Abstract Problem Formal Volunteers in volunteer based organizations drop out at a fast pace due to many reasons like lack of interest what they are doing, conflict among volunteers, lack of motivation, job dissatisfaction due to prolonged volunteering etc.  which is causing to improper functioning of these organizations and reaches a point where these volunteer based organizations find it difficult to function properly. The author in this study tries to address this particular issue of this drop out of formal volunteers. Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the factors which helps in the retention of formal volunteers in a volunteer based organization for a longer period. Method The research in this paper is done in a qualitative way with primary data collected in the form of participant observation and open interview in two voluntary organizations. The collected data is analyzed in content analysis. The secondary data is collected in the form of necessary documents provided by the participating organizations. Results Many factors were found to influence retention of volunteers namely Job satisfaction, Motivation, Public Service Motivation, Organizational Commitment, Mission Attachment, Work load, Relationship with Coworkers, Justice of Organization, Flexible Timing, Training & Orientation.  Conclusions Recommendations to improve retention is mentioned and a future model is also proposed. The result obtained from this research can be generalized to other form of small scale volunteer organizations where the major employees are formal volunteers.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

The current and projected nursing shortage makes it imperative for healthcare organizations to examine factors that promote staff retention. Previous studies identify nursing leadership as a key component influencing staff retention and turnover. This study supplements these studies by identifying key behaviors and attitudes of frontline nursing leaders that influence staff retention. Using a grounded theory qualitative approach, the researcher interviewed 19 frontline nursing leaders in an acute care community hospital. The researcher also explored the extent to which nursing leaders felt current leadership education and training programs support their practices that promote staff retention. The goal of the study was to create a theory or model of nursing leadership and staff retention grounded in the data. Five major themes emerged from the interview data analysis process using grounded theory strategies. These themes include organizational culture and policies, nursing leaders training and development, behaviors and attitudes, employee factors, and turnover. The researcher interpreted the data within a systems theory conceptual framework. Using this framework aided the researcher in creating a model of frontline nursing leaders and staff retention. This model illustrates the inter-relationship of the five major themes from a systems perspective. The usefulness of the data collected in this study is predicated on three major domains: competency identification; human resource management and development; and education. Competencies form the foundation for the education and practice of frontline nursing leaders (Barker et al., 2006). These role-specific, evidenced-based expectations should be clearly delineated in competency-based job descriptions, which in turn merge into performance evaluations. Explicitly defined competencies provide a conceptual framework for collegiate and hospital-based education and training programs to train current and future frontline nursing leaders.

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 is a study of teacher pushout among Black male educators. In particular, this study examines experiences that prompted Black male teachers to resign or be terminated from teaching positions with the goal of exploring contributing factors to Black male teacher turnover. Drawing from the pushout stories of 9 Black male educators, this study found that Black male teachers experienced pushout in three phases: 1) the Reason – characterized by idealistic and hopeful feelings about being a change agent in the lives of students, 2) the Reality – characterized by various turning points that made it clear that the teaching positions these teachers were in might be less than ideal, and 3) the Removal – characterized by a steady escalation of negative events and interactions that eventually led to their pushout (through firing or resignation). Within these phases, several themes emerged. During the Reason phase, participants reported feeling a sense of responsibility to teach and mentor disadvantaged students – particularly Black males, love for teaching, and a sense of calling to teach. The Reality phase was characterized by pressure to conform to the expectation of masculinity suppression or over-expression depending on the needs and desires of co-workers and administration, limitations on creativity, and pressure to go along with policies and practices that participants felt were unethical or ineffective. Finally, the Removal phase was characterized by a culmination event that resulted in a move to another school or out of the field of education entirely. This dissertation builds on research about teacher turnover and identifies teacher pushout, a specific phenomenon within teacher turnover. Further, this study examines pushout among Black males.

Thesis advisor: Joseph J. Pedulla / This paper describes the literature on teacher attrition as either focusing on the working conditions faced by beginning teachers or highlighting variations in teachers' characteristics as causes for early teacher attrition. This study uses responses to the School and Staffing Survey (SASS) along with the Teacher Follow-Up Survey (TFS) to compare these contrasting views of early teacher attrition. Two logistic regression models were constructed and their relative efficacy in explaining teacher attrition were compared using three statistical techniques; model fit characteristics (e.g. pseudo-R2, Akaike Information Criteria, Bayesian Information Criteria); a comparison of their classification effectiveness, and results from Davidson and MacKinnon's J test (1981). A final model was also constructed using the predictive elements of each of the previous models. Results suggest that the working conditions model better fits the observed data than the teacher characteristics model. The final model highlights the importance of teacher commitment and engagement in the profession in teachers' career decisions. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

Thesis advisor: Fabio Schiantarelli / Thesis advisor: Thomas J. Chemmanur / After the 2007 financial crisis, a big attention has been dedicated to credit ratings. Whether ratings are capable to provide the most precise and timely information is a question that has been tackled from different angles. The possibility to discipline credit ratings via a regulatory mechanism, the influence that ratings may play on corporate governance decisions and the information they deliver in comparison to other financial intermediaries are the main points that this dissertation aims to address. The first paper compares the behavior of standard or issuer-paid rating agencies, represented by Standard & Poors (S&P) to alternative or investor-paid rating agencies, represented by the Egan-Jones Ratings Company (EJR) after the Dodd- Frank Act regulation is approved. Results show that both S&P and EJR ratings are more conservative, stable and, on average, lower after the Dodd-Frank implementation. However, EJR ratings are higher for firms that may generate high revenue for the rater. Additionally, I find that, after the regulation, S&P cares more about its reputation. Exploiting a measure that captures the bond marketís ability to anticipate rating downgrades, I show that, after Dodd-Frank, bond market anticipation decreases for S&P but increases for EJR, suggesting that S&P ratings are timelier. Finally, I study how the bond market responds to rating changes and how firms perceive ratings in their decision to issue debt in the post-Dodd-Frank period. Results suggest that both S&P downgrades and upgrades generate a greater bond market re- sponse. On the contrary, only EJR upgrades have a magnified effect on bond market returns. The greater informativeness of S&P ratings after Dodd-Frank is confirmed by the meaningful impact of these ratings on firm debt issuance. The second paper (coauthored with Annamaria C. Menichini) studies the relationship between credit rating changes and CEO turnover beyond firm performance. Using an adverse selection model that explicitly incorporates rating change related turnover, our model predicts that a downgrade triggers turnover, more so the lower the managerial entrenchment, but that this relation is weaker when the report provided by the rating agency is more reliable. Our empirical results support these predictions. We show that downgrades explain forced turnover risk, with the new CEO chosen outside the firm that has received the negative credit rating change. In addition, we find that the relation between rating changes and management turnover is stronger when the degree of managerial entrenchment is low, for firms characterized by a high level of investment and for firms less exposed to rating fees. Finally, we show that this relation has weakened in the post-2007 crisis period, in coincidence with the increased reputational concerns of the rating agencies. The results are robust to endogeneity concerns. The third paper (coauthored with Thomas J. Chemmanur and Igor Karagodsky) focuses on equity analysts, issuer-paid and investor-paid ratings. Equity analysts' forecasts and ratings assigned by issuer-paid credit rating agencies such as Standard and Poorís (S&P) and by investor-paid rating agencies such as Egan and Jones (EJR) all involve information production about the same underlying set of firms, even though equity analysts focus on cash flows to equity and bond ratings focus on cash flows to bonds. Further, the two types of credit rating agencies differ in their incentives to produce and report accurate information signals. Given this setting, we empirically analyze the timeliness and accuracy of the information signals provided by each of the above three types of financial intermediary to their investor clienteles and the information flows between these intermediaries. We find that the information signals produced by EJR are the most timely (on average), and seem to anticipate the information signals produced by equity analysts as well as by S&P. We find that changes in leverage are associated with lower EJR ratings but higher equity analysts' recommendations; further, credit rating changes by EJR have the largest impact on firms' investment levels. We also document an investor attention effect (in the sense of Merton, 1987) among stock and bond market investors in the sense that changes in equity analyst recommendations have a higher impact than either EJR or S&P ratings changes on the excess returns on firm equity, while EJR rating changes have a higher impact on bond yield spreads than either S&P ratings changes or changes in equity analyst recommendations. Finally, we analyze differences in bond ratings assigned to a given firm by EJR and S&P, and find that these differences are positively related to the standard proxies for disagreement among stock market investors.

Este trabalho concentra-se no estudo de um dos instrumentos específicos utilizados pelas organizações para administrar suas relações com seus empregados o contrato psicológico. Por meio de uma pesquisa exploratória e descritiva, buscou-se responder se e como a violação dos contratos psicológicos exerce influência sobre os níveis de rotatividade voluntária em empresas de consultoria em atividade no Brasil. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa de campo, utilizando-se os métodos qualitativo e quantitativo, em duas empresas multinacionais do ramo de consultoria. A amostra, representada por sete consultores seniores que pediram demissão voluntária, permite concluir que a violação dos contratos psicológicos ocorre em empresas de serviços de consultoria em atividade no referido país, e que a rotatividade voluntária está associada a ela. / This research concentrates in a study about one of the specific instruments used by organizations to manage relationships with its employees the psychological contracts. Through an exploratory and descriptive research, the study addresses the question if and how psychological violation influences the level of voluntary turnover in consultant firms in operation in Brazil. To do so, and using a qualitative and quantitative method, the research was applied in two multinational consulting firms in the referred country. The sample, represented by seven senior consultants who left the organization voluntarily, tells that the psychological violation occurs in these firms, and the voluntary turnover is associated to it.

Employee turnover continues to be discussed as an outcome in Human Resources (HR), but comparatively few studies have examined the relationship between turnover as the independent variable and institutional outcomes. Although the call to HR practitioners has often been made over the past 20 years regarding the importance of tying HR programs and measures to institutional goals, there has been limited reporting of such initiatives among higher education institutions, which typically focus on student outcomes equally or more prominently than financial outcomes. While the HR Analytics field has been growing and there is a robust community of academics involved in data analysis of organizations, the field in Higher Education is still in its development stages. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to test whether employee turnover in various iterations can be a statistically significant predictor of (a) student completion rate, and (b) aggregate organizational external research funding. The study also tested whether such measures can be established by strictly using current institutional “legacy” data, as opposed to gathering any data that are not currently collected or available from normal business operations. Reviewing these questions through a theoretical framework of general systems theory and using student data, employee data, and financial data of a single higher education institution, this study was designed for the HR practitioner to review the use of models to predict whether employee turnover statistics are meaningful in explaining operational goals of an organization that are not financial. Six years of data (2006-2011) from a single higher education institution were used in the analysis. The sample subject group comprised students enrolled in various Master’s degree programs across 10 academic departments at the University. The analysis was conducted using ordinary least squares regression and via binomial logistic regression. Other forms of analysis were considered as part of the review. Overall, findings suggested that employee turnover (operationalized as employee instability rate) is statistically significant in models that predict student completion rate. Furthermore, employee turnover is statistically significant in models that predict the University’s external research funding levels (operationalized as indirect cost recovery statistics reported annually).

O presente trabalho propõe identificar os fatores que influenciam na rotatividade de professores no ensino fundamental e médio brasileiro. Para isso foram estimados modelos econométricos para verificar a probabilidade de uma turma ter mais de um professor durante o mesmo ano. Usamos como base de dados os microdados do SAEB/2003, desenvolvidos pelo Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira, do Ministério da Educação (INEP/MEC). Verificamos que os professores de matemática e de língua português de diferentes séries respondem de forma diferente as variáveis analisadas. Por exemplo, um aumento na proporção de alunos brancos em 10 pontos percentuais está associado a uma diminuição de 1 ponto percentual na rotatividade, no caso de professores de 4ª série do ensino fundamental de Língua Portuguesa e Matemática. Por sua vez, professores de 4ª serie do ensino fundamental de ambas as disciplinas e para os de 8ª serie do ensino fundamental que lecionam Língua Portuguesa, trabalhar em escolas particulares reduz a probabilidade de rotatividade em 5 pontos percentuais. Por fim, a ocorrência de atentados à vida na escola aumenta rotatividade dos professores de 4ª serie do ensino fundamental de Língua Portuguesa e a presença de armas que eleva em a rotatividade dos professores de 4ª serie do ensino fundamental das duas disciplinas. Para o 3º ano do ensino médio, a participação do professor no projeto pedagógico diminui a rotatividade. / The present paper tires to identify the factors that influences in teachers rotatctivity among scholls in the basic Brasil\'s schooling system. To that we estimated econometric models to verify the probability of a class to have more than one teacher durying the same period of one school year. Using the microdatabase of SAEB for the year of 2003, by the National institute of studies and educational research Anísio Teixeira, of Ministry of Education (INEP/MEC). We found that teachers of mathematics and Portuguese speaking of different sets respond differently to the variables analyzed. For example, an increase in the proportion of white students by 10 percentage points is associated with a decrease of 1 percentage point in the rotation, where teachers 4th grade of elementary school Portuguese language and mathematics. In turn, teachers of 4th grade of elementary schools of both disciplines and the 8 th grade of elementary schools that teach the Portuguese language, working in private schools reduces the likelihood of turnover by 5 percentage points. Finally, the occurrence of attacks on school teacher turnover increases of 4 th grade of elementary Portuguese Language and the presence of guns increases in teachers turnover in the 4th grade of elementary schools of the two disciplines. For the 3rd year of high school, participation in the teacher education program reduces turnover.