1

A case study of causes of high employee turnover rate at ALQURAISH EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

Submitted by:
1
2
3

Amna Shukat
Maryam Siddiqua Malik
Samana Sarfaz

SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMWNT

UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY
2015

A case study of causes of high employee turnover rate at Al Quresh School

A Project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of MSc in Human
Resource Management at School of Professional Advancement, University of Management
and Technology Lahore
Submitted by:
1
2
3

Amna Shaukat
Maryam Siddiqua Malik
Samana Sarfraz

X
Name; Dr. Naveed Yazdani
Approved Supervisior

School of Professional Advancement

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
All the praises and thanks to Almighty Allah, the creator of Universe who is the supreme
authority who guides the way and gives the courage to complete the task whose blessings,
flourished. Our thought enables us to His last Messenger Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon
Him) who enables us to recognize creator and to understand the philosophy of life.
We gratefully acknowledge our loving and affectionate parents whose guidance play an
important role in our study career and finally enable us to complete our research work. We
would like to acknowledge and extend our heartfelt gratitude to our mentors Dr. Naveed
Yazdani, whose help, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped us through our
research work. We are also thankful to Mr. Talha Zubair and Mr. Khalil Arbi for relentless
guidance and support for completing this research.
We are genuinely thankful to Mr.Ikram who give us their private and confidential information
of his organization. We are also grateful to him for his continuous support during our project,
for providing time from his busy schedule and respondents for their cooperation and serious
involvement in the data collection process.

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT

viii

CHAPTER: 1 1
INTRODUCTION

1.3 Scope of the study.............................................................................................. 2

1.4 Objectives of the study........................................................................................ 2
1.5 Limitations....................................................................................................... 2
CHAPTER: 2LITERATURE REVIEW

Turnover rate..................................................................................................... 4
Causes of Employee Turnover................................................................................4
2.1 Causes of Employee Turnover rate........................................................................8
1.

Low salary................................................................................................... 8

2.

Unfair reward system..................................................................................... 8

3.

Lack of career Development............................................................................ 8

4.

High workload.............................................................................................. 9

5.

Leadership style changes................................................................................9

6.

Lack of Support by Management.....................................................................9

7. Negative interpersonal relationships/Communication gap between employees and

management....................................................................................................... 9
8.

Conflicts at workplace:................................................................................ 10

9.

Lack of organizational commitment:...............................................................10

2.2 Summary of the literature review........................................................................11

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

15

3.1 Organizational Profile...................................................................................... 15

3.2 Purpose of the organization...............................................................................15
3.3 Environmental scanning.................................................................................... 15
3.4 Organizations Structure...................................................................................16
3.5 Organizations Culture..................................................................................... 18
3.6 Gap analysis................................................................................................... 19
CHAPTER: 4 20
RESEARCH DESIGN 20
4.1 Research Strategy:........................................................................................... 20
4.2 Developing Case/Methodology............................................................................21
Unit of Population............................................................................................. 21
Unit of analysis................................................................................................. 21

7
Research Method.............................................................................................. 21
Sampling technique........................................................................................... 22
Data Collection Technique...................................................................................22
Data Analysis.................................................................................................... 22
4.3 Data Interpretation.......................................................................................... 22
Low Salary....................................................................................................... 23
43%................................................................................................................ 23
Better Opportunities............................................................................................ 23
29%................................................................................................................ 23
Office Politics.................................................................................................... 23
11%................................................................................................................ 23
Other Circumstances............................................................................................ 23
17%................................................................................................................ 23
Total................................................................................................................ 23
100%............................................................................................................... 23
4.4 Causes of Employee Turnover at Al-Quraish Educational Institute School..................26
1.

Low salary................................................................................................. 26

2.

Lack of Performance Management System:.....................................................26

3.

Lack of career development..........................................................................26

4.

Lack of Professionalism................................................................................27

5.

Other Circumstances................................................................................... 27

CHAPTER: 5 29
ACTION PLAN

29

5.1 Proposed structure........................................................................................... 29

5.2 Synthesis of the Literature Review and Interviews.................................................31
5.3 Conceptual Framework.................................................................................... 33
5.4 Recommendations............................................................................................ 34
5.5 Conclusion..................................................................................................... 35
REFERENCES:
APPENDIX

36

39

TABLE OF TABLES
Table A-2.1

20

Table B-4.1..21
Table C-4.2......23
Table D-4.3......24
Table E-4.4..25

Table of Figures
Figure A - 3.118
Figure B- 4.1..23
Figure C- 4.2..24
Figure D- 4.3..25
Figure E- 5.1..28
Figure F- 5.2..32

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ABSTRACT
In the organizations, turnover rate major issue which is affecting performance of the
employees and productivity of the organization. The present study aims to take real time
problem from the Al-Quraish Educational Institute to find out the causes of high turnover rate
and among these factors which is affecting the most e.g. low salary, lack of performance
management system and lack of career development

CHAPTER: 1
INTRODUCTION
Employee turnover is defined by Flippo (1986) as the movement into and out of the
organization by the workforce. These simple movements indicate the loyalty of the work
force towards the company. He also said that turnover is a destructive phase, which leads to
the failure of employee retention strategies in the organizations. The problem of employee
turnover exists in most of the companies all over the world. Still in the well-developed
industrial nations, the rate of employee turnover is very high and it is the major problem that
widely affects the performance of the organizations at large scale. To some extent employee
turnover is expected in any organization but a high turnover rate lead to an unhappy and
unproductive workforce. Employee turnover in educational institutes has turn into a major
problem for the productivity of schools. It is critical for the reason that replacing existing
employees is costly and also lowers the standard of school. When teachers leave their school
the overall confidence endures and student attainment declines. It can negatively affect
proficient growth, class size, arrangement and an array of other factors. It makes an addition
of considerable amount of difficulty to school wide operations and affecting student learning
across classrooms and teachers.
This project tends to explore the causes of employee turnover in school. We choose this topic
because high rate of employee turnover have a negative impact on the schools reputation.

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Due to this problem the performance of employees and effectiveness of the school is also
affecting negatively. It became a serious issue in our organization and deserves concentration.
Performance of teachers effects by this problems on daily basis. In Pakistani context there is
no work done on turnover rate in schools. So this project aims to explore the array of issues
related to employee in order to improve the standard of school.
Teachers are important assets because they are essential for development of the school and
their mind-set plays a vital role in the quality of work. If they feel satisfied by the internal
environment of an organization, high level of performance is achieved. In school through
examination and official discussion with teachers we have realized that they are not satisfied
from their jobs. Low salary, lack of professionalism, marriage and lack of career growth
opportunities are the main reasons for the teachers withdrawal. These factors affect the
performance of teachers and reduced the productivity of organization. Teachers are less
dedicated to school due to low salary and other monetary benefits. Employee turnover has
become financial burden for the school. It is costly due to increased employment costs, rampup time, over burden for existing employees and reduced productivity. It costs our school
roughly 1/3 of a new hires salary to put back an employee

1.2 Research Question

What factors are leading to high employee turnover rate at Al-Quraish Educational Institute?

1.3 Scope of the study

We are conducting research in a school where we are tackling real life social issues. AlQuraish Educational Institute is facing multiple problems due to internal and external forces.
The focus of this project is limited towards highlighting the issues related to the high level of
turnover rate in Al-Quraish Educational Institute. The aim of this project is to find out factors
that are leading to high turnover rate and how can we remove these factors from workplace.
Reason of choosing only turnover problem is that organization made up of people and people
are backbone of organization. If people are not really satisfied with their jobs they couldnt
stay at organization for long time. This study will find out solution of the issues and we will
bring change by implementing those solutions

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1.4 Objectives of the study

The focus of the present study to explore causes of the high turnover rate of teachers at AlQuraish Educational Institute through interviews and observation methods. The study is
conducted on the managerial level and teaching staff of the Al-Quraish school. The foremost
objective of this research is to apply its result at Al-Quraish Educational Institute

1.5 Limitations
1
2

School is far away from our place so it is hectic to visit that area.
We are not part or active members of this organization so it was difficult for us to get

access in the premises of school.

Sample size is very small because total number of working teaching and managing

staff is very small.

In first two meetings due to privacy concerns management was not comfortable in

sharing sensitive information.

The study is not generalized at all private, government and semi government schools.

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CHAPTER: 2LITERATURE REVIEW

Turnover rate
Within any organization, employee rate determines an organizations success and failure.
According to Flippo (1986) when employees start to leave an organization, it is the time
when turn over period starts and is wholly taken by the employer side. In other words
Employee turnover can also be defined as the withdrawal of staff out of an organization; it
could be either due to monitory issues or personal working environment issues.
Causes of Employee Turnover
Research conducted by Khawary and Ali (2015) highlights both economic and social factors
which are the reasons behind high turnover rate. Talking about developing countries, nongovernmental educational institutes have been focused because these educational institutes
are also facing teacher turnover issues, despite of their educational qualification, and reasons
are both economic and social. Furthermore, in terms of economic factors salary rates of
employees have been drastically low. Whereas social factors are concerned lack of further job
opportunities, communication gap with in the boundary of institute, biased and weaken
recruitment process, extreme work

load etc. are more observed reasons of teachers high

turnover rate. Personal growth, motivation at work place is constantly needed to perform
better each and every day in any organization.
Moreover, low salary, benefits and promotion is most common reason of high turnover in
organization. Trevor, Gerhart, and Boudreau (2008) argued that slow and gradually increment
in salary results in high employee turnover. Due to low salary turnover of good performers
can result in loss of future leaders of organizations. People easily leave those organizations
that pay less than their basic needs. MB (2004) also determined positive connection between
equity based on compensation and performance. He identified income is the major factors of
job satisfaction. If employees receive efficient pay according to their performance they
become satisfied from their job.
Organizations give rewards to their employees for their best performance, for effort and
contributions in achieving organizational goals. Tekleab, Bartol, and Liu (2005) said that
monetary and non-monetary rewards both are important and they function as motivator.

14

Company should fairly reward to its employees because inequity of reward leads to negative
outcome.Cao, Chen, and Song (2013) a fair reward system can motivate employees and
reduces chances of turnover and intention of looking for other jobs. If a company is not
giving rewards to employees effort they will dissatisfy with their jobs and surely will find
another job that meet their expectations.
Human resource practices have positive and negative influence on turnover rate. Fair
procedures can decrease turnover rate and vice versa. Allen, Shore, and Griffeth (2003)
different human resource practices like salary and benefit system and fair procedures can
decrease or increase the turnover rate. Negative effects of reward system, employee
participation and growth opportunities are causes of turnover rate in organizations.
Organizational support also plays important role in turnover rate of employees; individuals
who recognize organizational support they dont easily leave organizations.
In rural areas there is shortage of experienced teaching staff .Educated people move to cities
where they can have better opportunities. Only those people continue their jobs who have
constrain resources. Kabungaidze, Mahlatshana, and Ngirande (2013) examined and
explained turnover scenario in rural setting. As per their research less education along with
less experience and very low skills teachers are the main areas of concern under this social
setting. This doesnt solely depends on teachers but the educational institute are also
responsible to create an environment which is beneficial in enhancing teachers skills and their
knowledge to get the maximum benefit the educational institute, students body and will also
provide a sense of job satisfaction among the teachers. This strategy might end up in lowering
the turnover rate.
Leadership plays important role in turnover rate. It is main area of concern in organizations.
Turnovers can a cause of ineffective leadership and insufficient leadership training. It might
also be that management made poor hiring decisions when selecting candidates for leadership
roles. Bteille, Kalogrides, and Loeb (2012) argues that leadership patterns in low middle
class matters a lot in the process of hiring experienced teacher. Instability in school affects the
performance patterns and reputation of the school as well. He describes the changes of
leadership patterns and how it affects employees performance, in low middle class schools,
which ends up in quitting their job. Instability in school does affect the performance and
reputation of the school.

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Furthermore, some aspects are very important, firstly constant motivation and flourishing
employees self-esteem and secondly leadership style of principal and how he/she
communicates with the staff members and how they are treated (Ferris, 1985). As per
Lambert

et

al.

(2009)

working

environment

and

employee

consideration

and

acknowledgement matters a lot. If this drops down from a certain level, frustration and low
commitment by the employee increases which in the end results in their high turnover rate.
People choose teaching profession for time being. They continue teaching as an option while
searching for their filed relevant job and better opportunities. They work with non-serious
behaviour later issues come out with the administration and result in low job satisfaction and
discouraging working environment issues (Wells, 2015).
According to Lee (2011) Individuals spend most of time at their workplace which results in
associations between employees. When people have friends at workplace they work with
passion and feel belongingness with organization. Moreover, workplace friendship increases
communication, mutual trust, social support, and commitment and decrease turnover rate and
absenteeism. Employees get help, guidance and assistance from their workplace friends and
they complete their task in effective and efficient way. Workplace friendship has direct or
indirect effect on employee turnover. Those people who have close friends at workplace they
dont tend to leave organization as compare to those employees who dont have strong
association with co-workers and the organization.
Job stress and conflicts among employees are also important reasons of employee turnover.
Edelmann (1993) stress of work and conflict at workplace are also the major causes of
teacher turnover, absenteeism and other related problems. The source of stress among
teachers can be workload, conflict at work and student discipline. Poor supervision and
unproductive relationships with the boss are the primary reasons of turnover. The quality of
supervision is an important influence on intention to leave. Little or poor supervision and less
support from manager in conducting will lead towards high level of job stress and turnover.
Rogers (2000) Interpersonal relationship is strong social links and affiliations between two or
more people at workplace or in business. Interpersonal relationship can develop between
individuals working together in the same organization at multiple facet levels, for instance
relationship of teacher and student, relationship of employee and management, and
relationship of colleagues. Interpersonal relations have direct impact on work and have

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connection with turnover. Strong interpersonal relations between employees exist within
organization and they feel self belonging with the organization.
Schools employ hundreds of teachers every year. Schools provide advancement and growth
opportunities to its employees. People who are committed with their profession they dont
compromise on growth and career advancement opportunities. If an organization fails to
provide growth opportunities employees leave these organization (Quarles, 2006).
man (January,2014) states that teachers job satisfaction is the result of intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation factors like profession challenges and professional growth and relations
with others. There is link between interpersonal relationship and job satisfaction. Spector
(2001) Job satisfaction is how a person feels about his job and it is bunch of evaluative
feelings about job and different factors of job satisfaction like salary, growth and reward.
Job satisfaction has influence on turnover rate in organization. It is tacit that job satisfaction
leads to organizational commitment because if a person is satisfied his job he will stay in
organization and develop connection with organization
Moreover Miarkolaei (2014) commitment is affection and trustworthiness; individuals can
show commitment with work, supervisor or company. A person who is highly committed and
attached with his organization shows hefty desire to remain part of organization. He performs
well, in result organization's productivity increase and he doesnt leave organization because
he feels satisfied with his job. Before making a decision always ask opinion of your employee
and recognize employees effort because lacks of employee empowerment, acknowledgement
and recognition are also reasons of employee turnover. In addition Bashir, Ismat, and
Mahmood (2012) empowerment is giving authority to employees to perform their daily tasks.
Encourage employees to take decisions, give value to employees decisions and recognize
their effort. If employee takes a decision and his immediate supervisor acknowledge
employees effort, he will feel motivated and work with dedication.

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2.1 Causes of Employee Turnover rate

1

Low salary

Salary which is not paid according to employees basic needs is considered as low salary.
According to Rampur (2009, August 4) in most of the organizations major factor for high
employee turnover rate is the salary scale because employees are typically in search of jobs
that pay well. Salary is the important reason for forming decisions about staying or leaving in
both the private and public sectors. It also affects the employees job satisfaction and
performance level.
2

Unfair reward system

Rewards are the financial and non-financial benefits that organizations give to the employee
in response of their effective performance. According to Kwenin, Muathe, and Nzulwa (2013)
rewards and incentives are important factors for encouraging employees to perform well,
increasing job satisfaction and reducing rate of employee turnover. If rewards are not paid
according to employees performance, they become dissatisfied with their jobs and leave
organization.
3

Lack of career Development

According to literature review lack of career development reduces the job satisfaction of
employees and increases the turnover rate. If organizations want to sustain their career
oriented employees they need to deal with employees perceptions of career opportunity.
Shamsuzzoha (2007) turnover increased when employees prefer to look for other jobs and
career paths. When existing jobs are not fulfilling employees requirements and organization
is not providing long term career development opportunities. When organizations dont
promote eligible employees to higher positions they switch to those organizations who offer
better benefits.

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High workload

Workload is amount of work a person performs. High workload can increase temporary
productivity of the organization, but it can also increase stress among employees which can
lead to poor decisions and low productivity. According to Spector and Jex (1998) there is a
relationship between work overload and employee turnover rate. Work load considered as the
total amount of work that is given to an employee to do. If high amount of work is assigned
to employees as compare to their efficiency it will lead to low productivity and high turnover
rate.
5

Leadership style changes

According to Graen, Liden, and Hoel (1982) leadership is the ability of an individual to
influence, motivate and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of
organizations of which they are members. Continuous changes in the immediate bosses by
leaving their jobs. Changing in the patterns, style leading and shuffling management is
directly related to employees absenteeism or high turnover rate.
6

Lack of Support by Management

In organizations employees face situations when they dont get acknowledgment from their
immediate boss. Moreover biasness between employees, encourage them to leave the
organization .Most of the time individuals need feedback and continuous emotional support
to complete a task. For best performance of employees, feedback and appreciation by
superiors play an important role. Lack of management support can create stress and conflicts
among employees which can lead to poor relationships between them and increase employee
turnover, (Stoetzer, 2010).
7

Negative interpersonal relationships/Communication gap between employees

and management

Interpersonal relationships are subject to strong social associations, connections and

affiliations between two or more people at workplace or in business. Interpersonal
relationship can develop between individuals working together in the same organization or in
same team. These relations are natural part of working environment which in thus has

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positive and negative effect on employees health. Lastly negative effects of interpersonal
relations can intent to quit the job, Lee (2011).
Moreover, if an employee has friendly relationship with his supervisor or subordinate he will
feel enthusiastic and comfortable. Fine (1986) close emotional connections and relationships
may provide a sense of safety and security that reduces stress and promotes good and healthy
environment while working in the organization. Negative relationship create atmosphere of
conflicts, stress and destroy the attitude of employee towards work, ultimately they leave
organization. Healthy communication with subordinates and boss at work create a strong
bond between the employees and organization. Communication gap can create negative
interpersonal relationship which can lead to high turnover.
8

Conflicts at workplace:

Conflicts at workplace are also the major cause of teacher turnover. Conflicts can occur due
to communication gap, misunderstandings, competition and student discipline.Stoetzer
(2010) said that conflicts are open arguments between persons .Conflicts at work can lead
to employee dissatisfaction and high turnover rate. Dissatisfaction with management and lack
of equality in administration practices also lead to higher levels of conflict. Furthermore, an
organization is made up of different persons who have their own ideas and interest.
Collaborations between these individuals are unavoidable and due to these interactions
conflict is arise. To reduce the rate of employee turnover it is essential to manage this
destructive issue because it leads to disastrous outcomes in organizations.
9

Lack of organizational commitment:

Organizational commitment is the employee attachment with the organization. Porter, Steers,
Mowday, and Boulian (1999) lack of commitment to company goals and principles can
increase the thoughts of withdrawal. Low level of organizational commitment negatively
affects the employees intentions to perform well and job satisfaction that leads to critical
decision to leave the organization. When employees are dissatisfied from their jobs they
become less committed and start to look for chances to quit. Low level of commitment to
organization has a very strong negative effect on turnover.

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10 Unfair Performance management System:

PMS is system of evaluating and managing performance of employees, departments and
overall organization. On the basis of employee performance monetary and non-monetary
benefits are given. If a company doesnt reward fairly its employees according to their effort
and contribution, employees will not satisfy with their jobs and ultimately they will be
looking for switching their jobs (Taylor & Pierce, 2002).
11 Lack of Employee Empowerment:
Employee empowerment is giving employee authority, opportunity and motivation to
complete their day to day tasks. Gmez and Rosen (2001) empowerment increases job
satisfaction. Lack of employee empowerment increase the turnover rate in organization
because when the employees have no authority to participate in the decision making and they
become less motivated.

2.2 Summary of the literature review

Table A 2.1

Authors Low
Salar
y

Unfair
reward
system

High
Worklo
ad

Con
flict
s

Lack of
work
commit
ment

Lack of
job
satisfactio
n

Lack
of
Career
developmen
t
opportunitie
s

Negative
Interperso
nal
relationshi
ps

(Ferris,
1985)
X

Spector
, (2000)

Spector
, (2001)

(Taylor
&
Pierce,
2002).

Quarles
(2006)
(Trevor x
et al.,
2008)
Cao et x
al.
(2013)

Lack of Leadersh
employee ip Style
empower Chang
ment

Edelma
nn
(1993)

Tekleab
,(2005).

Lack of
fair
performa
nce
managem
ent
system

x
X

21

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CHAPTER: 3
ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW
3.1 Organizational Profile
Al-Quraish Educational Institute is located in Mughal Pura, near UET Lahore, Punjab,
Pakistan. School was established in 1998 and at that time there were 80 students and now
there are 300 plus students in the school. Total number of employees is 17 including
management and teaching staff.

3.2 Purpose of the organization

Purpose of organization is to give quality of education and meet childrens personal and
spiritual needs and enable them to be successful learners, confident individuals, and
responsible citizens and to make an effective contribution to society in their present and
future lives
Vision
Schools vision is to produce leaders of future through providing extraordinary learning
opportunities for underprivileged students. A nurturing environment, quality education will be
facilitated for development and grooming of students.
Mission
Our mission is to provide superior quality education in affordable price so that every student
can become successful learner and confident individuals and can contribute in society by
becoming bright personality.

3.3 Environmental scanning

Schools environment includes external and internal factors that are directly and indirectly
affecting performance of school. The external forces for change originate in the school's
environment. They include the competitors, marketplace, government laws and regulations,
technology, labour markets, and economic changes. Al-Quraish Educational Institute has

23

three direct and indirect competitors such as The knowledge school system, Dar-ularqam and Allied school. These schools are well established and have good repute in
education sector. Al-Quraish Educational Institute can compete these schools by improving
its education standard. But other external factors are beyond the control of the organization
and these can have a significant influence on its current operations, growth and long-term
sustainability. Ignoring external forces can be a detrimental mistake for management to make.
Pressures in the internal environment of the school can also stimulate change. The two most
significant internal pressures for change come from administrative processes and people
problems. An administrative problem includes communication gap, decision making,
leadership changes, and lack of motivational strategies and lack of performance management
system. People problem includes poor performance levels of teachers and students; high
absenteeism of teachers or students; high dropout rates of students; high teacher turnover;
poor school-community relations, poor management-union relations; and low levels of staff
morale and job satisfaction etc. It also includes system, structure and conductions inside the
school. Internal environment influences school activities, decisions and employee behaviour
and attitudes. The school's mission statement, organizational culture and style of leadership
are factors typically associated with the internal environment. As such, Changes in the
management style, the organization's mission or culture can have a considerable impact on
the organization. Low level of morale and job satisfaction is main variable that is affecting
performance of school.

3.4 Organizations Structure

Organizational structure shows how activities like task allocation, coordination and line of
authority are directed towards the accomplishment of organizational aims. Formulization,
hierarchy of authority, centralization and professionalism are important components of
organizational structure. Al-Quraish Educational Institutes hierarchy is centralized and
simple. Chairman makes every kind of decision for school. There is no documentation like
policies and JDs of employees; employees are not clear in their role. School has few policies
but they are not implementing. Hierarchy of authority is clear like teachers are reporting to
coordinators and both coordinators are reporting to vice principle. Professionalism in school
is low because there is formal training is not given to teachers. Following Organogram is
showing hierarchy of Al-Quraish Educational Institute.

24

25

Chairman

Vice Principle

Coordinator of Primary
level teaching staff and
students

Coordinator of Secondary
level teaching staff and
school

Teachers

Teachers

Figure A - 3.1

3.5 Organizations Culture

Stephen Robbins (1998) defines organization culture as a system of shared meaning held by
members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. Generally
organizational culture is set of shared assumptions, vision, norms, values, beliefs, systems
and language of people. Mr. IQRAM chairman of school explained his organizations culture
as I personally believe that when you walk into any organization and spend five minutes
there the things you observed in that time is defined as culture. How you are received and
greeted, the way other person meets you and how the people around you are interacting with
each other all is more or less part of culture.
Culture of Al-Quraish Educational Institute is collaborative. Openness, trust and respect are
appreciated. Students and teachers are encouraged to take initiative and participate in
different activities. Students and teachers are considered important assets of school. All
employees are cooperative and help each other. Management and employees support each
other in different tasks. Employees are considered and treated as family and they have good
friends at work. All employees feel sense of belonging and association with the Al-Quresh

26

school. Due to this culture most of teachers dont want to leave school and they are doing job
from many years.

3.6 Gap analysis

A comprehensive gap analysis is conducted in order to ascertain whether or not the problem
of employee turnover exists within the organization. Turnover occurs due to many reasons
and there are many factors which lead to high rate of employee turnover. According to
literature review if employees are not satisfied from their jobs, rate of employee turnover is
increased. Employee satisfaction is effected by many factors such as working conditions, pay
& promotion, Job safety and security have impact on employee satisfaction. It has negative
administrative, financial and social effects on the organization. Within any organization,
employee turnover rate determines an organizations success and failure.
By conducting gap analysis this study analyzed that there is a gap between teachers current
performance and expected performance. Employees performance is not accessed and
rewards are not given according to their performance because there is no performance
management system and reward system in school. Due to this their performance decreased
and they are not satisfied with their jobs. Teachers salary is low according to their education
and experience. There are many other reasons of employee dissatisfaction that are leading to
teachers withdrawal in school. Some of these reasons are low salary, lack of career
development opportunities and lack of professionalism. All these factors have negative effect
on employee performance and their productivity also decreased. In Al-Quraish Educational
Institute employee turnover has negative effect on school environment, complicating the
capability to plan, accomplish expert development, and offer support systems for school
faculty.
Structure of Al-Quraish Educational Institutes is very simple but there are some faults in
structure that are leading to main issue. Schools current structure is centralized and all
decisions are made by chairman of school. Employees have no opportunity to contribute in
any important decision and they are also not encouraged to participate in decision making.
According to schools hierarchy teachers are reporting to coordinators and both coordinators
are reporting to vice principle. This problem leads to lack of employee empowerment and
motivation level of teachers decreased. Job descriptions of the teachers are not defined so

27

they have conflict about their roles and not performing efficiently. All these problems directly
or indirectly leading to high turnover rate of employees.

CHAPTER: 4
RESEARCH DESIGN
4.1 Research Strategy:
In this section project is discussing the steps through which research is conducted. This
project is basically a case study of Al-Quraish Educational Institute. Tilahun (2009); Yin
(2012) case study method is generally adopted when representative population is small and
describing examines the characteristics of a particular participants group has to be drawn.
Case study is focusing on the past events which held with the participants and the
organization.
Nature of the study is exploratory because there is very few literature and studies found in the
context of Pakistan. In this paper qualitative research method is used to understand the
behaviour and personal experiences of the respondents. Interviews are conducted to collect
the enriched and preliminary data from small number of population. Michael (1990) often
interviews are the best way to engage low-literacy populations. To simply ask reasons of high
turnover from the teachers of Al-Quraish Educational Institute semi-structured interviews
were conducted because the questions were generated in the field as per the person's
experiences and observations. The results may not generalize to people who were not
interviewed.
Content analysis technique is applied for data analysis. Responses are categorized by giving
codes and findings are presented in tables and graph. Thematic analysis of literature review
reveals the factors associated with the high employee turnover rate and also highlighted
reasons behind high employee turnover rate while interviews of the teachers at the AlQuraish Educational Institute. Following the thematic analysis, this project creates synthesis
between literature review and interview. On the basis of the synthesis, this project creates
conceptual framework of high employee turnover at Al-Quraish School.

28

29

4.2 Developing Case/Methodology

The purpose is to describe the nature of the methods used to select the universe, the sampling
techniques used and the tools being adopted to collect data.
Table B - 4.1
Population of Interest

Employees working at Al-Quraish Educational

Institute, Lahore, Pakistan.

Unit of Analysis

Six teachers

Research Method

Case Study-Qualitative

Sampling Technique

Simple Random Sampling

Data Collection technique

In-depth Personal Interview

Data Analysis

Content Analysis

Population of Interest
Population in this research paper is employees working at Al-Quraish Educational Institute.
Unit of analysis
Unite of analysis is group of six employees working at Al-Quraish Educational Institute. Data
is gathered from individuals and each employee response is considered as an individual data
source.
Research Method
For conducting this research case study method is used. Robert K. Yin,(1984) it is an
empirical inquiry that investigates a current phenomenon within its real-life context; when the
boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple

30

sources of evidence are used. Case study emphasizes detailed contextual analysis of a limited
number of events or conditions and their relationships. Qualitative research methodology is
adopted in case study and data is collected through direct encounters.
Sampling technique
For this study, simple random sampling is used because we want to explore the factors and
causes of high turnover rate of employees at Al-Quraish Educational Institute thats why our
sample is specific people within that organization.
Data Collection Technique
Data collection technique for this project is in-depth personal interview. Structured questions
were asked from employees to collect data.
Data Analysis
In this research content analysis is used for thematic analysis. Data of research is in form of
text and audio. Themes are extracted and examined if they fits and relevant.

4.3 Data Interpretation

In this study data is gathered through structured interviews. Structured and open ended
questions were asked from teaching staff. Aim of conducting structured interviews was to
explore particular feelings and opinions of respondents and to find out real causes that are
leading to high employee turnover. Questions asked from the respondents and interpretations
are given below.

31

Question 1: What is the reason of leaving teaching job at Al-Quraish Educational

Institute?
Table C -4.2
Low Salary

43%

Better Opportunities

29%

Office Politics

11%

Other Circumstances

17%

Total

100%

Figure B - 4.1
Interpretation
After conducting structured interview at Al-Quraish Educational Institute we identified
reason of teacher turnover. We asked open ended question What is the reason of leaving

32

teaching job at Al-Quraish Educational Institute? 43% teachers said that they want to leave
due to low salary. Enough salary is not paid according to their education and skills. 29%
employees said that they are looking for better opportunities like higher job positions and
government jobs. They want secure career with permanent government jobs. Only 11%
employees want to quit due to politics and misbehavior of colleagues and management.
Results of interview show that 17% employees at Al-Quraish school left their jobs due to
their marriage, engagement, change of residence or child birth. After marriage their
responsibility increased at home they couldnt continue their jobs.
Question 2: Reason of choosing Teaching as profession
Table D - 4.3

Proportion
To Support Family

53%

Personal Interest

35%

Personal growth

12%

Total

100%

Figure C - 4.2
Interpretation

33

Graph 3.3 shows that 53% respondent are working for earn money, through which they
support their family and to accomplish their basic personal needs to survive. 33% respondent
are doing job due to their personal interest because teaching is a respectful profession and
they fell safe and secure at school, so they prefer to work at school. 12% teachers are
teaching for their personal growth through which they earn money for their farther education
and get experience for their future career.
Question 3: What kinds of benefits attract you to stay in current organization?
Table E - 4.4
Proportion
Safe Environment

50%

Good Behavior

22%

Learning Environment

17%

Cooperative Staff

11%

Total

100%

Figure D - 4.3
Interpretation

34

Results of interview show that employees especially females are highly satisfied with safe
environment of the school. 50% of employees want to stay at Al-Quraish Educational
Institute due to safe and comfortable working environment. 22% of employees are satisfied
with good behavior of school management. 17% of employees are continuing their jobs
because school is providing them learning environment. 11% of employees want to continue
their jobs because they have collaboration with their colleagues and school management.
These all are reason of employees current stay at school.

4.4 Causes of Employee Turnover at Al-Quraish Educational Institute School

Following are causes of high turnover rate of Al-Quraish Educational Institute that are
extracted from interview of employees.
1

Low salary

Result of the interview shows majority of the employees are dissatisfied with their salary
range. Sufficient salary is not paid according to employees skills and education.
According to one of the teachers We want to support our family but school is not paying
enough salary and we face problem in fulfilling our basic needs.
2

Lack of Performance Management System:

Performance management is systematic process of identifying and managing performance

of employees, departments and overall organization. In Al-Quraish Educational Institute
performance management system is not developed. Management doesnt assess
performance of employees and employees dont seek financial and non-financial rewards.
3

Lack of career development

Career development is the on-going and lifelong process of managing and developing
employees career in organization through trainings, promotions and developing career
path. In Al-Quraish Educational Institute there is no opportunity to move to higher job
responsibilities, career change within the same organization and trainings on new skills
are not provided. One teacher said that we are not sure whether our future and career is
secure in this school or not thats why we want to switch our jobs to government
institutes. Teachers dont feel that their jobs are secure so they are looking for

35

government jobs. Because government jobs are secure, permanent and give several
benefits to employees.
4

Lack of Professionalism

Teacher professionalism is to act with integrity, engage in facilitating open

communication, support learning and being proactive in and outside of class. During
interview one teacher said that many teachers in this school have chosen teaching
profession for time being and we are looking for our field relevant jobs and better
opportunities.
5

Other Circumstances

During interview of employees at school, some other reasons of turnover were identified.
These causes are related to teachers personal obligations for quitting teaching profession
or high turnover rate such as after marriage or child birth responsibility increases and
employees cannot continue their jobs. Teachers come from far places and low salary is
not covering travelling expenses. So they prefer to work in those organizations which are
near to their homes or at walking distance.

36

37

CHAPTER: 5
ACTION PLAN
5.1 Proposed structure
Current structure of school contains small and tall hierarchy .Small and simple hierarchy is
good but there is need to re-structure the school for its better performance and to solving
turnover issue. This research paper proposed a new structure to Al-Quraish Educational
Institute Performance of school can be better by changing structure. Separating departments
with subject wise will increase their effectiveness. There should be admin and HR manager in
the school who coordinate with all departments and coordinators. Also track performance of
all teaching and non-teaching staff and implement HR policies. It can increase performance
and productivity of all employees and overall organization. Following school structure
encourages all departments and employees to communicate with each other. Communication
gap also create many organizational problems, so open communication among all
departments and employees can solve different problems leading to turnover rate.

38

Fig
ure A 5.1

39

5.2 Synthesis of the Literature Review and Interviews

After reviewing literature and conducting interviews from the teachers of the Al-Quraish
Educational Institute, causes of high turnover rate are identified. This part gives the blending
of both factors which are extracted from literature and interviews on the basis of the
differences and commonalities.
There are some factors which are extracted from the literature that are leading to employee
turnover but they are not identified in interviews. These are changing leadership styles which
show instability in the organization. Graen et al. (1982) the high turnover rate in the
management is affecting the employees intention to leave the organization. Moreover
Employees empowerment at workplace gives authority, opportunity and motivation to
complete their daily tasks Gmez and Rosen (2001). Empowerment is highlighted by the
interviewers. Furthermore Spector and Jex (1998) talks about the direct relationship of high
workload and the high turnover rate. The interview shows that employees might not be aware
about their rights or might be they are satisfied with their jobs.
One of the most important factor which is identified by the interviewers that leads towards
high turnover rate. Personal commitments of the employees which include marriage of the
teachers, family pressure like parents or spouse doesnt give the permission to continue job
and child birth are the reasons of high turnover. These factors do not exist in the literature and
they are also not identified in any research paper.
There are some common factors which are found from both literature and interviews of the
employees. Low salary is the most important cause of high turnover rate at private schools
by Khawary and Ali (2015). Schools which are working in under developing areas of city or
in rural areas pay less salary. Teachers are doing jobs to earn money and to support their
families but low salary couldnt fulfil their basic needs. In schools employees are not satisfied
with their pay so they leave the organization, MB (2004).
Organizations are not providing career developing training and programs for new teachers
which eventually cause high turnover, Shamsuzzoha (2007). Organizations give training to
those employees already who have sufficient job experience. In most of the interviews
teachers said that there is no job security for them at private schools for that reason they

40

continue their struggle to get government jobs. (Stoetzer, 2010) talked about these biasness
which increases conflicts between employees and with management. Rogers (2000) biasness
can effects interpersonal relationships between management and employees. These factors
increase employee intention towards leaving job.
Performance management system is the most essential factor to motivate and support
employees for achieving their goals. Its a human nature every person needs
acknowledgement, appreciation, emotion support and some monetary rewards. According to
(Taylor & Pierce, 2002) performance management system could increase productivity of the
organization and performance of the employees. Vice versa if performance management
system does not exist in the organizations, employees retention will become the difficult task
for organizations. Hence it has been proven from interviews that this is actually happening in
the Al-Quraish Educational Institute. Teachers leave jobs from Al-Quraish Educational
Institute because there is no effective performance management and reward system for
teachers. They are not getting quarterly or annually feedback or performance appraisal from
the management. All these issues directly or indirectly are leading to high turnover rate of
employees at Al-Quresh School.

41

5.3 Conceptual Framework

PMS

Lack of
Professionalism

Career
Development

Low Salary

High Turnover Rate

Personal
commitment

Lack of
Empowerme

Leadership
Style

High
Workload

Yellow colour boxes are showing causes of employee turnover that we identified from
literature and interview of employees. These causes do exist in school.
Green colour boxes are showing causes of employee turnover which we identified from
literature.
Blue colour boxes shows causes of turnover which we identified from interview of schools
employees
Figure B -5.2

42

5.4 Recommendations
Turnover rate is the major problem that mostly companies are facing these days. Employee
retention is difficult because employee leave organization when they are dissatisfied with
their jobs. Companies should identify root causes of high turnover. After careful analysis and
observation this study found causes of turnover rate at Al-Quraish Educational Institute such
as low salary, lack of performance management system, lack of career development and lack
of professionalism. Our findings are not generalized and these causes can vary from one
organization to another.
Recommendations are given on the bases of interviews, structure and culture of the AlQuraish Educational Institute
1

Implement new structure in school that is shown in figure 5.1. That structure will help

school for solving many problems leading to main issue high turnover rate.
Introduce performance management system in school which identify and manage
employees performance and rewards them according to their performance. Give

monetary and non-monetary benefits to employees.

Define Job descriptions according to mission and vision of school, employees should

be clear about their roles.

Define KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and assess performance of employees

according to those KPIs.

Promote employees after fair assessment of their performance and provide them

6
7

opportunities to move to higher job responsibilities.

Provide new skills trainings to teaching and non-teaching staff for.
Help them to enhance and share their knowledge by in-house and out-house activities

and seminars.
Arrange teamwork or interactive activities to engage employees and enhance

collaboration.
Conduct motivational trainings to motivate all employees so that they work with
dedication and commitment.

43

5.5 Conclusion
The main aim of this study was to get to know the main foundations or sources of turnover of
the teachers belonging to Al-Quraish Educational Institute. For this research, qualitative
research methodology was used. Interviews of the teachers and upper management were
conducted and after the data collection of that data the study found the causes of turnover
were low salary, poor performance management system, lack of career development, lack of
professionalism and some other circumstances.
After the analysis of the available data researcher reached to the conclusion that the main
reason of high employee turnover is low salaries of employees because money is necessary to
fulfil their basic needs. Females who are more or less educated have been came out from their
homes for doing jobs and earn money for the sake of their families survival. In Asia,
economic condition is not so good, as life is getting tough day by day, needs of life are
necessary and fundamental. Thats why for basic needs, every person whether he/she is
illiterate or well educated trying to serve their duties and having their daily wages or monthly
salaries to fulfil their needs. In these circumstances if we look over the teachers they will
definitely try to get handsome or at least good salaries in the reward. But if there is not good
response they will definitely move to different place to get enough salary to fulfil their needs.
Hopefully, the conclusions will reach organizations and lead them to emphasis on high level
of salary and support their employees.

44

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