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УДК 331
ПРИЧИНЫ ВЫСОКОЙ ТЕКУЧЕСТИ КАДРОВ В ТУРИСТИЧЕСКОМ АГЕНТСТВЕ «ВОКРУГ СВЕТА»
© Гулюк Н. В., 2015
Иркутский государственный университет, г. Иркутск
В данной статье изучается понятие «текучести кадров» и объясняются основные причины этого явления в туристическом агентстве «Вокруг света». В начале статьи проводится обзор литературы, в котором рассматриваются определения пирамиды потребностей Маслоу, жизненного цикла организации и история термина «текучесть кадров». Используя методы интервью и наблюдения, автор выявляет возможное причины текучести кадров в туристическом агентстве. Этими причинами являются наличие у работников собственных неудовлетворенных трудовых потребностей, недовольство рабочим местом и слаборазвитая корпоративная культура. После сбора и анализа необходимой информации в статье предлагаются рекомендации по решению этой проблемы, включающие в себя улучшение корпоративной культуры, удовлетворение потребностей работников и создание благоприятной атмосферы внутри организации.
Ключевые слова: текучесть кадров, корпоративная культура, управление человеческими ресурсами
Nowadays many organizations start appreciating personnel as a human resource, which requires some conditions to be met. These conditions are supposed to help managers to solve of work force flow might be different: the needs and motivation of employees and corporate culture of organization are the main reasons why people quit a job. As a future manager, I decided to study the company of my relatives called «Around the world», where the problem of work force flow has been around for many years.
Furthermore, with the help of interviews and observations, the paper will consider the possible causes of workforce flow in this agency and give some recommendations how to avoid the problem.. Much attention will be paid to corporate culture because, as T. Streckenbach noticed in The New York Times, «corporate culture is about performance, and making people feel good about how they contribute to the whole.»
The causes of «revolving door» phenomenon or employee turnover issue might be different: the needs, motivation of employees, and corporate culture of organization are the main reasons why people quit the job.
According to the weblog of Alexander F. (2012), who described Maslow's pyramid of needs, there are basic needs of employees that may influence their productivity and effectiveness: psychological needs (sleep, food), safety needs (on the workplace), needs for respect, recognition, and socialization (communication). All of these employees' needs might be satisfied to a different degree, depending on the stage of life cycle of an organization.
Each organization comes through specific stages such as courtship, infancy, go-go, adolescence, prime,
the problem of retaining personnel, which is very relevant and widespread in each organization. The causes
stability, aristocracy, recrimination, bureaucracy, and death (Adizes, 1996). The stage of life cycle of an organization indicates how the company can overcome the «revolving door» phenomenon, what consequences might be after all, and how long the crisis will last. That is why managers predict the results of the phenomenon and what it would bring to the organization. They also formulate personnel policy, set of strategies to prevent its workers from quitting the company.
Initially, the term «revolving door» appeared when people became dissatisfied with volumes of the work to complete and the income from their activity. The problem of quitting is becoming very relevant and hinders the success of the company. Adizes (2004) claims that «a huge turnover of workers is usually not the ideal basis for success.» The problem is in the absence of good system of motivation, key performance indicators, and underdeveloped corporate culture. Therefore, staff doe not feel themselves as part of an organization, and people leave their workplaces for different alternative career perspectives.
Meskon, Albert, and Khedouri (1992) believe that managers are interested in the motivation of their employees for obvious reasons: the activity of a person who is included in the system of functions and goals of the organization is closely connected with the motivation of their behavior. The simple model of the motivation process has only three elements: needs, purposeful behavior, and satisfaction. A successful manager has to meet the needs of employees and coordinate effective work. Moreover, the employer has to inform employees and help them to realize all the benefits of working in
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this organization in order to make them achieve the company's goals properly and quickly.
Another way to prevent a «revolving door» phenomenon and retain employers in an organization is corporate culture. Corporate culture is the system of values, traditions, goals, and changes in the work atmosphere of employers, which is built for years and contributes to a positive climate within the organization. Evans (2009) claimed that corporate events also play a very important role in the lives of the staff. Such events give an opportunity to take a rest from work, to forget about daily routine, to communicate with colleagues, and to ask some questions about the company's future and personal perspectives.
Thus, a «revolving door» phenomenon is a problem that can happen in any organization, whatever its activity is. The more effectively managers of an organization
satisfy employees' needs, develop a system of motivation, and improve corporate culture, the less often a «revolving door» phenomenon occurs.
Before examining the causes of staff turnover, let us briefly describe travel agency. Travel Agency «Around the World» appeared in 2007, when the CEO decided to diversify her business of real estate agency. Nowadays the company consists of 14 employees and has its own structure (see Figure 1). The problem of work force flow is very relevant to this tourist firm because during all eight years 37 workers have left the organization. The department of sales always needs new employees because many of those who left were tourist agents. Supposedly, the reasons of this phenomenon might be basic needs, lack of satisfaction with the conditions of labor, and unrealized expectations of employees.
The reason I study this company is to develop the key factors, which may retain employees there. As it was mentioned above, great emphasis will be placed on the corporate culture.
To collect data about needs, satisfaction, and operating environment of workers, two interviews were used. Each interview was supposed to obtain free answers from interlocutors, except the last question, which had five answers for interview questions to choose from. (See Appendix B).
The first interview was focused on the set of questions that were answered by the director herself. This approach allowed learning the CEO's point of view on the problem and understanding her vision of the existing atmosphere within organization. The second interview provided information from two differently experienced employees: one of them has worked there for the entire period of eight years; another one, just six months. In this case two identical interviews are expected to provide different data and show whether experience plays a role in the employee's vision of the atmosphere within the organization. During each interview, the method of observation was also used to analyze the moods of interlocutors, their feelings towards some awkward questions and sincerity of
responses.
During my visit in the company, I also observed features of dress code, ways of communication between
co-workers, and conditions of work place. Also the CEO provided me with documentation of headcount of workers and organizational structure of all departments.
Taking into account such methods as interview and observation, I found out that all three reasons of workforce flow, which are dissatisfaction of needs and work atmosphere of the workers and weak developed corporate culture, exist in the tourist firm under study. They are connected with each other, so if the company eliminates at least one of them, it will probably influence the others, and this might be the solution of the problem of the «revolving door.»
The interview method included two types of questions: one of them was going to provide me with the information about the employees' needs, the other, with the state of corporate culture. The first employee, who is a newcomer, said that the personnel are not friendly enough to communicate with. The employees just do their jobs, sometimes not sharing personal experience or tacit knowledge. The second interlocutor noticed that there is no kitchen in the office, so all the employees are supposed to lunch wherever they want. The CEO described the employees' job not as working at the office, but working in the constant motion. All staff move throughout the town and cater for their customers, according to the CEO, so there is no need to improve work conditions. Both employees also claimed that this job is harder than it seemed, so they would rather work at the office if the conditions of labor would allow them
to do so.
All the answers reveal the employee's attitude towards the present atmosphere within the company on the whole. It turned out that the workers don't meet their colleagues outside the workplace, they don't communicate well and celebrate each other's birthdays. So the leading reason why people leave the firm seems to be weak corporate culture, which explains the dissatisfaction of employees, caused by unfulfilled needs. The employee cannot fulfill the needs of self-realization, communication with colleagues, acknowledgement of their merits, and self-development. These are the reasons why people start thinking about quitting the job there. Unfortunately, there was no
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opportunity to take an interview with someone who had already left, which could have provided me with more data and made my paper more objective.
That is why one of the ways to prevent the employees from what they have planned to do is developing the corporate culture. Since it is a very long process, and it takes about three years to define the company's values accurately, I would suggest the CEO starting it immediately.
Defining the company's values is the most important part the company should start with. The CEO needs to determine whether her company is customer-oriented and values its workers at the same time, or the company just wants to get net profits as much as possible without thinking about its employees. When the CEO understands the values, the entire process of developing corporate culture will begin. First, it is necessary to build channels of communication between all employees, without paying attention to their different work experience. One of the ways is to make a kitchen, where the employees may communicate and share tacit knowledge with each other. This action might change the corporate atmosphere for the better.
Moreover, it is necessary not only to create a new atmosphere in the company but also to organize communication outside the work place. To fulfill this idea, the CEO should create corporate traditions, such as common holidays, the anniversary of the tourist firm, team building, or other events that could provide all the employees with communication and good relationship.
It is also important to congratulate all workers on their personnel celebrations, such as birthdays, wedding, or anniversaries. When the personnel are completely involved in congratulation, they start appreciating that. The next time they will probably think whether they will meet such grateful colleagues in another company after quitting the tourist firm.
All these measures are necessary to improve corporate culture, in its turn, which will satisfy most needs of employees. In order to retain the personnel in the organization, the CEO should think about its employees. In this case the problem of work force flow will not be so urgent, and the company will acquire more loyal personnel.
To conclude my research, I would like to pay attention to three basic reasons why people quit the job. These reasons are needs of employees and a weak corporate culture. Improving the corporate culture, the CEO may eliminate other reasons and retain the employees within the organization.
My research gave me a bad example of corporate culture. I learned how to avoid workforce flow by improving corporate culture, satisfying needs of my future employees, and creating a positive atmosphere in the organization.
Unfortunately, some limitations prevented me from the most thorough analysis of the travel agency. The first limitation was that there was not any opportunity to take an interview with the people who already left the organization, but it would have been interesting to know their reasons of quitting the job. The second limitation
was the distance between Bratsk and Irkutsk. The tourist firm is located in Bratsk, so I could not reach the agency to obtain more data. Also it was a bit difficult to access the data of the company. If the problem of work force flow were relevant in CEO's vision of the company, it would be much easier to get an access to necessary data.
Finally, I would like to emphasize that good conditions of labor, the satisfied needs of employees, and well-developed corporate culture are the key to success in each organization and can prevent it from a high level of staff turnover. As M.Carlson said (former CEO of Carlson Companies), «what high-performing companies should be striving to create: A great place for great people to do great work». ■
1. URL:http://www.inc.com/magazine/19961001/1847.ht
ml
2. Adizes I. Managing corporate life cycles / I. Adizes. — 2nd ed. — Los Angeles: Adizes Institute, 2004.— 460 p.
3. Evans, M. (2009, January 1). Corporate culture redefined. ManagerWise.
4. URL:http://www.managerwise.com/article.phtml?id=6
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5. Mescon M. Fundamentals of management / M. Mescon, M. Albert, F. Khedouri. — 3d ed., 1992.— 777p.
6. URL: http://www.iaim.ru/piramida-maslou/
СПИСОК ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ
Adizes I. Managing corporate life cycles / I. Adizes. — 2nd ed. —Los Angeles: Adizes Institute,2004.— 460 p.
Evans, M. (2009, January i). Corporate culture redefined. ManagerWise.
Mescon M. Fundamentals of management / M. Mescon, M. Albert, F. Khedouri. —3d ed., 1992 — 777p URL : http://www.managerwise.com/article.phtml?id= 667
URL:http://www.inc.com/magazine/19961001/1847. html
URL : http ://www. iaim.ru/piramida-maslou/
Causes of «Revolving Door» Phenomenon In Travel Agency «Around The World»
© Gulyuk N., 2015
The paper considers the notion of «revolving door» and explains basic reasons of this phenomenon in the travel agency «Around the world». The author starts by reviewing some literature resources and definitions of Maslow's pyramid of needs, life cycle of an organization, and «revolving door» phenomenon itself. Using interviews and observations, the author finds the possible causes of workforce flow in this agency. They are the basic needs of employees, employee's dissatisfaction with the work place, and not well-developed corporate culture. Taking into account the collected data, the paper further elaborates some recommendations for the problem. They include improving corporate culture, satisfying needs of the employees, and creating a positive atmosphere within the organization.
Key words: «revolving door» phenomenon, corporate culture, human resources management.
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