Action research approach: Improving the effectiveness of decision making on controlling employee turnover rate in a small private steel casting company under capacity limited environment

Abstract

The improvement of employee job satisfaction can bring economic and social benefits to an enterprise and affect the survival and sustainable development of the company. Company X is one of many private steel casting companies whose profits have been severely damaged during the economic reform process due to limited production and a large number of unemployed workers. This action research project aimed to find out the reasons of high employee turnover rate in Company X and carry out the corresponding intervention. In particular, this paper studied the employees job satisfaction of Company X by combining field interview and questionnaire survey. The impact of job satisfaction on turnover intention was measured, and the differences on job satisfaction based on staff socio-demographic characteristics were examined. The results of this study showed that low job satisfaction was mainly reflected in five aspects: work, pay, interpersonal relationship, leader behavior and personal growth. Moreover, employees displayed stronger turnover intention when their job satisfaction was low. Therefore, it is concluded that high job satisfaction contributes in ensuring the sustainable operations of the company under challenging business environment, improving the competitiveness of a company, and promoting a company's long term development. Last but not least, intervention strategies have been formulated and implemented in order to improve turnover rate in the company.