Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
N. Aqilah-Ahmad
School of Graduate Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
A.H. Jantan & D. Zawawi
Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
M. Othman
Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
ABSTRACT: Tourism industry has become one of the largest contributors to Malaysia's economy. In
2012, there were 25.03 million tourist arrivals contributing 60.6 billion ringgits to Malaysian economy.
This resulted in the tourism industry becoming one of the top three contributors of foreign exchange to
the economy. However, employees' turnover is reported to be high in this industry and it is increasing
over the years. Ministry of Human Resource reported that in 2009, the tourism employee turnover was
16 percent and turnover of hoteliers contributed half of the number. This paper conceptually discusses
the human resource challenges in the tourism industry and at the same time provides recommendation
for future research.
Keywords
:
Tourism, turnover, Gen Y, retention
1 INTRODUCTION
There are four key themes discussed in this
paper. Firstly, the study evaluated the literature on
the nature of work in tourism. The second theme
addresses the entrance of the new generation
employees in the workforce known as generation
Y. The characteristics and expectations of work
environment and industry of Generation Y could
be relevant to the intention to leave many organi-
zations (Doherty, Guerrier, Jamieson, Lashley &
Lockwood, 2001; Jenkins, 2001; Pavesic & Bymer,
1990; Zacerelli, 1985). This study also looked at the
emerging issues from the literature focusing on the
role that work-life balance (WLB) play towards the
intention to leave. Lee and Shin (2005) found that
the psychological dimensions specifically job burn-
out, and cynicism were significant predictors of
turnover intentions. The discussion on the retention
issue in the tourism work industry is then followed.
International tourism is one of the important
sources of revenue in directing Malaysian economy
towards a higher growth (Mazumder & Ahmed,
2009). The industry has become the second larg-
est foreign exchange earner after the manufactur-
ing industry in Malaysia. Specifically, there were
25.03 million tourist arrivals contributing to 60.6
billion ringgits to Malaysian economy in 20012.
This resulted in the tourism industry becoming
one of the top three contributors in term of foreign
exchange to the economy (Economic Transforma-
tion Programme Annual Report, 2012). Despite
the increase in tourist visits, Ministry of Human
Resource reported a 16 percent turnover of tour-
ism employees in 2009, and half of the turnovers
were the hoteliers (Saad, Yahya & Pangil, 2012).
For instance, Abdullah et al. (2010) found that the
employees in hotel industry who worked for more
than two years but less than five years changed job
constantly compared to those who worked for less
than two years or more than five years. Despite
the growth, the tourism and hospitality industry
is facing numerous challenges in retaining their
employees and this issue has severely affected the
Malaysian tourism industry (Alonso & Neill, 2009;
Chiang & Birtch, 2008; Karatepe & Uludag, 2012;
Roney & Öztin, 2007; Poulston, 2008).
2 LITERATURE
2.1
Nature of work in tourism industry
Numerous tourism and hospitality management
graduates distance themselves from the industry,
and fail to enter the industry due to low job satis-
faction, poor employment conditions, and absence
of motivating factors. These also result in high
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