Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / Teachers have a powerful impact on student achievement, yet high attrition rates hinder schools in their ability to provide quality instruction. Attrition rates are highest for schools serving low-income, minority students and among small private schools, including Catholic schools. Attrition is especially prevalent among new teachers. Very few studies have focused on the problem of early leaving or the problem of retention in Catholic schools. This study seeks to understand better why public and Catholic school teachers leave teaching early. A mixed methods approach was used. This included 50 in-depth interviews with 15 public and 10 Catholic school teachers who left within the first 5 years. In addition, statistical analyses of public and Catholic school early leavers' responses in the Schools and Staffing and Teacher Follow-Up surveys were used to contextualize and compare the experiences of the 25 teachers interviewed to the larger population of early leavers. This dissertation argues that, to understand why teachers leave early, an approach that examines teachers' entire experiences throughout their short time in the profession is required. A framework informed by sociocultural and commitment theories and prior research on retention and the culture of schools was developed through systematic analysis of the interview and survey data. This analytical framework provides a complex approach for examining the phenomenon of early leaving, which included three aspects: entering commitment, teaching experience, and the decision to leave. Findings suggested that teachers' decisions to leave were influenced by multiple factors within their various contexts. These contexts and factors were constantly changing, making the decision to leave extremely complex. For Catholic school teachers, the decision was even more complicated, influenced not only by the same factors and aspects of early leaving as public school teachers, but also their changing identities as Catholics. Findings also called into question common assumptions about why teachers leave: teachers do not always leave because they are less committed to teaching, or are dissatisfied with teaching or with their salaries. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Background: As employees have become one of the key assets providing companies competitive advantage, the importance of talent retention has grown. This holds true especially in industries such as information technology, where firms not only have to adapt to the needs and expectations of Generation Y but are also experiencing a substantial shortage of knowledge workers. Purpose: The goal of this thesis is to first gain an understanding of what tools and techniques Finnish IT companies are using to approach the topic of retention, a process guided by theory. The existing literature and empirical findings are then combined to create a model for enhancing the retention of IT knowledge workers. Method: Empirical data was generated through interviews with ten Finnish IT firms employing knowledge workers, all different in terms of organizational characteristics and retention approaches. Template analysis was then used to infer meaningful findings from the data. Conclusion: The results show that retention of IT knowledge workers should be approached holistically. There are five categories (Training and Development; Compensation and Benefits; Flexibility and Work-life Balance; Organizational Culture; and Organizational Prestige) that must all be given thought to before implementing retention tools and techniques identified as most suitable for the specific organizational context.

Thesis advisor: Robert J. Starratt / A qualitative case study of three high schools was conducted to identify and profile school practices employed in educating a traditionally low-achieving subpopulation in northeast India. By the considerably higher than average retention and graduation rates among their students who come from indigenous tribal communities, these schools stand out as effective. The study was centered on the following research questions: 1) What were the teaching practices that characterize three high schools with successful records of graduating (upwards of 100%) indigenous Northeast India tribal students? 2) How were these successful schools affected by the school leadership? A body of related literature provided the theoretical rationale and informed the researcher in collecting data, doing analysis, and processing interpretation. The researcher reviewed specific categories of literature focused on the following: dropout influences, effective teaching practices, school leadership, indigenous tribal life contexts, spirituality, and worldview of the peoples of Northeast India. The findings indicated that these three schools with low dropout rates reflected authentic and effective teaching practices that were student-friendly and based on a coherent mix of various principles of learning, instructional strategies, classroom management, and the personal dedication of the teaching faculties. Furthermore, the schools tried to create an atmosphere of social connectedness and community, based on the values of the indigenous people of that area. The school leadership was proactive in an effort to sustain the sense of community through a variety of school activities and cooperation with parents. The researcher found that the ethos of the schools motivated students to focus on their studies in view of a better economic future. A contextualized pedagogy that took into account the background and learning styles of a wide variety of students helped the students to focus on their learning in the various academic disciplines. Pedagogical practices that promoted academic achievement in concert with indigenous values sustained the interest of the students and moved them to actively involve themselves in the life of the school. The leadership provided the necessary vision and direction to make the objectives and goals of the school understood and obtainable. The visible presence of the principal and his/her affirming interaction also helped to maintain the motivation of the community on all levels of operation. The findings of this research have implications for educational practice, policy, teacher preparation and school leadership in the context of rural India. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Some supervisors lack effective strategies to retain millennial generation employees. The purpose of this multicase study was to explore effective strategies supervisors use to retain culinary-educated millennial employees in full-service restaurants. Nine millennials and 3 supervisors from 3 full-service restaurants in Denver, Colorado consented to face-to-face semistructured interviews with open-ended interview questions concerning retention strategies. The conceptual framework of Herzberg's two-factor theory served to guide the scope and the data analysis for the multicase study. The interview transcripts were coded and grouped into themes. Explanation building for the data analysis assisted in finding causal links between cases and the unit of analysis, and in assembling a broad explanation to fit each case. Ten subcategories emerged from the 3 themes that aligned with Herzberg's motivation factors, hygiene factors, and millennial values and attitudes. The 10 subcategories were developed, and indicated that effective strategies differ by supervisor. Among the ten subcategories, the most prominent were (a) growth and advancement, (b) positive working conditions, and (c) quality and influence of the supervisor. This study may contribute to social change by providing restaurant supervisors with strategies for millennial retention and keeping young workers in the community to share in the responsibility of social progress and to reach their full potential.

<p>China’s economy is experiencing the most tremendous growth in the world. Many MNCs come to China mainly expecting cost-reduction and new market.  But these MNCs face a shortage of talents in China. Thus, the MNCs search the ways to develop the talents by themselves and retain qualified talents. But not all Western retention and development tools can be applied to Chinese employees.</p><p>Thus the main question company has to answer in China is “How to retain and develop Chinese talents?” So in our study we intend to answer on this question and realize which tools MNC can use for retention and development of Chinese employees, and in what way it should adjust them with the cultural characteristics of Chinese employees.</p><p>In order to achieve it, we conducted our research using different methodologies (literatures, case studies, interviews) to find the answer about effective retention and development of Chinese employees.</p>

Concerns about turnover of highly qualified science teachers have pervaded education stakeholder discussions for several years. Yet little is known about where are we in retaining high science teachers in Texas public schools. The three empirical studies included in this dissertation used mixed research methods to explore data collected by the Policy Research Initiative in Science Education (PRISE) Research Group during the 2007-2010 school years. The first study examined mobility patterns and hiring patterns of high school science teachers after two school years. I used descriptive statistical analyses to investigate relationships between teacher-level variables (i.e., teacher type, age, ethnicity, and gender) and school-level variables (i.e., school size and minority student enrollment proportion) with respect to movement out and into Texas schools. Findings revealed variations in mobility patterns of science teachers, based on size and minority student enrollment proportion of the schools in which they worked. Hiring patterns revealed that schools typically hired young, novice White female teachers regardless of school size or minority student enrollment proportion. The second study explored the relationships between schools’ retention strategies and retention challenges with schools’ science teacher retention rates, respectively. I used multiple regression and descriptive statistical analyses to investigate the relationships between study variables. While regression models predicting science teacher retention were not remarkable, descriptive statistical analyses revealed notable relationships between several school-level variables and school retention status. The third study investigated relationships among three variables: school retention strategies, science teacher job satisfaction, and science teacher mobility. Multilevel analyses were used to investigate relationships between two-level variables. Findings revealed no relationships of significance between school retention strategies or teacher job satisfaction with teacher mobility. However, interactions between predictor variables indicated that satisfied science teachers were more likely to remain at schools that expressed and showed appreciation for teachers than to leave the profession. Findings from these studies were used to make state-, district-, and school-level policy recommendations for high school science teachers that included: (a) tailoring recruitment and retention supports to meet the needs of underrepresented teacher populations leading science classrooms, (b) recognizing schools that successfully retain science teachers, and (c) providing professional development for high school principals to assist with the design of strategic plans to improve job satisfaction and retention of teachers.

Land use changes such as lowering of lakes, draining of wetlands and channelizing of streams have affected the hydrological environment in many catchment areas. Numerous studies report that these changes affect the nutrient retention. The river Svärtaå catchment, near Nyköping is identified as one of the areas in Sweden that transport most phosphorus and nitrogen to the Baltic Sea per unit area. The aim of this study was therefore to analyse to which extent land use changes such as lowering of lakes, draining of wetlands and channelizing of streams have affected the nutrient transport to the Baltic Sea. Land use changes were to a large extent performed between the years 1880 and 1930 inSweden, historical maps from the late 19th century have therefore been studied. An application based on the concept of a Geographical Information System (GIS) has been used in order to compare the district map from late 19th century and the terrain map from today. To address the nutrient transport retention coefficients have been found in the literature and implemented on the changes in water area.  Changes in the hydrological environment reached totally1068 ha,964 hawere decreasing water areas and104 haincreasing water areas. Wet areas totally decreased with 28 % when the historical setting was compared with the contemporary environment. The loss in wet area represents860 ha. Watercourses with riparian zones have decreased with 54 %, bogs with 53 %, wetlands with 43 % and lakes with 13 %. The loss in retained mass regarding phosphorus was, based on calculations involving retention coefficients, 7,18 – 146 tonnes, and regarding nitrogen 37,9 – 941 tonnes. The changes in the catchment are probably connected to measures like lowering of lakes, draining of wetlands and channelizing of streams. The assumed lost retained masses shows to be high compared to the measured output from the catchment. This leads to questioning of the retention coefficients and the vast range between them, as well as questioning of other assumptions in the method. The consequences of the hydrological changes are therefore difficult to evaluate.

China’s economy is experiencing the most tremendous growth in the world. Many MNCs come to China mainly expecting cost-reduction and new market.  But these MNCs face a shortage of talents in China. Thus, the MNCs search the ways to develop the talents by themselves and retain qualified talents. But not all Western retention and development tools can be applied to Chinese employees. Thus the main question company has to answer in China is “How to retain and develop Chinese talents?” So in our study we intend to answer on this question and realize which tools MNC can use for retention and development of Chinese employees, and in what way it should adjust them with the cultural characteristics of Chinese employees. In order to achieve it, we conducted our research using different methodologies (literatures, case studies, interviews) to find the answer about effective retention and development of Chinese employees.

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Forestry employees are the most valuable asset to forest operations. An analysis was completed to determine employee training status, how safe employees feel within their roles and identify major reasons of dissatisfaction. Through the development of job descriptions and person specifications, it was possible to identify the job requirements along with the personal attributes and qualifications required by employers, to ensure employees were capable of undertaking their role. There is an identifiable gap within the level of formal education among employees. Over half (55%) of the employees have lower qualifications than those required to have undertaken further forestry on-job training. A majority of employees’, particularly those in machine operator roles feel safe in their forestry operational roles. A small proportion of employees in breaker out, thin to waste and pruning roles feel unsafe. All employees surveyed except loader operators, felt only moderately safe in their role. The difficult environment associated with forestry was determined to be the major reason for dissatisfaction (52%) among employees, along pay and length of day. Paradoxically, the environment was also a major reason for satisfaction among those surveyed. By identifying the major reasons of dissatisfaction among forestry employees it is possible to improve job satisfaction and employee retention. Training forestry employees needs to be from a more practical aspect. This will lead to increase the number of employees that are trained for the roles they are undertaking, by ensuring they are equipped with adequate knowledge, and have the skill to work safely and to a high quality standard.