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and intention to leave a job among employees of casual dining
restaurants in Klang Valley area
H. Ghazali, N. Mohamad-Nashuki & M. Othman
Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
ABSTRACT: In restaurant industry, employee turnover is considered as part of its nature and is inevi-
table. However, due to the high costs the organization had to suffer, upper managements always look
for the root of the problem and seek answers to minimize the damage. In this research, the relationship
between Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and intention to leave among the employees of casual
dining restaurants in Klang Valley area were studied. In addition, the difference between the leaving inten-
tion between managerial and non-managerial staff were also examined. The result obtained showed that
POS and intention to leave were negatively correlated, while non-managerial staff had higher tendency in
leaving the restaurant they were currently employed. As conclusion, it is suggested that the upper manage-
ment continue to show support and rewards their employees' efforts so that the employees do not consider
any job alternatives and leave.
Keywords
: perceived organizational support, intention to leave, restaurant industry, managerial
employees, non-managerial employees
1 INTRODUCTION
Kay, 2009; Tuzun & Kalemci, 2012; Wildes, 2005).
Costs of turnover could involve direct replacement
expenses like advertising, head-hunter fees, and
employee development and indirect opportunity
costs like lost sales, lower productivity, and cus-
tomer defections (Hay, 2002). Since it is considered
as a threat to the company's success (Mansfield,
2007), efforts have been taken by the managements
to reduce turnover among their employees.
Intention to leave is the employee's intention
of leaving the organization they are currently
employed (Cho, Johanson & Guchait, 2009).
Although it does not define an actual turnover
(Mobley, Horner & Hollingsworth, 1978), it is said
to be the better predictor of employee's turnover
action in the future compared to job satisfaction
(Ghiselli, La Lopa & Bai, 2001; Tuzun & Kalemci,
2012). Due to its troubling trait that continues to
cause problem to hospitality establishment (Ryan,
et al., 2011), a lot of studies were done to investigate
the cause of turnover. Unfortunately, it is still hard
to predict who would have the tendency to leave
the organization they are working for. In Malaysia
specifically, study on turnover intention is rather
limited (Ponnu & Chuah, 2010) as well as academic
studies in human resources in hospitality industry
despite the industry's growth (Ahmad & Zainol,
2011). One of the highly studied antecedents of
intention to leave was perceived organizational
Casual dining restaurant is one of the popular eat-
ing spot among Malaysians. It is a moderate-up-
scale dining place that placed details on themes in
menu, service, and décor (Rivera, DiPietro, Mur-
phy & Muller, 2008). Euromonitor International
(2012) reported that Malaysian casual dining res-
taurants are divided according to their price range;
(i) higher price range where the average guest
cheque is RM40-50, (ii) lower price range where
the average guest cheque is RM10-20. Unfortu-
nately, behind its popularity and growth, restau-
rant industry suffers from high rate of turnover.
It is reported that in a survey done between June
2010 and July 2011 by Malaysian Employers Fed-
eration (MEF), Hotel/Restaurant industry was
placed third as the industry with highest annual
average turnover rate at 32.4 percent, only behind
IT/Communication (75.7%) and Associations/
Societies (33%) (Goh, 2012). For example, Ryan,
Ghazali, and Mohsin (2011) reported that turno-
ver rate among non-managerial staff in Malaysian
fastfood industry was 100 percent.
Turnover is defined as the movement of people
in and out of employment within an organization
(Abdullah et al., 2010). The most well-known effect
of employee turnover is cost (Ingram & Jones, 1998;
Kahumuza & Schlechter, 2008; Moncarz, Zhao &
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