Thesis Proposal
THROUGH MODELLING
cc:
OUM program director
Introduction
Today’s business world is highly competitive and requires from the companies’ management to do everything possible to avoid, or at least decrease, the negative impacts that occur from time to time on the basis of different reasons. My thesis is dedicated to one of such events in the companies’ operation – staff turnover. In order to analyze the problem in detail and find the most appropriate ways to control this situation, first of all the related terms will be defined and analyzed. Factors that influence employee turnover will be determined and the ways of monitoring the turnover will be offered. The most effective ways to keep the good staff will be shown and finally the ways of reducing and controlling employee turnover will be developed.
For the purposes of my thesis I will research scholarly and popular sources on the issue of employee turnover so as to understand what methods can be the most effective in controlling this reality. To check my hypothesis a model will be developed on the basis of available data.
The title of my project is Controlling Employee Turnover. The problem stated in the title has deep roots in our society and has been changing along with time in every country. This issue is interesting, because it can be researched practically on the constant basis, as situations change along with the factors that condition this issue, which means that there is always something interesting to find out. In order to understand and find the most appropriate ways to control employee turnover, it is necessary to see into the factors that influence it and research the problem in the most detailed way.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The main problem my thesis is going to address is defining the most effective ways to control employee turnover by the way of researching this issue in detailed way and developing a model to test them and choose the ones that are the most appropriate in today’s context.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
My thesis is going to address the following questions:
1. What are the reasons of employee turnover and what factors influence it?
2. In what ways can employee turnover be monitored and what effects can it cause?
3. How can employee turnover be controlled and avoided?
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
This thesis has the following objectives:
1. Research the problem of employee turnover in detail, defining factors that influence it.
2. Find out the ways to monitor employee turnover and understand the consequences it may cause.
3. Define the most appropriate ways of controlling employee turnover and test them with the help of developed model.
Method and Deliverables
This thesis will start with the definition of the staff turnover. To understand this concept thoroughly, the background of the problem will be described, and the ways it changed throughout time. After this, the factors that influence this situation will be defined and analyzed, as it is clear that without clear understanding of the nature of this issue it will be impossible to find effective methods for controlling it. Although the definition of the problem can be easily found, it is necessary to find the most appropriate one that will allow space for understanding its nature and offering the ways to reduce it. As for the factors influencing staff turnover, there can be found different variants, and in order to reach the aims defined by this thesis it will be necessary to conduct the broadest research on them. Only in this way quality model can be further built, with the help of which the defined ways of the situation controlling will be tested.
In order to fully understand the context of the situation, the ways to monitor staff turnover will also be analyzed, as well as its cost. In this way all the necessary details will be clarified, which will later allow to develop a quality model. The ways, in which staff turnover can be avoided, will be also offered as another technique that allow to control this situation. To find the data appropriate for the above stated purposes, the following steps will be taken:
1. Define the concept of employee turnover
2. Define factors that influence staff turnover:
a. Internal
b. External
c. Other
3. Find out the ways, in which employee turnover can be monitored and clarify the cost of this issue.
4. Define the ways to avoid staff turnover.
5. Develop the most appropriate ways to control this situation.
When the methods to control staff turnover will be developed, data from a variety of companies will be analyzed to test the model and understand what method is the most effective. Data for my thesis will be taken from external sources. Among the potential sources for data collection on employee turnover there are reports from nationally recognized companies, describing the issue and the ways it is controlled in them. Besides, sources will include the other reports and models developed by experts in this field.
Timeline
Below I present a preliminary timeline for my thesis. The tasks that are described in detail allow to better understand what parts this thesis will include. There is a buffer of approximately 6 weeks.
ID
Outline number
Task name
Duration
4th quarter
1st quarter
September
October
November
December
February
March
B
M
E
B
M
E
B
M
E
B
M
E
B
M
E
B
M
E
B
M
1
1
Planning
1 wk
2
2
Document
95 days
3
2.1
Introduction
35 days
4
2.1.1
Overview of employee turnover hypotheses
3 wks
5
2.1.2
Modeling
2 wks
6
2.1.3
Summary
1 wk
7
2.1.4
Review with Committee
1 wk
8
2.2
Modeling Theory
15 days
9
2.2.1
Purpose
1 wk
10
2.2.2
Purpose
+
2 wks
11
2.3
Purpose
++*+++++++
60 days
12
2.3.1
Purpose
+++*
1 wk
13
2.3.2
Purpose
3 wks
14
2.3.3
Purpose
+++
2 wks
15
2.3.4
Cost
1 wk
16
2.3.5
Purpose
+
2 wks
17
2.3.6
Purpose
+
2 wks
18
2.3.7
Summary
1 wk
19
2.3.8
Review with Committee
1 wk
20
3
Cost
+
50 days
21
3.1
Purpose
++++++++
30 days
22
3.2
Purpose
++++++
10 days
23
3.2.1
Cost
++
10 days
24
3.2.2
Purpose
++++++++++
10 days
25
3.3
Purpose
++++++++++++++
10 days
26
3.3.1
Cost
+
3 wks
27
3.3.2
Cost
++
1 day
Purpose
+++++++++++++++++++*+++++++++++
Mathis, Robert L., and Jackson, John H. Human Resource Management. 13th ed. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
The book is dedicated to comprehensive overview of the human resource management. Employee turnover is well-described in the book. Its types, methods of measuring and determining costs are defined.
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This book analyzes the employee turnover issue in details. In particular, it is focused on the evolution of the pioneering turnover theory, it also identifies the processes and constructs that miss from the turnover formulations that are prevailing in the society. Besides, it offers innovative ways on the turnover perception, as well as generalizing turnover theory.
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In this book the ways to reduce employee turnover are considered along with methods of improving employee retention.
Siljander, Raymond P. Introduction to Business and Industrial Security and Loss Control. 2nd ed. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, 2008. Print.
In this book the problem of employee turnover is analyzed in detailed way along with the other management issues.
Torok, Robert M., and Cordon, Patrick J. Operational profitability: systematic approaches for continuous improvement. 2nd ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2002. Print.
This book is dedicated to the conduct of a management audit that is absolutely necessary to the managers in such a competitive market that functions today. The issue of employee turnover is also covered in the book.
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The article is dedicated to the problems in the sphere of employee staffing in a service company that uses employee service capacity to meet nonstationary, random service requirements. Scientists develop Markov Decision Process model to represent the stochastic nature of learning and turnover on the job. They prove that such modeling improves performance.
Zatzick, Christopher D., Elvira, Marta M., and Cohen, Lisa E. “When is More Better? The Effects of Racial Composition on Voluntary Turnover.” Organization Science 14.5 (2003): 483-496. Print.
The article is about the relationship between voluntary individual turnover and the racial composition for minorities in large companies. It was discovered that the likelihood of individuals’ turnover decreases along with the proportion of the racial representatives of the employee in the organization. This relationship is nonlinear.
Ton, Zeynep, and Huckman, Robert S. “Managing the Impact of Employee Turnover on Performance: The Role of Process Conformance.” Organization Science 19.1 (2008): 56-68. Print.
In this article the influence of employee turnover on operating performance in the conditions where high levels of knowledge exploitation are required. For the purposes of this research data gathered over 48 months in US stores of major retail chain is analyzed, on the basis of which the conclusion that employee turnover significantly decreases performance is drawn. The management aspect, which receives most attention is the process conformance.
Purpose
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In this research a mathematical model is developed to assess and analyze the benefits for performance of a contact center out of increasing employee retention level, which is directly related to the job satisfaction increase. This analysis is founded on idealized contact center model with constant number of employees.
Glance, Natalie S., Hogg, Ted, and Huberman, Bernando A. “Training and Turnover in the Evolution of Organizations.” Organization Science 8.1 (1997): 84-96. Print.
In this article authors state that the decision of a company to train or not to train employees has a considerable effect on the overall economy. If all the employees of one industry are not able to train their workers, economy will suffer.
Purpose
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Argote, L. Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining and Transferring Knowledge. New York: Kluwer, 1999.
Bowen, D., and Lawler, E. “Empowering service employees.” Sloan Management Rev. 36.4 (1995): 73–84.
Dahl, Michael S. “Organizational Change and Employee Stress.” Management Science 57.2 (2011): 240-256. Print.
The author analyzes relationship that exists between employee health and organizational change. Potentially negative changes on the employee levels are analyzed.
Glebbeek, A., and Bax, E. “Is high employee turnover really harmful? An empirical test using company records.” Acad. Management Journal 47.2 (2004): 277–286. Print.
Guimaraes, T., and Igbaria, M. “Determinants of Turnover Intentions: Comparing IC and IS Personnel.” Information Systems Research 3.3 (1992): 273-303. Print.
In this article the difficulty of finding and training new employees is described along with the factors influencing turnover rate.
Hom, P., and Griffeth, R. Employee Turnover. Cincinatti: South-Western Publishing, 1995.
Naveh, E., and Erez, M. “Innovation and attention to detail in the quality improvement paradigm.” Management Science 50.11 (2004): 1576–1586.
Russo, Anthony T. Minimizing Employee Turnover by Focusing on the New Hire Process. Boca Raton: Universal Publishers, 2000. Print.
In this book an interesting way of minimizing employee turnover is described.
Umphress, Elizabeth E., and Bingham, John B. “When Employees Do Bad Things for Good Reasons: Examining Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors.” Organization Science 22.3 (2011): 621-640. Print.
The authors presuppose that employees can sometimes get engaged in some unethical acts so as to benefit their organization. .
Zhang, Ge. “Market Valuation and Employee Stock Options.” Management Science 52.9 (2006): 1377-1393. Print.
In this paper the market-valuation-based hypothesis for employee stock options is analyzed.
