Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2003. / Bibliography: leaves 165-183.

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies general managers of full-service hotels used to reduce voluntary frontline employee turnover. The conceptual framework for this study was Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory. The 3 participants were hotel general managers in the midwestern region of the United States. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 3 purposefully selected hotel general managers and by reviewing company documents. Data analysis consisted of gathering the data, coding for emergent themes, compiling the data into common codes, organizing the data into themes, interpreting the meaning, and reporting the themes. Four themes emerged from the data: employee retention, leadership characteristics, effective retention strategies, and ineffective retention strategies. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to decrease voluntary employee turnover in the hospitality industry. Positive results of decreasing voluntary employee turnover may include increased success within the hospitality industry, which might positively influence productivity, raise customer satisfaction, and increase organizational profits.

One of the characteristics of the knowledge economy is the high level of mobility of knowledge workers. The cost of labour turnover of these key resources is high in both financial and non-financial terms. There is a need to understand what the factors are that underpin the retention cognitions of knowledge workers in order that organisations may try to reduce the labour turnover of these key employees or to minimise its effects. Literature Research The review of pertinent literature was grouped under the following headings: the new world of work in a knowledge based economy; labour turnover (including its antecedents and consequences); retention; and demographic differences. The review revealed: the high costs associated with the turnover of knowledge workers; the low level of predictive ability of the antecedents of organisational withdrawal; and the wide range of variables considered to impact on knowledge workers’ retention cognitions. The literature also showed that most research had been carried out in single industries and had focused on one or two variables. No literature was found that used multivariate approaches to the problem of knowledge worker retention. Empirical Research Objectives The primary research aim was to determine what factors are important to knowledge workers when they decide to stay with or leave their employing organisation. A secondary aim was to determine if the sample was homogeneous in terms of these retention cognitions or whether they could be segmented into meaningful sub-groupings. Participants In the pilot study, 30 knowledge workers who had recently changed employer were used to determine the independent variables of retention. In the second phase, data was collected from 306 knowledge workers in full time employment. A wide range of demographic and industry groupings were represented by the participants. The Measuring Instrument A quantitative questionnaire was developed. It consisted of questions covering: demographic data, an international scale of job satisfaction factors, job mobility, intentions with regard to future length of service and organisational commitment. Forty three variables relating to retention cognitions, which had been developed through the pilot study, were then presented, with Likert scales used to determine their relative degree of importance. The Research Procedure The data was gathered while the knowledge workers attended a wide variety of courses at a university business school. The data was collected under lecture room conditions to ensure standardisation of the process. Statistical Analysis A wide variety of statistics were used to address the research questions. The data was processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences and the Number Cruncher Statistical System computer packages. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, CHAID, factor analysis, Mann Whitney U tests, Kruskal Wallis Analysis of Variance, and cluster analysis were used to analyse the data. Conclusions and Recommendations The findings revealed the high level of mobility of the sample. The study showed that job satisfaction and organisational commitment do not predict proposed future length of employment with an organisation but merely co-vary with it. The high levels of individualism, egocentricity, and focus on personal development amongst these workers were demonstrated. Factor analysis revealed seven underlying dimensions of retention cognitions of the respondents, five of which are viewed as important in determining retention. These were: the need for independence; career development provision by the organisation; egocentricity and challenge within the organisation; the organisational setting; and performance related rewards. The two factors found to have a low impact on retention were the desire for a career change and issues related to personal comfort. The latter finding explains the lack of effectiveness of traditional retention devices. A model was offered that consolidates the factors affecting the retention cognitions of knowledge workers. Uni-variate analyses examining differences based on demographic variables detected only 20 significant differences out of the 172 tests. Hence a multivariate approach was used to look at sample segmentation. A cluster analysis revealed a segmentation of these knowledge workers and their retention cognitions into nine distinct categories, termed respectively: the salon culture; the seekers; the groupies; the disengaged; the self sufficient; the depressives; the contented new-agers; the co-dependents and the self starters. Recommendations to academic researchers were offered based mainly on the need to understand the characteristics of knowledge workers operating in the new world of work and, in particular, the drivers of mobility of this important population. Recommendations to management were largely twofold. Firstly, to adapt to the mobility of knowledge workers as this is a defining characteristic of the new world of work. Secondly, to develop compelling employee propositions that highlight challenging work, career development opportunities as well as rewards based on individual performance in order to improve the retention rate of these key employees. / Prof. Chris Welman

This dissertation examines whether the mode of entry into K-12 public school teaching has any implications on teacher retention. Teacher retention is important because it is an important precursor to teacher quality, which has been shown to positively impact student performance. However, teacher turnover can seriously threaten teacher retention. Additionally, teacher turnover is associated with serious economic and non-economic costs. To this end, it may benefit schools and school districts to pay particular attention to hiring and retaining their teachers, especially the quality ones, for the long haul. Current teacher labor markets literature is deficient in serious analytical frameworks for understanding longitudinal cohort retention comparisons of traditional and nontraditional teachers, as well as analysis of quit behaviors that focus on when a teacher is at the greatest risk of quitting. My research endeavors to bridge this gap. Using a large-scale administrative data set comprising cohorts of traditional and nontraditional teachers from the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), I used discrete-time survival analysis modeling, specifically, the Cox Proportional Hazards (PH) model, to analyze the quit and retention patterns of cohorts of teachers from traditional and nontraditional sources over a six-year period. I found similar retention patterns between the two groups with notable peculiar patterns for the nontraditional group. The data suggests that entry routes into K-12 public school teaching, the year of entry into teaching, individual age, sex, ethnicity, subject taught, and school level can be important predictors of retention.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006. / Title from title page screen, viewed on April 27, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Phyllis McCluskey-Titus (chair), Amelia D. Adkins, Ross A. Hodel, Beatrice B. Smith. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-147) and abstract. Also available in print.

With the supply of talented employees for the predicted available jobs around the world declining, employee retention and voluntary turnover have jumped to the forefront of HRD practitioners’, as well as senior managers’, strategic initiative. By 2008, demographers predict that 76 million baby boomers will be eligible for retirement. The generations that followed these individuals, born between 1946 and 1962, are not numerically adequate to fill the vacancies that these retirements will create. A growing concern exists that the expected annual growth in the number of eligible employees will be outpaced by economic growth predictions. While employee retention and employee voluntary turnover have received considerable scholarly attention, few research studies have examined the phenomenon in a professional sales arena. No investigation to date has tracked employee voluntary turnover and retention over a 14-year longitudinal wave as was the focus of this study. This population study examined employee retention of a Fortune 500 North American industrial automation manufacturer’s professional sales force over a 14-year period. It focused on personal characteristics, work characteristics, and human resource development (HRD) intervention factors influencing employee voluntary turnover. The results suggest that training and development participation contributes more significantly to employee retention than salary and job title promotions to the firm’s ability to retain sales professionals. The theoretical underpinnings associated with these findings reinforce the importance of human capital theory, social identity theory, expectancy theory, and distributive justice theory. They also suggest that employee retention should be included in calculations that measure the return on investment for training and development interventions. Further, these results that emerged from comprehensive data mining suggest that a structured training and development program embeds aspects of employee socialization that can influence a professional sales employee’s tenure in the organization. Formal training can serve to socialize the employee into the organization, thus, deepening the effect of social capital theory to build normative organizational commitment, a mediator of employee retention. This effect appeared to be more significant for non-Caucasian sales professionals who remained in the organization when included in a structured sales training program.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): William R. Gates, Shu Liao. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-36). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Raymond Franck, James Barnard. Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-105). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 1980. / "December, 1980." Includes abstract. DTIC report no.: ADA097303. Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-116). Full text available online from DTIC.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 1987. / "December, 1987." Includes abstract. DTIC report no.: ADA188969. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28). Full text available online from DTIC.