e. qualitative and quantitative techniques for
receiving more understanding about the particular HRM practices specifically from the
point of view of the food and beverage industry’s HR managers at Qatar. This kind of
research may even provoke the secondary data for computing the rate of retention in
order to get the appropriate retention image of the food and beverage industry, Qatar. It is
further suggested that analysis of the data must be done carefully to improve the quality
of results. Mixture of techniques will help the organisations to ensure that their results are
according to the problems for which research has been conducted. This mixture of
research methodologies will help in giving exact results in all the industries but it all
depends on the type of data being collected by the researchers.
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Appendix 1
Research Questionnaire
Q1. What is your gender?
 Male
 Female
Q2. How long have you been/were you associated with the organization?
1. Less than 1 year
2. 1-3 years
3. More than 3 to 5 years
4. More than 5 years
Q3. What are the top 5 reasons you left your previous organization (Please tick and rank the
number)?
1. Work-life imbalance
2. Discrimination/bias from the management
3. Poor communication
4. Feeling undervalued
5. Lack of decision-making ability
6. Improper promotional activities
7. Lack of growth opportunities
8. Poor communication
9. Lack of inclusion in the organization
10. Ineffective relationship with team members
11. Regular changes in job responsibilities
12. Insufficient rewards, recognition, and benefits
13. Lack of employee welfare
14. Misalignment of culture and value system in the organization
15. Lack of support from line managers
Q4. What makes you happy at work?
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Record Personal
Identifier here:

1. Workplace environment
2. Support from leaders
3. Transparency in the workplace
4. Clear promotional goals
5. Opportunities for growth
6. Inclusion of employees in the decision-making sessions
Q5. What do you want to achieve at work?
1. Promotion
2. Social recognition
3. Appreciation
4. Extra rewards and benefits
5. Experience
6. Effective management and support from the top
7. Healthy environment to work in
8. Happiness at work
Q6. What are your goals?
1. Remain in the organization for a longer time
2. Search for other companies where you can showcase your skills better
3. Lead other members and guide them in critical situations
4. Become a leader after a certain number of years of experience
Quantitative data on effective HR practices
Q7. Do you agree that HR should recognize the skills of the employee for retaining them?
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree
Q8. Do you agree that job flexibility provides reasons for employee retention?
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
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3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree
Q9. Do you agree that HR should conduct necessary training for employee retention?
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree
Q10. Do you agree that HR must incorporate two-way communication for ensuring that no
employee will leave the organization?
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree
Quantitative data on employee retention
Q11. Do you agree that proper promotion helps you to remain in the organization for a longer
period of time?
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree
Q12. Do you agree that social recognition is necessary for employee retention?
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Neutral
4. Disagree
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5. Strongly Disagree
Q13. Do you agree that the frequent change of job roles should be avoided to retain employees in
the food and beverage industry?
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree
Q14. Do you agree that proper rewards and recognition promote employee sustainability in the
company?
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree
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Appendix 2
Research hypotheses
H1: HR Recruitment policy significantly affects employee retention in the food and beverage
industry in Qatar.
H2: Training and development program significantly affects employee retention in the food and
beverage industry in Qatar.
H3: Performance appraisal system has significant impact on employee retention in the food and
beverage industry in Qatar.
H4: Reward system in organisations has a positive impact on employee retention in the food
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Appendix 3
Approval letters
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Appendix 4
Appendix 4
RESEARCH PARTICIPANT DEBRIEF
Research Study: Exploring the impact of Human Resource Management
practices on employee’s retention: Evidence from the Food and Beverage
industry in the state of Qatar Thank you very much for participating in the above
study. Please detach
and retain this part for your records. You may want to note your
Personal Identifier for future reference.
Page 65 of 67
Record Personal
Identifier here:

The aims of this study are to: Identify and explore how HR Practices influence the retention of
the best talent and what practices are most effective.
Your data are held securely and anonymously. If you wish to withdraw from the study, contact
me with your personal identification code (see above) and your data will be removed from all
files. You may withdraw from the study at any time but after 01 May 2019 , the data you
provided may still be used in collated form in the data analysis reported in the research findings
but this will not be identifiable to you as an individual.
If you are a student, colleague, patient or in any other way have a dependent relationship with the
researcher and you wish to withdraw from this study, you can be assured that this will not
adversely affect the relationship in anyway.
Please note: if you have a concern about any aspect of your participation, please raise this with
The researcher: Shirley Shamen Jayakody;
[e-mail]
The Programme Director [e-mail]
or the Chair of the Roehampton Online Research Ethics Committee at ethics@roehampton-
online.com.
You may contact any of the above by post at:
Laureate Online Education
Haarlerbergpark River Building, 2nd Floor
Haarlerbergweg 23C
1101 CH Amsterdam Z.O.
The Netherlands
If you feel that you need support after participating in this study, kindly refer to the following
support resources:
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Destructive Relationship Help: http://destructiverelationshipshelp.com/
Dr. Rhonda Freeman: https://rhondafreemanphd.com/about/
Psychopath Free (forum and other resources): https://www.psychopathfree.com/
In addition, it is also recommended to contact your Medical Practitioner or other appropriate
person who is able to guide you towards suitable support agencies.
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