OB – Case Study 1744631/1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION 3

1.1 Context 3

1.2 Purpose of Studying This Topic 3

1.3 Objective of Assignment 3

2.0 METHODOLOGY 3

3.0 CASE DESCRIPTION 3

3.1 Description of the Company 3

3.2 Case Issue 4

4.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

4.1 Motivation 5

4.2 Work-life Balance 6

5.0 CASE ANALYSIS 7

5.1 Long Working Hours 7

5.2 Motivation 8

5.3 Work-life Balance 9

5.4 Unfair Reward System 9

6.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 10

7.0 REFERENCES 11

1
OB – Case Study 1744631/1

ELEMENT 011 – ASSIGNMENT, 2200 WORDS

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Context
This assignment is to analyse a critical problem that an organisation facing
based on the organisational behaviour perspective. The organisational behaviour
perspective that I have choose are motivation and work-life balance which leads to
employee turnover. The company chosen is Mid Valley City SdnBhd where I focus
on the Customer Service Department of Mid Valley Megamall.

1.2 Purpose of Studying this Topic

The main purpose of reviewing this topic is to have a clear thoughtful about
the elements that affected the employee turnover from the organisational behaviour
perspective.

1.3 Objective of Assignment

The objective of this assignment is to analyse the erosion problem happening
in Customer Service Department and to find the reason that became the main factor
of the problem, to study the relationship between the leadership, motivation and
employee turnover. At the end of this study, few recommendations will be suggested
in order to overcome this problem.

2.0 METHODOLOGY
The method used to conduct this assignment is case study approach in order
to evaluate the organisational behaviour problems which relate to motivation and
work-life balance of the Customer Service Officer in Customer Service Department,
Mid Valley Megamall.

3.0 CASE DESCRIPTION

3.1 Description of the company

2
OB – Case Study 1744631/1

Mid Valley City SdnBhd is a subsidiary company of IGB Corporation Berhad.

The main business under Mid Valley City SdnBhd is a shopping mall and known as
Mid Valley Megamall. It is one of IGB Corp’s maiden and main projects on the outer
edge of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The mall was launched in the year of 1195 and
today, Mid Valley Megamall is one of the biggest shopping mall in Malaysia and has
become a trademark in Klang Valley area. This megamall is also the first retail centre
of four major anchor tenants like AEON BiG, AEON, Metrojaya and Golden Screen
Cinemas.

Besides the four major anchor tenants, Mid Valley Megamall consists of five
levels of retails shop, dining and entertainment. It has almost 18 junior and small
anchors along with more than 400 specialty shops. Mid Valley Megamall received
miscellaneous award from the international and local for its involvement to the retails
industry in Malaysia.

Under Mid Valley City SdnBhd which is referring to the mall, there is one
management department who is taking care of the operation of the mall. Under the
management department, there is leasing department, marketing department, visual
and merchandise department, customer service department, maintenance
department and fit-out department.

3.2 Case Issue

As one of the biggest shopping mall in Malaysia, the management of Mid
Valley City SdnBhd is focusing on highly turnover especially in Customer Service
Department. Most of the employees were resigning from Customer Service
Department even though they just joining the department for few months. There are
few reasons that triggers high turnover in Customer Service Department.

First, the main reason of highly turnover by the employees is due to long
working hours even on public and festive holidays. There are two (2) shifts for
Customer Service Officer either morning or afternoon session with the average of 8
hours of working for each employee. Furthermore, as for Customer Service Officer,
working overtime is compulsory and not by voluntary due to lack number of

3
OB – Case Study 1744631/1

employee.Some of the employees are reluctant to work overtime because they have
other commitment at home.

Second, the top management is hardly to approve employee’s annual leave

application. The employee also cannot simply plan their annual leave as they like.
Sometimes, their leave application will be rejected if the management cannot fulfil
the schedule or duty timetable.

Third factor that triggers the high turnover of the employee in Customer
Service Department is the overtime rate is below the market rate which is lower
compared to the overtime rate at the fast food restaurants in Malaysia.The
employees felt that theirwork-life balance is affected due to the long working hours at
the mall and the employee felt stress and feel not happy to go to work.

4.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

4.1 Motivation
Motivation is a major factor that plays a big role in an organisational.
Motivation is used to inspire employee to work hard and perform well. Motivation
involves a collection of beliefs, values, interests,opinionsand actions that are all
closely related. As a result, various approaches to motivation can focus on cognitive
behaviours for example monitoring and strategy use and also non-cognitive aspects
for example beliefs,perceptions and attitudes. Researcher Gottfried (1990) explains
academic motivation as “enjoyment of school learning characterised by a mastery
orientation; curiosity; persistence; task-endogens; and the learning of challenging,
difficult, and novel tasks”.

When effort is directed toward the human portion of the firm's capital, the
manager focuses on a recurrent problem in business activity or “employee
motivation” (Elizabeth BoyeKuranchie-Mensah, KwesiAmponsah-Tawiah,
2016).Employee motivation is complex and complicated subject. However, the
management must deal with this topic to obtain the successfulness of an
organisation. To boost understanding of employee motivation, managers must

4
OB – Case Study 1744631/1

recognise the imperativeness of employee motivation, its concepts and differences in

individual needs (Dongho Kim, 2006).

For instance, employee motivation can be a major factor that affect

employee’s performance. Employees who are more motivated will perform better in
doing their tasks. As results, the employee can do more work on time (Riketta,
2008). Employee performance is important because an organisational successful or
failure is often depends on how much effort employees put in completing their tasks.

A selection of employee motivational factors have been recognized and

studied over the years and used by many organisations in order to enhance
management understanding of employee motivation. The research conclusion in the
next section clearly indicates that employees are motivated by many different
reasons and their standards change over time (Dongho Kim, 2006).

The importance of employee motivation can also be assumed through

organisational culture (Dimitrios, Kastanioti, Maria, &Dimitris, 2014). Employee
motivation and organisational culture are knotted (Sokro, 2012). When employees
feel the bond or connection with others, they will be more motivated through their
organisational culture which tends to be more energetic with their job compared with
employees who do not feel any connection with their organisational culture.

4.2 Work-life Balance

Work-life balance is basically refers to positive relationship between work and
other equally significant activities in life which include leisure, family, personal
development and community development issues. Work-life balance is a very
important phenomenon which is a great concern to numerous employees in both
public and private sector. It goes further than prioritising the work role and one’s
personal life. It also has emotional impact on psychological, social, economic and
mental well-being of the individual.

A lack of work-life balance practices will hold back employee motivation and
causing them to reveal leaving the organisation symptoms such as turnover and
absenteeism. The more conflict that arises among personal life and work, the more

5
OB – Case Study 1744631/1

employees will struggle maintaining stability and therefore, finally quit their jobs
(Taghrid S. Sufian, Ayman BahjatAbdallah, Hannah Diab, 2016).

Work-life balance programs could help to develop organisational culture and

employee in general performance. The results of this study may add to social
change by preparing employers for success while at the same time positioning
individuals or employees to attain best possible balance between work and life
responsibilities (George Sheppard, 2016). An employee who works long hours
definitely has no time for their social life. Their work-life balance is deeply affected.

Research has shown that work and family are the two most crucial domains in
the life of an employed individual (Kofodimos, 1993; Lewis and Copper, 1995;
Greenhaus, Collins and Shaw, 2003). Insufficient work-life balance is a problem that
pretences a big risk to employees well-being as their performance as well as the
organisational performance. Many employees often have troubles in trying to
balance employment duties with their social life.

Work life balance is a very important phenomenon that is of great concern to

various employees in both private and public sector. It goes beyond prioritising the
work role and one’s personal life. It also affects the social, psychological, economical
and mental well-being of the individual (Dr.Orogbu Lilian
ObiagelimDr.OnyeizubeChinedu, Uzochukwu&Chukwuemeke Deborah Ngozi,
2015).

5.0 CASE ANALYSIS

5.1 Long Working Hour

As an operation staff like Customer Service Officer, they are required to work
beyond their normal working hours which average of eight (8) hours and they need
to fulfil the management request. In order to prove to the management that the
employee is being loyal to the company, they need to sacrifice their own social life
and stay working long hours at the mall.

6
OB – Case Study 1744631/1

In mind, employees who work in long hours will definitely to get more pay
because they are doing overtime. But the employee feels unhappy due to low rate of
overtime payment which they felt not ample with the time they had spent working at
the mall. Working long hours without sufficient time of having good rest will definitely
affect the employee’s health. They may not feel it now but their health condition will
slightly affect day by day. In result, the number of turnover from the employee will
increase due to dissatisfied of working for long hours.

The employee might think that when they are willing to spend more time
working long hours for almost every day, they will get reward or benefits form the top
management. But sadly, that’s not always happen as the management will definitely
review the employee performance throughout the year before rewarding them. In
other way, the management will save more but asking the existing employee to work
overtime rather than hire more staff.

5.2 Motivation
When theemployee has low motivation to go to work, it will definitely give
impact to the company. Imagine you yourself wake up in the morning feeling
lethargic to go to work, you just feel too lazy to put on your attire just because you
have the feeling not happy to step in your office. Once the management force the
employee to work long hours, the employee’s performance will affected.If the
employee lack of motivation, it will definitely leads to other discipline problem for
example absenteeism, late to work, missing during working hours, playing truant or
the worst part is resigning from the job. Lack of motivation to work is one main
reason that causing employee turnover.

Employee motivation has always been an inner problem for management.

Unmotivated employees are likely to avoid the workplace as much as possible, no
effort in their jobs, walking out the organisation if given the opportunity and produce
low quality work. On the other hand, employees who sense motivated to work are
likely to be creative, productive and persistentturning out better quality work that they
willingly agree to (Vinay ChaitanyaGanta, 2014).Managementis the assets for
employees and they should make sure that their working environment is enjoyable

7
OB – Case Study 1744631/1

and attractive. This will help to increase the productivity and enhancement of the
employees (Kelli Burton, 2012).

5.3 Work-life Balance

Most of the employee needs to spend more than 10 hours at workplace,
which affects their own sweet time with family and their own personal life. Most of the
employees will dream to leave the office or workplace on time but due to some
circumstances, they need to stay back do overtime to complete their task or been
order by the management.

The negative effects of work-life imbalance which is contribute in high levels

of absenteeism, low morale, low productivity, depression, team dysfunction, mental
illness and the linked organisational costs. Staff retention, down time and losses of
efficiency can be cited as the most obvious impacts consequential from an
organisation not successfully managing work-life balance issues.

This is why the numbers of turnover in Customer Service Department increasing.

The employee felt that they did not have their own time to spend just because they
need to work overtime. When they want to apply for annual leave, the application is
rejected by the management due to short number of staff.

5.4 Unfair Reward System

As an employee of any company, the employee will be guaranteed to be
rewarded based on their appraisal marks. Same goes to Mid Valley City SdnBhd
employee, bonus is something they expected from the top management. But, not all
of the employee will be rewarded. Sometimes, it is measured from years of
employment of the employee. Although this measurement is to ‘measure’ the
loyalties of the employee, it could also lead to high turnover number of employee as
the employee feel it is unfair and their efforts working there is not taking into
consideration to be rewarded.

8
OB – Case Study 1744631/1

6.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This assignment has discussed on the organisational behaviour perspective

on motivation and work-life balance which relates to high turnover of the employee in
Customer Service Department, Mid Valley Megamall. Through the assignment,
factors such as company’s motivation and work-life balance have become the main
reason and possible caused of employee turnover.

To overcome this problem, the management of the Customer Service

Department needs to make some changes in order to make sure the employee
turnover rate is decreasing. There are few suggestions which the management of
the Customer Service Department can apply as a solution to overcome this matter.

First, the management shall revise the working hours and to make sure that
the Customer Service Officer had enough time to rest even though they need to work
overtime. Second, to promote friendly work-life elements in order to make sure the
employee feels welcome. Third, to reward best staff award of the month to best
Customer Service Officer in order to motivate them to work productively. Fourth, the
management and the employee should have no gaps in order to make sure the
employee feels welcome in the company. Fifth, to have a discussion and open room
session between the higher management and employee for them to give feedback,
share problem or complain on anything.

Employee in the organisation had their own thoughts and values in order for
them to perform well in the organisation. Referring to the study of Gallagher 2008,
employee’s performance can contributes to the successfulness of an organisation.
An optimistic development is easily to accomplish when everyone is on the same
track in the organisation.

9
OB – Case Study 1744631/1

7.0 REFERENCES

Dongho Kim, 2006. Employee Motivation: “Just Asks Your Employees”. Seoul
Journal of Business, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp 19-35.

Dr.Orogbu Lilian Obiageli, Dr.OnyeizugbeChineduUzochukwu&Chukwuemeke

Deborah Ngozi, 2015. Work Life Balance and Employee Performance in Selected
Commercial Banks in Lagos State.European Journal of Research and Reflection in
Management Sciences, Vol. 3 No.4, pp 63-77.

Elizabeth BoyeKuranchie-Mensah, KwesiAmponsah-Tawiah, 2016. Employee

Motivation and Work Performance: A Comparative Study of Mining Companies in
Ghana.Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, JIEM 2016,pp 225-309.

George Sheppard, 2016. Work-Life Balance Programs to Improve Employee

Performance.Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies, pp 1-317.

Kelli Burton, 2012. A Study of Motivation: How to Get Your Employee Moving. SPEA
Honors Thesis Spring 2012 Indiana, pp 1-33.

Prakash Vir Khatri and JyotiBehl, 2013 Impact of Work-Life Balance on Programme
of Employees in The Organisations. Global Journal of Business Management, Vol. 7,
No.1, pp 40.47.

Taghrid S. Sufian, Ayman BahjatAbdallah, Hanna Diab, 2016. The Influence of Work
Life Balance on Turnover Intention in Private Hospitals: The Mediating Role of Work
Life Conflict. European Journal of Business, Vol. 8. No. 22, pp 126-139.

Vinay ChaitanyaGanta, 2014. Motivation in The Workplace To Improve The

Employee Performance. International Journal of Engineering Technology,
Management and Applied Sciences, vol. 2 Issue 6, pp 221-230.

10