Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University / A case study of a rural area wage and benefit survey in the Monadnock region of Southwestern New Hampshire, illustrating the conception, development, and scope of the survey and its effect on management practices and procedures in that area.

Gong, Yuanyuan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-93). / Abstract and some appendixes also in Chinese. / LIST OF TABLES --- p.ii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.iii / ABSTRACT --- p.iv / ABSTRACT IN CHINESE --- p.vi / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.vii / Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Problem Statement --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2 --- Research Questions --- p.3 / Chapter 2.1 --- Turnover Study --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Antecedents --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Processes --- p.10 / Chapter 2.3 --- Five-Factor Model of Personality --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Five-Factor Model and Turnover --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2 --- Job Embeddedness --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Links --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Fit --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Sacrifice --- p.21 / Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1 --- Five-Factor Model and Job Embeddedness --- p.23 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Extraversion --- p.28 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Conscientiousness --- p.30 / Chapter 2.4.4 --- Openness to Experience --- p.33 / Chapter 2.4.5 --- Agreeableness --- p.35 / Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- METHOD AND RESULTS --- p.38 / Chapter 4.1 --- Study 1 --- p.38 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Participants and Procedure --- p.38 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Measures --- p.40 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Results --- p.43 / Chapter 4.2 --- Study 2 --- p.51 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Job Embeddedness as a Mediator --- p.51 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Participants and Measures --- p.60 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Results --- p.60 / Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION --- p.71 / Chapter 5.1 --- Key Findings --- p.17 / Chapter 5.2 --- Implications --- p.76 / Chapter 5.3 --- Limitations and Future Directions --- p.77 / REFERENCES --- p.80 / APPENDIX A Questionnaire used in this study (English version) --- p.94 / APPENDIX B Questionnaire used in this study (Chinese version) --- p.97

Employee engagement levels are critical to organizations that desire to retain a workforce that innovates, produces positive results, and stays committed to the organization. The purpose of this single case study was to explore employee engagement strategies used by business leaders to retain talent. The conceptual framework that guided this study was Deci's self-determination theory. Data collection occurred through semistructured interviews with four participants within the insurance industry having three or more years of management experience and having a positive reputation for engaging employees. The participating company is located in central Indiana. Participants answered 10 open-ended questions related to employee engagement and retention of talent. Data were transcribed and coded to identify themes. The modified van Kaam method was used for analysis of the data. Open and honest communication between managers and employees, managers looking beyond words to recognize disengagement and respectful and a caring leadership team at all levels of the company were amongst the prominent themes identified during data analysis. The study findings may contribute to business practices positively by increasing the understanding of the importance of employee engagement strategies in a work setting as well as how engagement levels affect retention. The study findings may contribute to social change by providing leaders ideas on how to provide greater job satisfaction to employees, which could translate into improved professional and personal lives by providing employees a greater feeling of fulfillment and confidence with their job.

More than 50% of the workforce in the United States is disengaged, costing U.S. organizations almost $355 billion annually. Engaged employees improve customer satisfaction, perform effectively, and are committed to organizational goals. Guided by Kahn's personal engagement theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies business leaders in the hospitality industry used to improve employee engagement for increased productivity. A purposive sample of 1 business leader each from 6 organizations in South Korea shared their experiences with the phenomenon of employee engagement. Data were collected through face-to-face semi structured interviews and by reviewing company position descriptions and human resource policies. Yin's data analysis method revealed prevalent themes of communication, recognition and rewards, and work environment. Leaders influence employee engagement through open communication, providing rewards or recognition as performance incentives, and creating a psychologically safe work environment. Implications of this study for social change include decreased physical and mental health costs for employees and organizations. Improving employee engagement in the hospitality industry can reduce absenteeism and increase organizational profitability, sustainability, and participation in community and social programs.

Withdrawal behaviors such as absenteeism, tardiness, turnover intention, and employee disengagement adversely affect organizations, costing billions of dollars annually. However, there is limited research on the best practices for minimizing the effects of employee withdrawal. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore best practices leaders need to mitigate the effects of withdrawal behaviors on organizations. The social learning theory (SLT) served as the conceptual framework for this study. Ten participants were interviewed, including 4 healthcare leaders and 6 health service workers from a correctional facility nursing department in the Southeastern United States. Scholars have indicated that correctional healthcare personnel exhibit high levels of employee withdrawal including absenteeism and turnover. Data from semistructured interviews were analyzed and compared with training and disciplinary policy statements for methodological triangulation. Several themes emerged including a need for leadership engagement, staff accountability, and an organizational culture that discourages withdrawal behaviors. The findings may contribute to the body of knowledge regarding best practices that leaders can utilize to diminish adverse effects withdrawal behaviors have on organizations. Information derived from this study might contribute to social change by decreasing the expense of employee withdrawal behaviors on citizens and reallocate taxpayer resources to appropriations necessary for public inpatient mental health treatment facilities.

Employee turnover has been responsible for the failure of many small businesses in the United States. Business leaders do not always understand the reasons employees choose to leave an organization. This correlational study, grounded in Herzberg's 2-factor theory, examined the relationship between intrinsic employee job satisfaction, extrinsic employee job satisfaction, and employee turnover intention among employees in small businesses. Participants included 129 employees of a small business in Western New York. The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and Turnover Intention Survey were used to collect the data. The multiple regression analysis significantly predicted extrinsic employee turnover intentions, F(3, 103) = 25.687, p = .001, R2 = .428, and while extrinsic motivation was a predictor, intrinsic motivation was not. Recommendations for future research include focus on specific extrinsic and intrinsic categories in additional contexts. Implications for social change include small business owners understanding the motivation behind employee turnover, which may result in reduced costs to the company, keeping experienced employees, reduced errors made by inexperienced new hires, and increased productivity because there is not a learning curve for tenured employees.

This thesis contributes to engagement literature by clarifying what engagement is for employees in a large Australian travel retail organisation, how it can be measured, and the expected benefits for both employees and the organisation. With claims that disengagement costs the Australian economy over $30 billion annually (Hooper, 2006), the focus on engagement, particularity within the practitioner community, has grown exponentially. However, there is a lack of empirical research providing construct definition and measurement, ensuring credibility of this construct (Saks, 2006). The two main purposes of this study aimed to address this research gap by firstly producing a valid engagement survey which measured engagement and its predictors, and secondly producing a statistically tested engagement model which explained engagement, its antecedents, and consequences. The study was conducted using a mixed methods sequential design involving three projects. Project one involved the collection and analysis of 3 forms of qualitative data from which 12 main engagement themes were established and survey items generated. Document analysis, participant observation, and interviews (26) of current and former employees all served to identify themes and contextualize engagement within the organisation under study. Project two involved the development and testing of the initial engagement survey. Survey items were refined through a pilot study. The remaining items were reviewed by an expert panel, before being administered company wide returning 419 completed surveys. Exploratory factor analysis was used to refine the survey items and identify the engagement construct structure. Project three involved the validation of the engagement survey and confirmation of the engagement model. Structural equation modelling was used for this purpose. The engagement survey, which included eight driver subscales and an engagement subscale, was validated. Factors measured within the survey were similar to others cited in the literature signalling potential survey generalizability. The engagement model which included causal links between engagement, its drivers (antecedents), and outcomes (consequences) was confirmed. As anticipated, all eight engagement drivers (senior leadership, team leadership, work demands, work support, employee empowerment, continuation, customer focus and financial rewards) functioned as positive predictors of engagement. However, mixed results were found concerning engagement outcome variables. Engagement showed a positive causal relationship with personal outcomes (continuance commitment), but a negative casual relationship with organisational outcomes (customer satisfaction, and company financials). Such results question an overwhelming theme within the literature which claims a positive casual effect of engagement for both personal and organisational outcomes. Further investigation is recommended to clarify these results and explore the possibility of other variable influences. The research of this thesis incorporated both consultancy and academic literature, marrying both perspectives to produce a measure and model relevant to each orientation.

Bibliography: leaves 261-276. Electronic publication; full text available in PDF format; abstract in HTML format. This thesis is about the role that shop floor workers play in organisational change. In particular, it investigates the manner in which a distinct group of worker-level leaders and change agents affected the generation and implementation of change and helped to shape the change process in an organisation undergoing planned change. The data for the thesis were obtained from a three-year, longitudinal case-study of organisational change in a medium-sized automotive components manufacturer, Moving Metals Limited (MML). Electronic reproduction.[Australia] :Australian Digital Theses Program,2001.

This thesis is about the role that shop floor workers play in organisational change. In particular, it investigates the manner in which a distinct group of worker-level leaders and change agents affected the generation and implementation of change and helped to shape the change process in an organisation undergoing planned change. The data for the thesis were obtained from a three-year, longitudinal case-study of organisational change in a medium-sized automotive components manufacturer, Moving Metals Limited (MML). Data were collected at MML during a move from traditional mass production to lean production and the research was conducted using processual action research, while the researcher adopted the dual roles of researcher and consultant to the company. The research identified a distinct group of workers, with no supervisory capacity, who were able to shape the change process in the organisation. These workers are referred to as workers of influence. This group of workers emerged as central characters in the process of organisational change and as leaders and change agents in the organisation. Drawn from the empirical data, criteria for identifying workers of influence are developed in this thesis, based on the authority vested in them by the workforce and their access to management decision-making. A taxonomy of workers of influence is developed in this thesis using these criteria, as well as the duration of tenure of influence. In much of the literature, shop floor workers are portrayed as either passive participants in, or active resistors of organisational change. This research provides evidence of some workers acting as leaders and change agents in an active and influential manner. The research examines issues of power, influence, autonomy and control and their impact on workers' capacity to participate in change. In so doing, this research identifies and opens up an important area of study with implications for organisational theory, literature and the implementation of planned interventions in organisations. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Department of Social Inquiry, 2000.

In order to survive in the intense competition environment, every company tries to find the way to strengthen its core competences efficiently and to gain more competitive advantages. Therefore, more and more companies start to outsource their non-core value activities in order to focus their limited resources on constructing and developing their core competences. However, when adopting outsourcing policies¡]including function outsourcing and job outsourcing¡^, companies need to review every characteristics of their jobs and sort them by organization targets or goals. Thus, they will figure out those ¡§non-core jobs¡¨, and seek the way to differentiate their own employment strategies between core and non-core jobs. Due to the idea of outsourcing, another employment type is triggered¡Xnamely employee dispatching. However, it is important to know what causes companies adopting employee dispatching. Is it the same reason as outsourcing, namely to strengthen core competences? Or is it just to minimize the operating costs? Or to avoid the legal liabilities which every company should follow. In this study, we interview the HR managers that have the authority to make the decisions in the four high-tech. companies. The aims of this research are as follows; to find out how those companies make the dispatching decisions, what the real causes are, how to choose contractors, and how to evaluate the effects of adopting employee dispatching. By consolidating and analyzing those research data, we hope that this study can shed some light on this area, provide decision making suggestions, and new research perspectives of employment shift in this study. Meanwhile, these findings can be of use for further research in this area in the future. After consolidating the data we gathered, we find: 1.Companies adopt dispatched workers to replace regular employees when considering personnel expense cost down and legal liabilities avoidance. 2.From the practicing of implementing dispatched workers, those four companies learned how to set the scope of non-core jobs for outsourcing further more. 3.The following three key factors: Specialty, Finance, and Service, can be used to help those who want to use employee dispatching to select their partners. 4.Dispatch companies just provide the only function, outsourcing employees, to their corporate customers. They have no ability to provide the other business functions. 5.For long-term planning, those enterprises have moved to China due to globalization expansion of their suppliers and customers to China market. Therefore, they will hire dispatching employees instead to fulfill those non-core jobs in Taiwan.