A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing Johannesburg, 31 March 2016 / The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of sales staff turnover on customer equity in the South African luxury automotive industry. The concept customer equity has three elements that load onto it, namely; value equity, brand equity and relationship equity. For the purpose of this study, the focus was on relationship equity as this is the one customer equity element that the Sales Executives are able to influence. Rust, Zeithaml, and Lemon (2001) are of the view that customer equity drivers vary in importance for different industries. In relationship orientated industries (e.g. banking and automotive industry), relationship equity may be the most important driver of customer equity. Relationship equity is also known as retention equity as it entails the customers conscious decision to stick with a certain brand even after having conducted thorough research and analysis of other brands (Lemon, Rust, & Zeithaml, 2001). The study used a quantitative research method and the data is founded on the results from 73 surveys received from customers who own luxury vehicles, namely Audi. The data was analysed utilising multiple regressions, using the independent t-test to accept or reject the proposed hypotheses. Understanding the impact of sales staff turnover on relationship equity in the automotive sector is critical as this industry currently suffers from very high Sales Executive turnover. Original Equipment Manufacturers and dealer management need to understand the impact of this high staff turnover on the customers and ultimately potential future sales so that they may be able to mobilise effective strategies to minimise any negative impact caused by sales staff churn. The theoretical framework for this study is taken from a model by Vogel, Evanschitzky, and Ramaseshan (2008), which looks at the 3 drivers of customer equity and how these drivers effect customer loyalty intentions and future sales. This study found that sales staff turnover has a strong, significant relationship to relationship equity, meaning that sales staff turnover negatively affects relationship equity for the organisation, and therefore negatively affects the customer experience. / GR2018

Ongoing instability in the nursing workforce is raising questions globally about the issue of nurse turnover. It is against this background that this research examines the impact of learning, advancement and quality of work-life on turnover intentions among nurses in selected hospitals from Eastern Cape. Little research has been conducted to investigate the impact of the above mentioned subjects on turnover intentions among nurses in the South African health sector. Research questions as well as hypotheses were formulated as the means to gain data on the subject. The research employed a quantitative design with a sample size of 160 nurses and 159 were returned. The data analysis consisted of both descriptive and inferential statistics. The main findings of the study showed a positive relationship among job satisfaction, work-life rewards, learning and advancement opportunities and job satisfaction. However, there were negative relationships between job satisfaction and turnover intentions; work-life rewards and turnover intentions; and also among learning, career advancement and turnover intentions. Finally, suggestions were made to the top management in the Health sector to come up with strategies and mechanisms that improve nurses’ quality of work-life and offering them training and advancement opportunities through organisational change programs.

The aim of this study explore the role of job satisfaction , organizational justice in determining employee turnover among administrative staff at Walter Sisulu University at Ibika campus in Butterworth , in the Eastern Cape Province. A sample of 70 administrative staff was drawn for the population of 170. Results of the study indicated that the study variables are significantly and positively correlated with one another. Job satisfaction was found to be significantly and positively correlated with employee turnover. Organizational justice was also found to be significantly positively correlated with employee turnover. Likewise, a positive and significant relationship between job satisfaction and organizational justice was found. The findings of this study will assist Ibika campus management in reducing employee turnover and increase the retention of administrative staff at Ibika campus and the entire Walter Sisulu administrative staff at large.

Ongoing instability in the nursing workforce is raising questions globally about the issue of nurse turnover. It is against this background that this research examines the impact of learning, advancement and quality of work-life on turnover intentions among nurses in selected hospitals from Eastern Cape. Little research has been conducted to investigate the impact of the above mentioned subjects on turnover intentions among nurses in the South African health sector. Research questions as well as hypotheses were formulated as the means to gain data on the subject. The research employed a quantitative design with a sample size of 160 nurses and 159 were returned. The data analysis consisted of both descriptive and inferential statistics. The main findings of the study showed a positive relationship among job satisfaction, work-life rewards, learning and advancement opportunities and job satisfaction. However, there were negative relationships between job satisfaction and turnover intentions; work-life rewards and turnover intentions; and also among learning, career advancement and turnover intentions. Finally, suggestions were made to the top management in the Health sector to come up with strategies and mechanisms that improve nurses’ quality of work-life and offering them training and advancement opportunities through organisational change programs.

The study emanated from the researcher’s experience and involvement in clinical nursing and nursing management. The researcher noted how heavy losses of recruited professional nurses might have had an influence on the quality of service delivery. It is a costly and time-consuming task to recruit enough nurses into the profession and retention of staff is especially difficult. There had been a significant increase in the number of professional nurses leaving the district hospitals either to primary health care service, private hospitals or other countries. Before the commencement of the study the turnover rate at the district hospital where the study was conducted, almost doubled the accepted norm, which was ten percent of the staff. For those reasons the researcher decided to conduct a study named, “Accelerated staff turnover among professional nurses at a district hospital.” The constant heavy losses of qualified nurses from the profession constitute one of the serious challenges for nursing managers. The researcher wanted answers to the following question: “What were your experiences of your job as a professional nurse at the district hospital?” The objectives of the study were: · to explore and describe factors leading to high staff turnover of professional nurses at a district hospital · to develop guidelines to help retain professional nurses. The design of this study, which was conducted in one of the district hospitals in the Makana Local Service Area in the Eastern Cape, is qualitative, descriptive and contextual. Informed permission for conducting the research was obtained from relevant authorities and participants were asked to sign a consent form before the researcher proceeded with the study. Participants that met the selection criteria were selected by means of purposive sampling. Data was obtained by means of semi-structured telephonic interviews that were audio-taped and later transcribed verbatim. To ensure trustworthiness of the study, the researcher applied the four strategies as proposed by Lincoln and Guba (De Vos, 2002:351) namely, credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. Collected data was analysed according to the descriptive method proposed by Tesch (in Creswell, 1994:154). The services of an independent coder, who was provided with transcripts and a protocol to guide data analysis, were utilised. A consensus meeting was held between the researcher and the independent coder to discuss the identified themes and sub-themes. Following the data analysis, a literature control was undertaken to highlight the similarities to and differences in comparison between this and previous studies. Four major themes and sub-themes were identified through analysis.

The harsh realities currently facing public hospitals such as budget cuts, understaffing and poor working conditions, have resulted in nurses experiencing low morale and finding it increasingly difficult to stay in the public health sector. The obvious targeting of South African nurses by recruitment agencies with job offers to work overseas is causing a massive skills’ drain that the country cannot afford. The situation is further compounded by the fact that the government is freezing posts of those nurses who have resigned. Consequently, nurses who are currently working in these hospitals have to cope with unreasonable workloads. Public hospitals are nowadays faced with the challenge of delivering quality health care within the constraints of gross staff shortages, and an increasingly competitive global health environment. The main objective of this study was to identify strategies that can be implemented by hospitals in order to reduce turnover, thereby enhancing retention of staff. Interviews were conducted with the matrons-in-charge of the hospitals under study to investigate strategies that are in place to improve retention. Secondary data regarding staff turnover in the hospitals under study was collected and analysed. It emerged that there are no concrete strategies in place to lower turnover. Hospitals are indeed experiencing staff turnover and posts that were vacated by those nurses that have resigned are frozen. The literature survey revealed three strategies that can be utilised to retain employees, namely, motivation strategies, effective leadership strategies and human resources strategies. Based on various literature reviews, it was concluded that the three strategies are interrelated. The empirical survey was conducted at the three selected hospitals, to determine the extent to which the retention strategies identified in the literature survey are being utilised. All three are invariably used in the hospitals. It is evident that the leadership behaviour in these hospitals affects the level of motivation of employees. The extent to which some of the human resources strategies are utilised invariably leads to low morale and dissatisfaction among employees. Lastly, research findings were assessed with the aim of drawing conclusions so that appropriate recommendations could be made. Recommendations focused on the retention strategies that can be implemented to boost morale of employees and enhance retention.

The present study explored the relationships between pay satisfaction, affective organisational commitment, voluntary turnover intention, and attitudes to money in a South African context, as well as whether attitudes to money acted as a moderator and affective organisational commitment as a mediator in the relationship between pay satisfaction and voluntary turnover intention. All participants received a web link to an online survey host in which a questionnaire was presented. The questionnaire included a self-constructed demographic questionnaire, the Pay Satisfaction Questionnaire (Heneman & Schwab, 1985), the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979), an adapted six-item questionnaire assessing voluntary turnover intention, and the Money Ethics Scale (Tang, 1992). The final sample (n = 190) consisted of respondents from a corporate company, as well as a snowball sample from social networks (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). The results suggested that pay satisfaction may best be viewed as a multi-dimensional construct both internationally and within a South African context. The study provides further support that this is robust across different types of samples and contexts and in different organisational fields. Furthermore, pay satisfaction was positively related to affective organisational commitment and negatively related to voluntary turnover intention. Voluntary turnover intention was also significantly and very strongly negatively related to affective organisational commitment. Moreover, affective organisational commitment mediated the relationship between pay satisfaction and voluntary turnover intention. This supported international findings regarding these relationships. Although one of the subscales of pay satisfaction, pay benefits, was significantly and negatively related to ‘good’ attitude to money, overall pay satisfaction and the other subscales did not significantly relate to money being seen as ‘good’. Pay satisfaction and all its subscales were also not related to money being seen as ‘evil’, an ‘achievement’, ‘respect’ for money, ‘budget’, ‘freedom’, or overall attitude to money. Furthermore, overall attitude to money and all of the subscales were not significantly related to either organisational commitment or voluntary turnover intention. In addition, further analyses found no moderating effect for attitudes to money in terms of the relationship between pay satisfaction and voluntary turnover intention. These results were unexpected given the limited theory available and further research is required.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The study was aimed at assessing factors that compel people to decide on changing employment, benefits of making the change and challenges faced in making the decision. The study is also aimed at helping company managers to be able to identify factors that lead employees to leave organizations and therefore reduce the turnover rate and work towards employee retention. Studies that were conducted highlighted that the world of work shifts all the time and therefore many employers can no longer guarantee life-long employment and regular promotion. This causes employees not longer to feel obliged to remain loyal to one employer throughout their lives. People change careers for a number of reasons, leading to shortage of skills and high turnover rate. The study was conducted in the Ekurhuleni West area of Gauteng in an attempt to determine and quantify factors that compel people to change careers from time to time by conducting a well-planned scientific study based on empirical evidence. The implications of the results are: firstly, managers should be able to identify factors that attract, motivate and retain employees; and secondly employees should make use of career development practitioners so as to make informed decisions and be familiar with broader changes that take place in society from time to time. The study will contribute to the retention of employees, improve production and morale and also reduce expenses and time spent on recruitment, training and socialization of new employees.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African Air Force (SAAF) is loosing pilots at an alarming rate and if not addressed with a matter of urgency will become the most critical problems facing the Air Force in the future. This study analyses the problem in comparison to other Air Forces, and how airline hiring and lack of Air Force leadership are contributing to the current situation. Employee retention is a problem inherent in most organisations. The study also examines the reasons that motivate employees to leave any organisation and what world-class organisations are doing to reduce employee turnover. This is used as a logical starting point towards finding a long-term solution as to how the Air Force can retain its pilots. This solution includes increasing pay, dealing with quality of life issues and by examining job and career issues. The paper concludes that the implementation of a multi-faceted solution will allow the Air Force and other organisations to retain its essential core of pilots/employees in spite of increased competition from other employers. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Suid-Afrikaanse Lugmag (SALM) verloor tans sy vlieëniers teen 'n hewige tempo, en as hierdie toestand nie dadelik en met erns aangespreek word nie, sal dit seer sekerlik die mees kritiese probleem word wat die SALM in die toekoms in die gesig sal staar. Hierdie geskryf staan te doel om die probleem te analiseer vergelyke te trek met ander Lugmagte, asook hoe lugredery aanstellings en die te kort aan Lugmag leierskap die huidige situasie vererger. Werknemer retensie is 'n inherente probleem in meeste organisasies. Hierdie studie ondersoek verder, die redes wat werknemers motiveer om 'n betrokke organisasie te verlaat, asook wat wêreldklas organisasies tans doen om werknemer omset te verminder. Dit word dan as 'n logiese vertrekpunt gebruik om 'n langtermyn oplossing te vind waarmee die SALM sy vlieëniers sal kan behou. Die oplossing sluit in verhoogde en meer kompeterende salaris pakkette, beter hanteering van kwessies met betrekking tot die standaard van lewensgehalte asook die ondersoek na beter werksomstanighede en loopbaan moontlikhede. Die geskryf sluit af met die gevolgtrekking dat slegs die implementering van 'n multi-faset oplossing die SALM, en ander organisasies, in staat sal stel om sy/hulle essensiële kern van vlieëniers/werknemers te behou, ten spyte van verhoogde kompetisie van ander werkgewers.

M.Tech. Business Administration. Business School. / The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality was established on 5 December 2000 and incorporated 13 previous local authorities into a category 'A' metropolitan municipality. The City of Tshwane's three departments: Finance, Information & Management and Public Works & Infrastructure Development have been experiencing a high employee turnover since January 2005. The key research objectives of this study are (1) to determine the cause of high turnover rate, (2) how the City of Tshwane can retain talented employees, (3) to reduce employee costs, (4) to build capacity and (4) to turn the City of Tshwane into a most desired employer. It is recommended that the City of Tshwane devise organisational policies and practices that increase the excitement of employees with regard to their work in ways that will result in a funneling of their minds and efforts towards the goals of the organisation.