Voluntary Employee Turnover and Retention in a Small Size Company

This research aims to show how high employee turnover can disrupt workflow continuity, performance level, and credibility of the organization. It analyzes the specific issues and possible methods to reduce its occurrence. The study focuses on a small size logistics company in Mozambique and examines the impact and reasons for voluntary employee turnover.

Research Philosophy and Literature
Review
(Voluntary employee turnover and
retention in a
Small Size Company)

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
Background (review) of the Company........................................................................................2
Purpose of the study.....................................................................................................................3
Research question........................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................5
Analysing the specific or thematic issues that seeks to review both its cause(s) or
manifestations or characteristics and possible methods to reduce its occurrence.......................5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................11
Reviewing the philosophical role of a research paradigm in directing the research associated
with the organisational problem................................................................................................11
Discussing the ontological basis for researching the organisational issues and the philosophical
narrative associated with the nature and character of reality.....................................................14
Reviewing the epistemological issues associated with the manner by which knowledge is
obtained and the relationship between the researcher, the subject matter under investigation
and what is associated as knowledge and alternative notions of truth......................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

ABSTRACT
High employee turnover and retention had been a critical factor in almost all the companies
in Mozambique, one of the poorest nations in the world (Radelet, 2015). High levels of poverty,
scarcity of skilled workforce, education level, lackluster attitude and cultural barriers had been a
challenging factor for many companies for recruitment of skilled labor and retention. Human
resource management is a vital factor for the success of any organization and special emphasis is
given to retain employer (Steffensen, Ellen, Wang, & Ferris, 2019). This research aims to show,
how high employee turnover can disrupt workflow continuity, performance level and credibility
of the organization. There could be various factors that could influence high employee turnover
rate. In an emerging economy with more businesses are being established on a daily basis, the
demand for skilled workforce could be limited (Waddell, 1998). Low income levels, work
overload, adverse working conditions, recognition could be few areas for high employer turnover
(Cottini, Kato, & Westergaard-Nielsen, 2011). High employer turnover could also be costly in
terms of training and development as well as high replacement cost as the replacement positions
could demand high wages. In addition, the existing employees could also have threatened high
wages, understand the pattern and vulnerability of the organization in terms of retention of staff.
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INTRODUCTION
The concept of employee turnover is different from employee retention. Employee retention
is a percentage of employees who leave the organisation and new employees are hired in place of
old personnel. High employee turnover is a crucial situation for any organisation which can arise
due to multiple reasons. Low employee satisfaction is one of the most influential reason due to
which employees leave their current workplace (Ahn and McLean, 2008). Other reasons for this
situation are considered to be low job security, discrimination amongst employees, demotivating
superiors and many more. This situation of employee turnover can result into issues such as high
cost of hiring, high cost on training and development etc. Employee turnover can be of many
types such as voluntary, involuntary, desirable and undesirable. The situation of such issues
arises in an organisation due to internal and external affairs of a company. It must be noted that
not at all the situations, employee turnover is harmful for the organisation; it can be even
beneficial for the company too. For example, situations where company needs their employees to
leave their job as they do not fit for the job profile anymore due to their increasing age;
employment turnover can be beneficial. Employee retention is different from employee turnover
as it is the set of techniques by which an organisation can be saved from the problem of high
employee turnover. Employee retention is a process which helps organisation to conduct such
actions which can retain their employees for longer period of time (Asiedu-Appiah, Mehmood
and Bamfo, 2015). This procedure is based on the basic phenomenon of first finding the reason
behind high employee turnover, then make plans and finally conduct activities by which issue
can be solved. There are various techniques by which employee retention can be done in an
organisation. These techniques are: rewards, employee satisfaction, motivation and leadership
etc.
Background (review) of the Company
Recent discovery of LNG in Mozambique, there had been renewed interest in logistics
companies to provide resourceful service levels to meet the demands and challengers faced by
the LNG companies (Bay & Hong, 2017). Since one of the greatest challengers confronted by
the companies had been high level of employee turnover and retention to perform a high service
levels to these client’s companies. The researcher has identified a small size logistics company of
100 employees approximately, who provide customs clearance, road, air and sea transportation
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primarily targeting LNG companies and retailers. Key factor for the existence of the freight and
logistics provider is to offer a high-quality service levels to its clients. Thus, a skilled workforce
is vital factor to maintain such service levels to the demands of the clients. A high level of
competencies and expertise are required to sustain a competitive advantage (Ahn & McLean,
2008).
WHELSON GDC TRANSPORT is a small scale logistics company which relies on
electronic commerce and online public platform. Activities of this organization include freight
forwards, network marketing promotion etc. This company is an efficient, reliable transport
organization which offers variety of transports including chemicals such as LPG, food items such
as tea, sugar, flour etc. and all other general cargo. Despite of being a small organization, this
company even established in South Africa, Zimbabwe and in other parts of Africa along with
Mozambique. Additional services which are provided by this organization includes warehousing,
custom clearance, bagging, transit bonds, trade finance and any more logistics related services.
This organization works as a small scale organization in the region of Mozambique with
approximately 100 employees. After the discovery of LPG in Mozambique, this company
devotes their operations majorly for companies engaged in processing LPG. From few years, this
organization is facing the issue of Voluntary employee turnover which has resultant to increase
cost involved in their operations as it is considered difficult to hire trained and well skilled
workforce in poor region like Mozambique (Bay and Hong, 2017).
Purpose of the study
The main purpose of the research is to critically analyze the voluntary employee turnover
rate and retention in a small size organization in Mozambique within a period of 10 years. The
research is done in different levels of staff from clerical workers to the managerial staff of the
company. Quality workforce always has an impact on the success stories of most organizations
(Gialuisi & Coetzer, 2013). All factors contribute in some way or another to the growth of these
organizations. High employee turnover could incur high costs. For an example cost of training
and development, loss of business, new recruitment costs to name a few. High turnover rate
could be harmful in the long run, when continuously recruiting new staff could give negative
impression in the industry, which would be beneficial to the competitors (Gandy, Harrison, &
Gold, 2018).
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Research question
Voluntary employee turnover and retention in GDC Whelson Transport.
The above research issue is related with high voluntary employee turnover which is faced by
a small scale company of Mozambique which is GDC Whelson Transport. Voluntary employee
turnover is a different from normal employee turnover as in this situation, employees of an
organisation leaves the organisation by their own will and not by any pressure or actions of the
company. This type of employee turnover is worst among all as this result in degrading
organisation’s brand equity. In the situation of voluntary employee turnover, employee gives a
number of reasons for leaving the job. These reasons are made which makes it looks impossible
for those employees to work in that organisation anymore. These reasons can be relocating to a
new area, personal reasons etc. The situation of voluntary employee turnover is even more
harmful for an organisation as there are only few techniques by which employees working in
those organisations can be retained. This type of issue is faced by ample number of small
organisations nowadays as once the employees get trained in such small organisations, they aim
to work in a large scale organisation where they can get more benefits apart from salary (Chalkiti
and Sigala, 2010).
This research question aims to investigate the impact and reasons of voluntary employee
turnover on a small scale company engaged in activities of logistics. The question selected for
the investigated aims to collect suitable literature and process of investigation. It is important to
study the concept of voluntary employee turnover as it will help companies to understand
reasons due to which employees leave their organisation in shorter periods of time. Along with
the reasons, this question will also help in identifying and recommending techniques for
employee retention which can help organisations in retaining their employees so that cost of
training and development engaged in staff can be decreased and satisfaction amongst employees
can be enhanced. Voluntary employee turnover and retention are two ends which are experienced
by most of the small scale companies. One of these companies is GDC Whelson Transport. This
company has a small staff but then also facing high voluntary employee turnover and it is
important for companies like this to identify reasons behind this issue so that appropriate
retention techniques can be used (Chung, H and van Der Lippe, 2018).
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Analysing the specific or thematic issues that seeks to review both its cause(s) or manifestations
or characteristics and possible methods to reduce its occurrence
Voluntary Employee Turnover and Retention in Small Companies
According to Paul M Muchinsky and Paula C Morrow, 2019, it has been said that there
are different types of turnover which an organisation comes across at the time of dealing in the
business environment. The reasons to this turnover may also differ from organisation to
organisation and from the perspective of employee. Voluntary Employee Turnover refers to the
situation in which the employees working in an organisation makes their own decision to leave
an organisation. In voluntary employee turnover, there is no role of company behind resignation
of employees. The only reason is the employee himself/herself who takes the decision to leave
that organisation. The authors are also described about the different perspective of employees
due to which an employee makes his decision to voluntarily leave the organisation. It generally
occurs in case of small companies. These perspectives are related to psychological, economical
and sociological perspectives which makes an employee to take decision to leave the company.
In addition to this, there are also some other important factors which makes the employees to
leave the organisation such as individual factors, work related factors and the states of certain
economic variables. These factors are also called as the determinants of voluntary employee
turnover.
In Mozambique, the turnover in small companies is very high. As the company is deals
in transportation of chemicals like LPG, the cost of operations is high and it is difficult for firm
to hire skilled candidates. So, voluntary employee turnover in company is very high. In small
companies, the another reason behind leaving of employee may be related to compensation, as
they may think that they are not provided with enough salary and wages for the work they have
done. Small companies are not able to provide their employees with good salary and benefits so
the possibility is high for an individual to leave the organisation.
According to Iulia Alina Cioca, 2018, it has been said that it is possible that some
candidates join an organisation to acquire knowledge about the area in which the organisation
deals and after coming across the work which is done in the organisation, they may not feel
comfortable with it and make their decision to leave the organisation. So, after taking an
experience of some period of time, they resign from the organisation from their own in order to
5

find out some new and better opportunity with which they will be able to gain knowledge of
some more areas that helps in their future career growth. Along with this, in today's world,
employees not only expect good salary amount from the firm but, they expect other things also
such as rewards for their good work, health benefits etc. In case, the company is not providing
their employees with sufficient amount of rewards or benefits, then also employees make their
decision to leave the organisation. Career growth and development is also considered among one
of the most important reason which is considered by employees while doing any job. As the
requirement of each individual differs from that of others, some of them may expect monetary
benefits and others may expect non-monetary benefits such as promotion. So in case, the
employees expecting monetary benefits and if they are not provided with it then, it could become
a reason of their resignation and for employees who wants to get non-monetary benefits, if not
provided to them, it will also provide the company with negative results. So these are some of
the important factors which could become a reason for an individual to leave the organisation.
According to Corey Moseley, 2019, employee turnover impacts upon the performance of
an organisation in negative way. The reasons for the turnover of employees are also provided by
author. These includes the working environment issues which impacts much upon the working
styles of employees, their nature and behaviour. In case, the employees are not able to make
themselves adjust according to the situations prevailing in the market, then in this case, they will
leave the company. The culture of the company may be toxic which makes it impossible for an
individual to adjust in that working culture. Improper communication in between the employees
and the upper level of management of the company is also one of the important reason due to
which employees prefer to leave the organisation. It is because unclear communication leads to
misunderstandings and employees are not communicated properly with seniors that leads to
creates dissatisfaction among them and they decide to leave the organisation. As working with
shared purpose is important and considerable for the welfare of an organisation but, in case the
company is not having proper working environment and shared values and beliefs, it declines
the morale of employees and they are not feel happy in working with such organisation.
According to Jason D. Shaw and Shuisheng Shi, 2017, it has been said that turnover
whether voluntary or non voluntary, impacts very much on the organisation in different ways.
Taking an example of training which is provided by the company to their employees for the
betterment and growth of organisation. So, an organisation when provides training to its
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employees, it invests high amount in it with the expectation of getting more productivity. And if
the employees are not become that much productive after getting training, then organisation
sometimes start to treat them badly. This is also one of the reason when employees decide to
leave the company after a certain period of time. Another bad impact is related to reduced
productivity of the company. For an new employee, it is difficult for them to adjust in the new
work culture and work effectively to that extent as the existing employees do. They needs some
time to make themselves adjust in accordance with the environment prevailing in the
organisation and to know about the ways with the help of which different tasks are completed in
an organisation. But for the existing employees, these things are not much harder to do as they
know about each and every way of performing different tasks in the organisation.
In addition to this, there is also a difference in between the level of productivity of
existing and new employees. So, much pressure of work sometimes leads new employees to
dissatisfactions and they voluntarily decide to leave the organisation. Overall, it can be said that
with high employee turnover, an organisation is going in losses as it is impacting upon its
operations along with its productivity and hence impacted negatively the profits of company. So,
it becomes important for the company to adopt suitable ways with the help of which it enables to
retain employees in the organisation for a long period of time so as to prevent itself from
unwanted expenses and to maintain long term relationships with the employees working in the
organisation. Not only this, the negative culture of an organisation and high employee turnover
also impacts upon the brand image of firm in the marketplace as it is not able to retain
employees in the organisation for a long period of time.
According to Corey Moseley, 2019, there are also some ways with the help of which an
organisation could improve its relation with employees. Good relations will make it possible for
the company to retain its employees for a long period of time and to avoid the issues related to
voluntary and involuntary turnover of employees from the small scale organisation. The very
first way is the analysis of needs and preferences of employees such as related to working
environment, salary, compensation and benefits and many more which impacts upon their
decision to work in an organisation or not. As with the help of knowing the needs and demands
of their employees, an organisation could provide them with those so that there could be some
reason for them to stay and serve the organisation. For example, the working environment related
issues could also be solved by the GDC Whelson Transport by providing their employees with
7

flexible working hours, more time, involvement in the decision making process etc. as this helps
to make employees feel that they are the important part of organisation. With the help of this, not
only the company will be able to retain them in the organisation but, also it will be possible to
make improvement in the working and efficiency. There are also some issues prevailing in the
organisation related to improper communication, so the improvements in this regard is also
important to maintain the level of interest of employees in the organisation. So, by considering
these factors and measures, it will be possible for an organisation whether small or big to make
reduction in the employee turnover rate of the company in short span of time.
In an organisation, retention of motivated employees is crucial for its success. Employee
retention includes all the practices which let the workforce stick to the organisation for long time.
it is the ability of company to retain its employees at workplace. To groom a new candidate,
organisations invest lot of money and time to make them ready and bring them at par with the
employees that already exist at workplace. Retention strategies are implemented by employers to
manage turnover of employees and attract quality workforce. Various measures are taken by
organisation whether it is large or small to retain employees for maximum time period. The
major reason found behind leaving an employee from organisation is frustration and continuous
friction with team members and superiors. Low motivation, lack of growth prospects and low
salary are also the reasons of leaving workforce from firm. The management and line managers
are responsible to ensure that workforce are satisfied and their job offering them learning and
new challenge every day. There are various ways that small organisations use to improve
employee retention. Some of these strategies are mentioned below:
For the success is of business, retaining employees is crucial. Orientation and on
boarding is the way to retain employees. It is the element which can last for months or weeks
that depends on organisations. The main aim of developing and on boarding process is to
familiar employees to the organization. It helps them in providing learning about the job and
culture of the GDC Whelson Transport. By this employee learn to contribute and thrive with
discussions, opportunities and goals to address issues and questions as they arrive. The another
way to retain employees is to provide them adequate compensation. In the today’s competitive
labour market, it is very essential for small companies to offer appropriate compensation
packages which includes not only salaries but also paid time off, bonuses, retirement plans,
health benefits and various perks that differentiate one organisation from another. Each
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employee must have complete understanding of all the advantages and benefits they receive from
company. employees who retain in the organisation for longer time are loyal towards the
company and its management.
Training and development is the key strategy used by small organisations for retaining
employees at work place. They invest in professional development of workers and seek
opportunities to them to grow. This will help in improving motivation level of employees and
encourage them to stay at work place. Constant communication and feedback is necessary for
retention of work force. Direct communication with employees make them feel motivated and
helps organisations to know about the concerns and ideas of employees. This will enable firm to
make improvements where it lacks. To foster team work within the organisation is also the
another way that help in employee retention. When people work collectively they can attain
more than they will have individually. It is needed by an organisation to foster a collaboration
culture at work place that accommodates working styles of individuals and let their talent shine.
This can be done through clarifying the goals of company, team objectives, business roles and
encouraging each employee to contribute their solutions and ideas. Each individual wants to feel
appreciated for the work they have done at work place. So it is necessary for GDC Whelson
Transport to introduce reward and recognition system that helps in encouraging employees to
work towards attainment of goals and objectives of company. This helps in improving
satisfaction level of work force and ensure their retention at work place.
There are various factors that can cause an individual to withdraw and look for other
opportunities. Some of the common factors which lead to less engagement or disengagement
from employees include low employee morale, financial insecurity, absence of clear path and
lack of commitment and satisfaction. All this will lead to decrease of productivity of employees
and exhibited an adverse change in their attitudes. Employees start to arrive late and left early
from work more frequently than usual. Employee retention is one of the critical issue in today’s
market as firms compete for talent. Poor employee retention leads to loss of firm’s knowledge as
when an individual leaves the company, they take their valuable knowledge with them. It is also
a disadvantage for company as for hiring a new employee, adequate time is required and high
cost needs to invest for train them. This will lead to temporary loss in effectiveness and
efficiency of company.
9

Depending on the role the cost of turnover of employees is increasingly high 2.5 times of
an employee salary. Retention starts from the recruitment or the application process to screen
applicants. Selection of right candidates with proper speech and knowledge enhance productivity
of company. Organisation provides opportunity to new employees to ask questions and engage
with supervisors about the work. Systematic recognition and reward system should be
implemented by company to make the employees feel valued at work place. It should offer
flexible work schedule to employees along with telecommuting and time off and trained
administrators to encourage work force to take vacations. They should also provide office
amenities to em6 like standing and ergonomics desks, free refreshments, standardized meals and
offering games for relaxing.
The ability of company to carry out its mission can harm due to high turnover rate of
employee due to loss of institutional knowledge high cost of replacing workers and impairment
to continuity. Competitive advantage and diminished productivity are the two biggest losses that
can be caused by leaving of employees from organisation. Departure of employees can also be
lower down the moral and spur them more to leave them company. Another negative impact of
employee turnover is influence on customer who notice that they deal with constant flow of
distinct people. Employee experience and employee engagement are the key strategy that help in
retaining valued people at work place and maintaining a positive relationship between employer
and employee. The human resource department of company can use employee engagement
software to do survey about feelings of employee towards the company and take remedial action
in the areas where employees have lower job satisfaction. Fair and competitive compensation
packages, mentoring and training programmes to improve skills and learning, leadership
opportunities, flexible work arrangements ensure increased retention of employee within
WHELSON GDC TRANSPORT. Challenging and fulfilling responsibilities of jobs improve
moral and motivational level of employees and encourage them to stay for longer time within the
company.
Another strategy to retain workforce is to reduce their pain. Employers usually expect
employees to work like robots and when their work and life is not balanced, there’s pain. So, for
reducing this pain, firm requires to provide competitive salary to employees. A conductive work
environment also contributes in retaining employees for longer term at workplace. Strong culture
and ethics within organisation make people feel a sense of belongingness with firm. Because of
10

client meetings and deadlines, there is always a stress related to work at workplace, but as an
employer, it is necessary for GDC Whelson Transport to ensure that the stress is just temporary.
Match expectations, rewards and responsibilities of employees develop a feeling of satisfaction
among them. If employees feel that their efforts are not being appreciated and recognised in well
manner, they get demotivated and thinks to leave the organisation and another better opportunity
for them. In order to overcome this situation, it is necessary for organisation to ensure clear
discussions among the team members regarding what is expected from each one and how to
contribute towards achievement of bigger goal.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Reviewing the philosophical role of a research paradigm in directing the research associated with
the organisational problem
A research paradigm is a set of beliefs which are assumed and interpreted during an
investigation. These beliefs and agreements are shared by investigators in order to identify which
and how problems are required to be understood and addressed. In simple terms, a paradigm is a
pattern of something. A paradigm is a standard by which certain things must be conducted using
a pattern. A research paradigm is a pre stated pattern of actions which are required to be
conducted by an investigator while researching over an issue. It is an approach by which a
research question is investigated by using pattern which is verified by the research community.
The main aim behind using a specific research paradigm is to facilitate the readers of that
research paper. There is said to be a specific pattern by which investigation is conducted which
makes it easier to understand (Cottini, Kato and Westergaard-Nielsen, 2011).
In current case, an issue is being investigated by collecting secondary data in for of
literature review so that suggestions and findings against that issue can be identified. A research
paradigm is a philosophy which is used to direct the investigation towards investigation issue and
helps in identifying solutions for that issue. The issue selected in this case is high voluntary
employee turnover in a small scale company known as GDC Whelson Transport.
There are various elements which is included in the set of research paradigm. These
elements include ontology, epistemology, theoretical perspective, methodology, methods and
sources. All these elements play a major role in directing the research effectively towards
investigating question or issue. The first element amongst this set is Ontology. This component
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helps in identifying what is reality; it refers to the nature of belief on which assumptions made in
investigation is based. Every investigation is based upon few assumptions which helps to widen
the scope of research. In current research issue, the ontology is based on a reality that small scale
organisations in the region of Mozambique are facing issue of high voluntary employee turnover.
This component of paradigm helps to ascertain how the assumed reality exist and what should be
known about it. Another component of this paradigm is Epistemology which helps investigator
to study the nature of knowledge which is collected and used against the issue. This component
of research paradigm assists in identifying how the data and information against the issue can be
collected and communicated to relevant parties. Epistemology is based on the concept in which
investigator questions the collected data against its reliability, validity, causality and subjectivity.
The role of this component is that it helps in checking the information about high voluntary
turnover issue in GDC whelson transport so that valid literature review can be developed.
Third component of research paradigm is theoretical perspective in which a particular
research philosophy is selected. These philosophies are positivism, pragmatic and interpretivism.
It must be noted that every research conducted is based on one of these philosophies which later
involve all components of research paradigm. In this particular case, the issue of high voluntary
employee turnover is considered in a small scale organisation. For this particular issue, the
philosophy of interpretivism will be used as all the data is collected against the issue in the form
of literature review in qualitative form. According to this philosophy there will be only one
reality which is GDC whelson transport company is facing issue of high voluntary employee
turnover and the collected data is needs to be interpreted in the form of literature review so that
solutions and recommendations against that issue can be identified.
Methodology is the most important component in investigating a particular issue. In this a
particular method of collecting data is identified so that valid conclusions can be developed. In
this case, the information against the reasons behind high employee turnover is collected through
secondary data collection method in which all the data is collected from books, websites and
journal articles and is defined and interpreted in literature review. Along with secondary data
collection methodology, methods such as books, articles, peer reviewed journals and website of
the company is used. In the last component of research paradigm, investigation ascertains what
all information can be collected against the issue. In this case, reasons behind issue of voluntary
12

employee turnover faced by company is collected along with data of techniques by which this
issue can be minimised and employees can be retained (Gandy, Harrison and Gold, 2018).
After analysing the above research paradigm, it can be said that it plays an essential role in
directing the research towards research question. In this case, data in the form of literature
review is collected against the issue faced by GDC Welson transport company. The data
collected helps in ascertaining the reasons due to which this company is facing such major issue.
Along with the reasons, literature review also depicts the employee retention techniques by
which the issue can be evaded. This research paradigm plays a philosophical role as it helps in
identifying the reality against which all the data must be collected. Along with it, it also helps in
ascertaining the methodology, methods and sources by which data collected can be more specific
and can help in ascertaining valid conclusions and finding. Research philosophy is also selected
by this paradigm which is best suited for the issue identified in research. All the components of
research paradigm play an individual role as they help in building the investigation by
ascertaining a pattern by which data for the investigation must be collected. Also, it is best suited
for current research as it helped in questioning the data collected in literature review against its
validity and reliability to conclude results.
Discussing the ontological basis for researching the organisational issues and the philosophical
narrative associated with the nature and character of reality
As mentioned in above research paradigm, ontological basis refers to the nature of beliefs
about reality. The issue identified in this case is the high voluntary employee turnover in GDC
company. The reality which is based on ontology is assured that the major reason behind this
voluntary employee turnover is increasing opportunities for employees from big organisations
operating in same industry of logistics. Interpretivsim research philosophy is selected for this
investigation from which it is ascertained that there is no single reality or truth. Reality is created
by the individuals in groups. The reality assumed that the selected company is facing high
voluntary employee turnover due to job opportunities from big organisations is only a created
13

reality which is developed by peer journal articles and other statements made by officials of this
company (Lo and Lam, 2002).
The philosophical narrative about this reality states that this reality is dynamic in nature
and can be changed with the changed perspective of people commenting over issue of high
employee turnover in small scale organisations. The nature and character of this research is
dynamic which implies that this reality can be changed and there is no one reality or truth. In
context of the current case, it can be stated there is no one specific reason behind the issue of
high voluntary employee turnover and this issue arises according to the situation of employees.
This ontology can be practically applied here assuming that it is not important that every
employee leaving GDC Company is leaving as he or she has been offered a job from big
company; there can other reasons too. These reasons can involve low job satisfaction, fear of job
security, personal reasons of employees etc.
Reviewing the epistemological issues associated with the manner by which knowledge is
obtained and the relationship between the researcher, the subject matter under investigation
and what is associated as knowledge and alternative notions of truth
As mentioned in above research paradigm, epistemology is a study of philosophy which is
associated with the validity and reliability against the data which is acquired and collected. The
main aim behind this study is to communicate valid results to stakeholders of the research. In
context with the issue of high voluntary turnover, an ample information from various sources in
collected and defined as well as interpreted in literature review. The epistemological issue which
concerns this investigation are the sources from which data is collected; Epistemology is
procedure of questioning the data which is collected. The information which is acquired and is
defined in literature review is all based on secondary research. These secondary research sources
only have data from the point of view of superiors of the selected organisation or from the point
of view of critics and diplomats. A valid data must involve information against the perspective of
employees as well (McCarthy and et.al. 2013).
Other epistemological issues associated with knowledge obtained are reliability and
suitability. The issue of this investigation is the high voluntary employee turnover in GDC
company. This issue is faced by the company as their employees take training of this company
and then leave their organisation to work with big organisation. This perception of employee
retention is of company’s superiors. There are high chances that majority of employees leave this
14

organisation as they receive job offers from other big organisations. But, there are also high
chances that employees of this organisation face threat of job security due to which they leave
the organisation. So, it can be said that there is an issue of suitability of knowledge gained as the
data which is collected against the investigated issue is only from the perspective of the company
and not from the perspective of their employees.
After recognising these epistemological issues present in the data collected, it is important to
understand the relationship between investigator and the subject matter of the research. The
relationship between both these aspects is of secondary data collection. All the data or subject
matter collected in this investigation by the researcher is not first hand and is not personally
collected by the investigator. All this information is collected by investigator from the use of
books, peer reviewed articles and journals. So, it can be said that the relationship between the
investigation and subject matter is indirect and not direct.
The knowledge associated in this investigation is that the major reason of high voluntary
employee turnover is job offers to employees of this company from big organisations. The
alternative notions of truth associated with this investigation are that personal issues and threat of
job security can also be the reasons behind GDC facing this issue (Walsh and Bartikowski,
2013).
CONCLUSION
The above essay is developed with the aim to construct literature review and research
philosophy associated with organisational issue. From the above essay based research, it is
concluded that every investigated issue needs to be questioned so that reliable and suitable data
can be collected and authenticity of the data can be ascertained. In above essay, an issue of high
employee turnover was selected; from which it is found and concluded that the major reason of
this issue is job offers from giant organisations. Alternative notions against this issue are also
summarised which are threat of job security and employee’s personal reasons. Besides analysing
the issue, it is also concluded that a research paradigm is combination of set of actions which
helps in conducting an investigation. Above essay is summarised as an investigation piece which
has information in form of literature review which includes all the reasons behind high voluntary
turnover and all the techniques by which small scale organisations can retain their employees.
It is also found and summarised from above essay that it is casual for small scale
organisation of poor region like Mozambique to face issue of high voluntary employee turnover
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but this issue can easily be evaded by using employee retention techniques of rewards and
motivation.
16

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