Abstract

Culinary micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in West Java operate in a competitive environment in which workforce capability, service quality, workload, employee engagement, and turnover interact over time. Human resource management (HRM) decisions are therefore dynamic: recruitment takes time, training temporarily absorbs productive hours, capability accumulates gradually, and employee exits may intensify workload among remaining staff. This study develops a system thinking and system dynamics (SD) model to examine feedback mechanisms and compare HR policy scenarios for culinary MSMEs. The proposed model links workforce stock, recruitment, voluntary turnover, competency accumulation, workload ratio, and employee engagement through reinforcing and balancing loops. A causal loop diagram (CLD) is translated into a stock-and-flow structure and a set of equations suitable for implementation in Vensim. Four scenarios are examined over a 60-month horizon: business-as-usual (BAU), capability development, retention and workload redesign, and an integrated HR strategy. To make the simulation section visible and reproducible in this manuscript, trajectories are generated using explicitly  parameters. The results show qualitatively how combined capability and retention policies can produce more favorable workforce, competency, engagement, and workload patterns than BAU. These values are not empirical estimates of West Java MSMEs and must not be interpreted as forecasts. The contribution is a transparent simulation architecture and a research protocol for subsequent calibration with longitudinal data from culinary enterprises.