Research Topics: Staff Turnover And Retention Strategies

An Essay concerning Staff Turnover and Retention Strategies

OBJECTIVES As a person with knowledge of staff turnover and retention, the author has always brought up to his superiors the viability of strategy formation regarding staff turnover and retention management and at times fail to understand the reasons or logic behind certain strategic implementations imposed on it. By delving into this project paper, the author intends to have better insights into how staff turnover and retention is thought up, formulated and then imparted down. The author hopes to have an in-depth understanding as to how the staff members reconcile the need to become more strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles. In order to reinforce the learning objectives, two key focal issues were focused upon, i.e. innovation and diversity. Innovation was discussed with regards to staff turnover and retention where it was renowned for its developmental capabilities to constantly innovate. Diversity came under strategic thinking and formation as the author considered the diverse culture, political climate, economic surroundings, social environment, technological settings, government policies and legal systems in order to understand staff turnover and retention.  EXECUTIVE BRIEF This essay utilized staff members and professionals as the models to review their turnover and retention, and how they dealt with critical situations. From the analysis, key trends in their needs to become strategic were identified, how they worked and their effectiveness in dealing with critical situations was ascertained. The paper then moved on to assess the staff member’s traditional personnel roles with regard to their suitability to critical situations, during which their internal capabilities in relation to the traditional personnel roles being followed was determined also. An overall analysis on how staff members can reconcile the need to become more strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles was also conducted to assess and compare the capabilities of their strategies with those of others. Gaps in their capabilities and the reconciliation process were then identified. Finally, several choices of strategies to improve the strategic roles and skills of the staff members as effective means in turnover and retention were then recommended and evaluated in terms of appropriateness to the issues reviewed, feasibility in carrying out the options and acceptability within the key stakeholders and decision makers. Several key implementation issues related to managing strategic change was also addressed as well.     INTRODUCTION All companies and organizations are governed by their basic goals and objectives. These objectives are often regarded to as the “corporate vision” or “corporate philosophy” (Condrey, 2001). Thus, certain strategies are being implemented with the aim of achieving these goals and objectives, and this constitutes a key element in the characterization of a company or organization. Staff members are undoubtedly an important indicator in determining the characteristics of a company or organization. It is a well known fact that staff members play a crucial role towards differentiation and a potent source of competitiveness for any organization or company. Therefore, any organization must constantly invest in human resource professional development even during periods of recession. However, the determination of the extent to which an organization can invest in terms of staff turnover and retention depends on the financial capabilities of the company or organization (Ulrich, 2004). Finances will also be carefully considered in determining the target for training and development, because it should jive with the basic policies of an organization’s human resource development strategy.             Staff turnover and retention in most organizations and companies in the past decade has gradually transformed from low-level activities into high-profile contributors to organizational success (Connolly et al. 2002). However, budgets are also elevating at a faster rate than the gross national product. In the midst of this growth and increased influence, managers and executives of companies and organizations are left with a confusing question: Who among our staff members should be retained or not? Goals / Objectives of Staff Turnover and Retention Staff turnover and retention have four main objectives: A)   Retain the top professionals and let go of underperforming personnel. Being on top of the industry enables professionals and staff members to command the respect and confidence of the public, thereby getting retained in their respective positions. Thus, these professionals and staff members are able to expand their expertise aside from the traditional personnel roles through the acquisition of critical knowledge and skills (Einsestat, 2001). B)    Gain more income than other companies and organizations. The services that are being laid down by excellent and hardworking staff members and professionals are able to meet high quality standards of their clients. As a result, the organizations employing these staff members are able to earn more income as against other companies in other industries. C)    Establish the best brand of quality HR services; and D)   Maintaining the quality of staff members. Having an office with quality professionals and staff members allows organizations and companies to continue their tradition of excellence in both its services by setting new trends and standards. More often than not, staff members don’t really make an immediate impact upon performance of the traditional personnel roles. Instead, they engage in activities that gradually propel them towards the high level of importance, thereby greatly increasing their chances for retentions. However, the roles that staff members play are not limited to traditional personnel roles. Activities such as educating the public and other social responsibilities are often related with staff members. A great deal of emphasis lies on the efficiency and effectiveness of these roles. Therefore, understanding staff retention and turnover includes the analysis and management of their significant roles (Perry et al. 2003). Staff Retention and Turnover Criteria Most companies and organizations’ criteria for staff turnover and retention can be summarized into five (5) main aspects. These are: ·        Planning and Strategy Formation Capabilities Planning and strategy formation nowadays has created the need for staff members to become aggressive especially in the area of marketing themselves. This is because the access to strong distribution channels is critical for their continued retention in any company or organization. ·        Decision-making Capabilities Upon arriving at the correct decision or choice, the staff member now gains confidence in his / her ability to make critical decisions or choices especially when his / her integrity and job retention is on the line. Thus, this staff member will now search for even more challenges and opportunities where he / she could further enhance his / her decision-making abilities regarding current human resource issues. ·        Analytical Skills Through the exposure to various puzzling human resource issues, the staff member along the process is able to develop a holistic mindset regarding the issues surrounding him / her. The staff member now becomes a keen observer of the truths and lies surrounding the issue being tackled, instead of relying on mere hearsays. The continuous pursuit of the truth behind the puzzling issues enables the staff member to consistently practice and enhance a healthy and holistic mindset which makes it difficult for detractors to give influence. Because of this holistic approach, the staff member is able to effectively select the right choice and continue to maximize this potential for future use, leaving their employers impressed and wanting them to stay in their company (Overman, 2002). ·        Mental Stability Mental stability is crucial especially in the pursuit of the correct decision as well as the management and development of the processes accompanying it. It is important for staff members to remain updated with the latest developments to be able to stay aware and knowledgeable in all issues. ·         Performance and Credibility The production of their best human resource outputs comes as a result of well-funded research management and development activities. The strong performance of staff members and their outputs could also be linked to the effective strategic planning and human resource mobilization. Thus, the staff member’s retention status increases as his / her performance becomes better. Implications for the practice of HRM 1) Staff members and the Need to become Strategic In lieu of the present developments in human resource professional development, there have been significant visions of learning that evolved. A majority of these learning visions are based on the idea that human resource professional development is a social process where knowledge is denied instead of being acquired passively. Learning, then, transforms into an interactive process. The interaction is being verified through the help of the participants in the learning process such as the human resource professional and the managers. In this framework, becoming strategic would mean the continued guidance and support of the active learning process. Obviously, this would call for an intensive and phased guiding strategy (Heuerman, 2004). When in the active pursuit to become strategic, the interaction of human resource professionals with the managers forms an integral part towards its success. Collaborative learning as a strategic method is gradually being used by human resource professionals nowadays. Through this approach, the human resource professional can become strategic through the imitation of common human resource development techniques in the socialization processes. In the process, the human resource professionals are able to obtain the chance to see their own ideas in a different aspect and therefore be able to take alternatives into consideration. The relative effectiveness of this approach is determined with the capability of the human resource professionals to continuously challenge their pre-acquired knowledge by trying to adapt to the interpretations of their managers (Gratton, 2003). Aside from the managers and the staff members, the different resources of strategic learning belong to a third category of factors of a learning environment. Moreover, strategic learning methods have shown signs of significant growth over the past years. Consequently, obtaining knowledge becomes more complicated. This is because the transformation of all this information into strategic knowledge requires the managers to possess the appropriate reference frameworks.   2) Staff members and the Development of Corporate Strategy Staff members help companies and organizations in aiming for sustainable growth as well as for segment leadership in their respective industries. They help companies and organizations to establish its broad leadership usually by redefining their corporate strategies and their products and services. The changes or redirection of the corporate strategy of an organization or company may include offering training to its employees, improving the company operations, and the introduction of new technologies then reinforces the positions of the various products of the company. This practically results in economies of scale that is able to create a distribution network for both the local and international products of the company.             The role of staff members in the development of the corporate strategy is to help that particular company or organization in securing the growth of their business in a sustainable manner, while at the same time constantly improving the company’s profitability. The strategy being employed by staff members to achieve this involves four elements: <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Encouraging companies and organizations to strive in order to reach a leading position in attractive markets </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Development of a corporate strategy focusing on securing a competitive share of the market segments. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Working in order to improve the company’s efficiency and cut costs in operations. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Aiming for continuous growth through selective acquisitions for as long as the company can create shareholder value. </li> The recent efforts of staff members to reconcile the need to become strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles would definitely make progress with the growing role of information and communications technology (ICT) in the human resource development. This fits in with the larger need of staff members towards reconciling with the demands of managers. Therefore, the reconciliation process would become possible if the staff members are fully adapted to ICT. Nowadays, staff members are more and more using artificial intelligence systems in order to carry out their traditional personnel roles (Galpin et al. 2002). The traditional personnel roles of the staff members are being influenced by the interaction of two major factors. On the one hand, the instructional factors: the human resource philosophy brought about by the staff members and its conversion into didactical ideas. On the other hand, organizational factors: the managers, staff, infrastructure and policies related in this area. It is obvious that the staff members must possess a sound vision of policies and the efficient use of the operating budget in order to effectively reconcile the need to become more strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles (Gonzalez, 2003). Nevertheless, these staff members need an interaction between both factors. This is because in order to respond to the new visions of learning, they will eventually transform into a model together with the various aspects of the reconciliation process. In return, the managers will have to continuously monitor their limitations and along the process introduce innovations. CONCLUSION The results of the analysis carried out on the traditional personnel roles of staff members indicated very significant effects, even amidst the threats of unrest. Therefore, we could conclude that the staff member’s traditional personnel roles could still be expected to increase faster than average. The review of the objectives and criteria for staff retention and turnover revealed very little inconsistencies regarding the needs of companies and organizations to become strategic. This is coherent with their traditional inside-out approach. However, the need to reconcile both the inside-out and outside-in approaches becomes imperative now for these companies and organizations. The analysis among the reconciliation process as well as the traditional personnel roles of the staff members revealed certain gaps, most of which are biased towards the environment. However, these gaps paved the way towards determining a number of recommended strategic options to secure the staff member’s competitiveness. Also, the staff member has to find a balance between adherence to internal forces and to the changing forces of the environment in order to effectively reconcile the need to become more strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles. REFERENCES Condrey, Stephen E. Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2001, pp. 47-48.   Connolly, Thomas R., et al. “Transforming Human Resources.” Management Review, June 2002, issue # 3, pp. 10-16.   Eisenstat, Russell A. “What Corporate Human Resources Brings to the Picnic: Four Models for Functional Management.” Organizational Dynamics, 2001, pp. 6-14.   Galpin, Timothy J., and Patrick Murray. “Connect Human Resource Strategy to the Business Plan.” HR Magazine, March 2002, issue # 5, pp. 16-20.   Gonzalez, Maria. “Synchronized Strategies.” Journal of Business Strategy, May/June 2003, issue # 5,  pp. 9-11.   Gratton, Lynda. “The New Rules of HR Strategy.” HR Focus, June 2003, pp. 13-14.   Heuerman, Allan D. “Using Performance Management to Energize the Results Act.” The Public Manager, 2004, pp. 17-20.   Overman, Stephanie. “Big Bang Change: Re-engineering HR.” HR Magazine, June 2002, issue # 4, pp. 50-53.   Perry, James L., and Debra J. Mesch. “Strategic Human Resource Management.” Public Personnel Management: Current Concerns, Future Challenges. Second Edition. 2003, pp. 32-40.   Ulrich, David. “Measuring Human Resources: An Overview of Practice and a Prescription for Results.” Human Resource Management, 2004, issue # 6, pp. 303-320.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

An Essay concerning Staff Turnover and Retention Strategies

OBJECTIVES As a person with knowledge of staff turnover and retention, the author has always brought up to his superiors the viability o...

Hunter Peripherals

Hunter Peripherals       1 March 2006     To: Mrs Senior Manager, Engineering Group Hunter Peripherals   Dear Mrs. Before anything else, let me greet you a pleasant day. As I have heard, you are five months pregnant to your first child. Let me extend my congratulatory message to you and your husband for being expectant parents in four months time, and for you, as an expectant first-time mother.   As you know, due to the resignation of Ms., her group, the product compliance group, was merged with your group. Since that is the case, there exist greater responsibilities, which are not easy to handle by a single person. Especially that these two groups are now critical to our upcoming launch of “”, our new next-generation disk drive. That is why I have decided to create a new director’s position. As of now, it is still open and the management has not yet made their final choice regarding the position. The good news is that you are the only valid and qualified candidate inside the company for the said position. Since you begin working in the company, you have already shown dedication and hard working in your job. While at present, you have shown exemplary leadership, innovation, and sharp thinking in fulfilling your duties and responsibilities as the person in charge of the environmental testing of the engineering group. Even the senior executives believe in your capacity and capabilities as a senior manager.   However, due to the pressures and bigger responsibilities connected with the new position, I think you cannot handle it, especially now with your case. In behalf of the company, I am extending my regrets, but you are not qualified for the said position.   However, this is only a short-term solution, as I have said due to the pressures of the upcoming launch of “”. An alternate plan is available, which involves the hiring of an interim director, who will be working with us for six months. Before and after your maternity leave, you will be the one responsible to work closely with him. This is for him to know and fulfill his duties well; especially on the time you are already on leave. Those are the times when your position is very crucial to the success of “”. I would also like to inform you that you will also eventually become a director on due time, if you are already prepared to take bigger responsibilities and heavier management loads.   As for now, that is the only best way we know to cope up with the situation. Hope you will also understand our point, as we have understood yours. I will be waiting for your response to this. I know that you know what to do, what is best for you and our company.   Again, good day and God bless.   Sincerely,   VP – Engineering Hunter Peripherals             Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Hunter Peripherals

Hunter Peripherals 1 March 2006 To: Mrs Senior Manager, Engineering Group Hunter Peripherals Dear Mrs. Before anyth...

Employee Retention

Objectives of the Study As a person with knowledge of staff turnover and retention, the author has always brought up to his superiors the viability of strategy formation regarding staff turnover and retention management and at times fail to understand the reasons or logic behind certain strategic implementations imposed on it. By delving into this project paper, the author intends to have better insights into how staff turnover and retention is thought up, formulated and then imparted down. The author hopes to have an in-depth understanding as to how the staff members reconcile the need to become more strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles. In order to reinforce the learning objectives, two key focal issues were focused upon, i.e. innovation and diversity. Innovation was discussed with regards to staff turnover and retention where it was renowned for its developmental capabilities to constantly innovate. Diversity came under strategic thinking and formation as the author considered the diverse culture, political climate, economic surroundings, social environment, technological settings, government policies and legal systems in order to understand staff turnover and retention. Statement of the Problem             It is said that there exists a high turnover rate in Hong Kong’s Fairwood fast food chains. Hence, the causes of this must be investigated and effective retention strategies must be done and implemented in order to better understand these circumstances. Statement of Hypothesis Fairwood fast food chains experience a high turnover rate because their employees are not happy with the conditions of employment . Purpose of the Study This study was conducted in order to determine the causes of high staff turnover among the Fairwood fast food chains in Hong Kong, and provide meaningful retention strategies to remedy this problem.             This study also aimed to increase the awareness and provide a better understanding of the issues and problems concerning retention strategies for employees in order to contribute an effective approach in addressing their problems. Significance of the Study If the causes of high staff turnover among the Fairwood fast food chains in Hong Kong will be determined, this study will be a benefit to various organizations handling similar problems. As the approach of this study is more on the technical rather than the personal aspect, the families of these employees will not be able to apply the same technique at home. Also, if effectiveness is supported, this study will be significant in developing underachieving employees as productive and effective professionals in the future. Research Questions Specifically this study will address the following questions: 1.    What significant causes of high staff turnover among the Fairwood fast food chains in Hong Kong were determined? 2.    What specific alternatives or retention strategies can be done to help lower the staff turnover in the organization? Assumptions The research was based on the following assumptions: (a) all participants were utilizing the correct procedures as outlined in the guidelines for the specific methodology employed, and (b) all participants will answer questions honestly to the best of their ability. Limitations Time was the greatest limitation to this research, which hindered long-term outcome objectives. Environmental factors, such as socioeconomic status and work attendance were not controlled, and that created many variables within the research. As this study utilized a small sample of employees, the results may not effectively represent the general population.   REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE All companies and organizations are governed by their basic goals and objectives. These objectives are often regarded to as the “corporate vision” or “corporate philosophy” ( 2001). Thus, certain strategies are being implemented with the aim of achieving these goals and objectives, and this constitutes a key element in the characterization of a company or organization. Staff members are undoubtedly an important indicator in determining the characteristics of a company or organization. It is a well known fact that staff members play a crucial role towards differentiation and a potent source of competitiveness for any organization or company. Therefore, any organization must constantly invest in human resource professional development even during periods of recession. However, the determination of the extent to which an organization can invest in terms of staff turnover and retention depends on the financial capabilities of the company or organization (2004). Finances will also be carefully considered in determining the target for training and development, because it should jive with the basic policies of an organization’s human resource development strategy.             Staff turnover and retention in most organizations and companies in the past decade has gradually transformed from low-level activities into high-profile contributors to organizational success (2002). However, budgets are also elevating at a faster rate than the gross national product. In the midst of this growth and increased influence, managers and executives of companies and organizations are left with a confusing question: Who among our staff members should be retained or not? Goals / Objectives of Staff Turnover and Retention Staff turnover and retention have four main objectives: A)   Retain the top professionals and let go of underperforming personnel. Being on top of the industry enables professionals and staff members to command the respect and confidence of the public, thereby getting retained in their respective positions. Thus, these professionals and staff members are able to expand their expertise aside from the traditional personnel roles through the acquisition of critical knowledge and skills (2001). B)   Gain more income than other companies and organizations. The services that are being laid down by excellent and hardworking staff members and professionals are able to meet high quality standards of their clients. As a result, the organizations employing these staff members are able to earn more income as against other companies in other industries. C)   Establish the best brand of quality HR services; and D)   Maintaining the quality of staff members. Having an office with quality professionals and staff members allows organizations and companies to continue their tradition of excellence in both its services by setting new trends and standards. More often than not, staff members don’t really make an immediate impact upon performance of the traditional personnel roles. Instead, they engage in activities that gradually propel them towards the high level of importance, thereby greatly increasing their chances for retentions. However, the roles that staff members play are not limited to traditional personnel roles. Activities such as educating the public and other social responsibilities are often related with staff members. A great deal of emphasis lies on the efficiency and effectiveness of these roles. Therefore, understanding staff retention and turnover includes the analysis and management of their significant roles (2003). Staff Retention and Turnover Criteria Most companies and organizations’ criteria for staff turnover and retention can be summarized into five (5) main aspects. These are: ·         Planning and Strategy Formation Capabilities Planning and strategy formation nowadays has created the need for staff members to become aggressive especially in the area of marketing themselves. This is because the access to strong distribution channels is critical for their continued retention in any company or organization. ·         Decision-making Capabilities Upon arriving at the correct decision or choice, the staff member now gains confidence in his / her ability to make critical decisions or choices especially when his / her integrity and job retention is on the line. Thus, this staff member will now search for even more challenges and opportunities where he / she could further enhance his / her decision-making abilities regarding current human resource issues. ·         Analytical Skills Through the exposure to various puzzling human resource issues, the staff member along the process is able to develop a holistic mindset regarding the issues surrounding him / her. The staff member now becomes a keen observer of the truths and lies surrounding the issue being tackled, instead of relying on mere hearsays. The continuous pursuit of the truth behind the puzzling issues enables the staff member to consistently practice and enhance a healthy and holistic mindset which makes it difficult for detractors to give influence. Because of this holistic approach, the staff member is able to effectively select the right choice and continue to maximize this potential for future use, leaving their employers impressed and wanting them to stay in their company (2002). ·         Mental Stability Mental stability is crucial especially in the pursuit of the correct decision as well as the management and development of the processes accompanying it. It is important for staff members to remain updated with the latest developments to be able to stay aware and knowledgeable in all issues. ·          Performance and Credibility The production of their best human resource outputs comes as a result of well-funded research management and development activities. The strong performance of staff members and their outputs could also be linked to the effective strategic planning and human resource mobilization. Thus, the staff member’s retention status increases as his / her performance becomes better. METHODOLOGY Methods of Research to be Used               For this study, the descriptive method will be utilized. In this method, it is possible that the study would be cheap and quick. It could also suggest unanticipated hypotheses. Nonetheless, it would be very hard to rule out alternative explanations and especially infer causations. Thus, this study will use the descriptive approach. This descriptive type of research utilizes observations in the study.  To illustrate the descriptive type of research,  (1994) guided the researcher. The purpose of employing this method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the cause/s of particular phenomena. The researcher opted to use this kind of research considering the desire of the researcher to obtain first hand data from the respondents so as to formulate rational and sound conclusions and recommendations for the study. To come up with pertinent findings and provide credible recommendations, this study will utilize two sources of research: primary and secondary.  Primary research data will be obtained through this new research study. Questionnaire survey and in-depth interview will be conducted. On the other hand, the secondary research data will be obtained from previous studies on the same topic.  The Research Design             In order to come up with the most suitable research approaches and strategies for this study, the research process “onion” will be undertaken. This is because conducting a research is like peeling the back layers of an onion—in order to come to the central issue of how to collect the necessary data needed to answer the research questions and objectives, important layers should be first peeled away. With the said process, the researcher was able to create an outline on what measures are most appropriate to be applied in the study. 2003) said that while it is not unusual for a researcher to first think of his research undertaking by considering whether one should, for instance, administer a questionnaire or conduct interviews, thoughts on this question should belong to the centre of the research ‘onion’. That is, in order to come to the central issue of how to collect the data needed to answer one’s research questions, there are important layers of the onion that need to be peeled away: the first layer raises the question of the research philosophy to adopt, the second considers the subject of research approach that flows from the research philosophy, the third examines the research strategy most applicable, the fourth layer refers to the time horizon a researcher applies to his research, and the fifth layer is the data collection methods to be used.             Figure 1 shows how the researcher conceptualized the research approach to be applied in this study by (2003), in order to come up with the pertinent data needed to answer the research questions stated in the first chapter, as well as to arrive to the fulfillment of this research undertaking’s objectives.   Then again, the research philosophy that is reflected in this study is positivism. With this research philosophy, a researcher prefers to work with an observable social reality in order to come up with law-like generalizations similar to those produced by the physical and natural scientists (1998), and in this tradition, the researcher becomes an objective analyst, coolly making detached interpretations about those data that have been collected in an apparently value-free manner (2003). In addition, the emphasis is on a highly structured methodology to facilitate replication (1997) and on quantifiable observations that lend themselves to statistical analysis (2003). In here, the assumption is that the researcher is independent of and neither affects nor is affected by the subject of the research ( 1998;1998).             Meanwhile, the second layer shows that this study has undertaken a deductive approach. Accordingly, this approach has five sequential stages: deducing a hypothesis; expressing the hypothesis in operational terms; testing this operational hypothesis; examining the specific outcome of the inquiry to either confirm the theory or indicate the need for its modification; and finally, modifying the theory in the light of the findings (if necessary) (1993).        Further, the deductive approach has a number of important characteristics. First, this approach is a search to explain causal relationships between variables, which consequently leading to the development of a hypothesis. Second, it involves the collection of a quantitative data (although it can, as well, use qualitative data), and these data are important to test a hypothesis that has been previously developed. The third characteristic of a deductive approach is that it controls to allow the testing of hypothesis. However, one must remember that with this approach, it is important that the researcher is independent of what is being observed—that is, the researcher should be objective and not subjective—so that the principle of scientific strictness will be pursued, as this approach emphasizes scientific principles. (2003)  Also, it is important that concepts are operationalized, which will enable facts to be measured quantitatively. Finally, the deductive approach is generalization (e.g., to be able to generalize about regularities in human social behavior, one must be able to select a sufficient numerical size of samples). (2003) Instruments to be used A self-administered questionnaire, or the type of questionnaire that is usually completed by respondents ( 2003), had been constructed by the researcher to gather the needed data. To further enhance the study on the customer satisfaction, the researcher prepared a survey-questionnaire wherein the respondents graded each statement. Every statement constituted of four levels of responses namely very satisfied, quite satisfied, quite dissatisfied and very dissatisfied. The equivalent weights for the answers were:             Range                                                Interpretation                          3.50 – 4.00                                       Very Satisfied             2.50 – 3.49                                        Quite Satisfied             1.50 – 2.49                                        Quite Dissatisfied                              0.00 – 1.49                                        Very Dissatisfied             The decision was made to use a questionnaire for the data collection for this project due to the sensitivity of the information being obtained.  It is important for the respondents to be open and honest in their responses. The use of the questionnaire provides the researcher with the ability to test the views and attitudes of the patients.             The survey-questionnaires also will use open-ended questions to obtain as much information as possible about how the interviewee feels about the research topic.  Interviews will take between one and two hours. The questions that will be used during the interview will be based on the research questions for this project; they have been reviewed, refined and approved by the project supervisor. The researcher designed a semi-structured interview. Here, the researcher will encourage the interviewee to clarify vague statements and to further elaborate on brief comments. The interviewer did not share his/her own beliefs and opinions.                 Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Employee Retention

Objectives of the Study As a person with knowledge of staff turnover and retention, the author has always brought up to his superiors th...

Current Issues in Management

Current Issues in Management   Introduction             Improvement and change are two of the important concepts of management in an organization. Naturally, these two significant concept allow organization perform effectively and provide the expected outputs. In order to do these, the cooperation and contribution of the employees must be present. However, without the provision of due support from the management, the employees may not be directed towards the achievement of the company’s objectives. It is then essential that the managers employ the appropriate instruments that will encourage the employees to perform at their best. In turn, this will promote the achievement of continuous change and improvement within the organization. This paper then aims to identify the different issues and trends in management. Current Issues in Management         Corporate Social Responsibility      Business culture has turned its focus when the businesses penetrate globally. There had been dispute, argument, confusion and debate towards the subject “social responsibility” in business arena. Many believed that it is a tool to change the business set up to promote a more well working environment. However, there are also cynical about the existence of social responsibility and its role in managing the business. Even so in history, the topic of social responsibility has received so much attention when it first came into popularity in the developed world. It became controversial because of its inconsistencies with the free enterprise system. However, whenever we view today’s scenario, there are indications that social responsibility has become an obligation for any business, and that it is permanent fixture on the corporate business scene ( 1999).             Along with this is the question: Has social responsibility shows significance in managing today’s organization than ever?  The term corporate social responsibility becomes an increasingly important issue especially to U.S. businesses that it has become so prevalent as to have become almost devoid of meaning (2000).             In the recent years, many academic paraphernalia have recognized business to be socially responsible. These books educate us that changing societal expectations demand an increased level of participation by business in the social arena. We read and teach about the good, “interactive,” and “proactive,” companies that influence their external environments in positive ways, and how these companies do better than the bad “inactive” or “passive” companies. This concept is similar to teaching “leadership” which is also currently in vogue on many campuses. There is a growing consensus that business schools must teach more of the traditionally “soft” skills, and less of the more concrete courses associated with business (2002).             According to  (1999), both scholars and corporate stakeholders have expressed uncertainty and hesitant set of attitudes over the question of effectiveness of business entities meeting their social responsibilities. Corporate stakeholders have considerably shown mixed attitudes towards the issue. At times, they expressed respect toward corporations and their top executives while at other, they felt disappointment and criticisms. With the fast growing private sectors in many developed nations led by the United States, several writings praised the skills, decision-making and even values of corporate leaders. And yet as the year drew close to 90s, the public was experiencing largely negative attitudes towards corporations and the handling of their social responsibilities, whether toward their stockholders or their inner and outer communities ( 1999). A good example has been provided by Boiral (2003) in the case of Starbucks outlets in the United States. Starbucks, a specialty coffee built up its image and competitiveness around “corporate social responsibility activities.” However, it has recently come under attack by NGOs for failing to open up its social responsibility programmes to independent verification.             Over the years, in an effort to explain the complexity of social responsibility, businesses and academic researchers alike have displayed increased levels of enthusiasm for corporate social responsibility (CSR).  Essentially, they contend that CSR may be the excellent instrument to enhance the legitimacy of the firm among stakeholders and develop positive social responsibility images.             Other studies attested to the relevance of social responsibility in managing business.  In a study conducted by  and (2002) on sustainable development, 95% percent of the respondents recognized that sustainable development was important to their business. When the respondents were asked about the changes their company has to undertake in order to attain sustainable development, they aligned that corporate social responsibility is the big factor that is the most important in their organizations. The researchers conclude that there is a significant opportunity to connect business needs of sustainability to corporate social responsibility.             To explore more about the issue social responsibility,  (2002) compared insights of businesses in U.S. and Europe towards the issue of responsibility. Based on their findings, it clearly show that companies based in different countries hold substantially different perspectives on how important it is to publicly perceived as socially responsible and which issues of social responsibility are more important to emphasize.             In this respect, it is illustrated that businesses from different countries do not show the same level of dedication to being perceived as socially responsible. Moreover, it is also attested that firms across countries have variety of principles, processes and stakeholder issues to express that they are responsibly committed.              People expect firms not only to perform the traditional function of providing goods and services to all citizens who are willing to pay for them, but also to help society solve its problems. If these things are generally seen as desirable, and the firm does them, then it is socially responsible. If the firm does not, then some people may feel it is irresponsible. What is a proper foundation for social responsibility? According to texts, the proper foundation of social responsibility generally lies to the fact that social responsibility involves questions of ethics, legality, economic costs, and management judgement. In general, a company that is ethical will be socially responsible. But, the core of the problem for teachers of social responsibility lies with the question, “can there be ethical behavior without a pure motive?” Can social responsibility be divorced from ethics? Can social responsibility be employed as a cynical device, a mere marketing tool? Obviously, the answer is that it can. Some authors of business texts admit that there can be no ethical conduct without intent to do right ().      Staff Retention and Knowledge Management    Knowledge has always been an intangible concept.  We know that it is the pillar of strength of every individual as well as the core of every political society.  It is a complex concept that all activities and every human development are attributed to it.  Even the vastness of scientific fields is rooted to the concept of basic human knowledge. In the past centuries, people have recognized the indispensability of knowledge.  We even accepted the principle that knowledge itself is power.  It is the fuel, which runs the engine of human interaction and organization ( 2001).  However, intangible as it is, it was considered as a mere idea that exists like the air that we breathe.  Humans deemed it to be always there when the need arises, thus, notwithstanding its importance; it was never a subject of a closer scrutiny as compared to the attention given to the sciences that emanated from it. During the turn of the millennium and the emergence of the global economy, organizations, especially the financial institutions, have formulated a systematic manner of handling this knowledge power. Knowledge remains to be the primary asset of companies- a leading indicator is the extent to which they invest on human capital development ( 2002). Contemporary corporate management specifically, the financial sector had been increasingly aware of the future benefits of organizing ideas to have a aggressive advantage over others. All its elements, such as the ideas, advanced technology, modern machinery as well as the human minds, have been pooled altogether to form a scientific scheme now commonly known as KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT is the collection of processes that govern the conception, distribution, and consumption of knowledge. In one form or another, knowledge management has been around for a very long time. Practitioners have included philosophers, priests, teachers, politicians, scribes, librarians, etc. In business terms, knowledge management is a discipline best described as a continuing process that focuses on the creation of business performance enhancements–focused on people and not technology ( 2001). While technology enhances the feasibility of transferring knowledge between people, knowledge management includes creating and sharing knowledge as an organizational asset to drive the business. (1999), on the other hand did not center his definition on any aspect.  (1999) defined knowledge management as comprising of any process or practice of creating, acquiring, capturing, sharing and using knowledge, wherever it resides, to enhance the learning and performing in organizations. Moreover, the value proposition of knowledge management states that there are fundamental business reasons and expected benefits for pursuing this process approach. There are gains the organization can achieve by using knowledge management to measure results, such as creating an Intranet and knowledge repositories (2001). In the past, knowledge management among organizations/companies is being practiced through organizational libraries, formal training and education programs, mentoring and apprenticeship systems ( 19940 These are evidences proving the fact that organizations have been doing different means to manage knowledge and provide for its transfer among the workforce. Since then several developments concerning the approach to knowledge management has been developed. These approaches are a product of a considerable number and time of researches done.   Over the years, the extensive research on knowledge management identified a lot of different approaches to the practice of knowledge management. In fact these researches were able to determine which particular approach is compatible for a specific organization ( 1994). This proves the fact that the actual way that knowledge management is implemented in an organization varies widely according to the types of organization, its industry and culture.  Some o the most common approaches to knowledge management includes; approach through innovation, quality control, knowledge technology, human resource management, intellectual capital, strategic approach, network approach, learning organization approach,  and Information and Communication Technology approach.             Knowledge management can be approached from the perspective of innovation. This perspective has an emphasis on research and development and marketing (2001). More specifically the approach manages knowledge related to the acquirement of new products and services. The approach through innovation is particularly applicable to the recently popular software industry. For this industry, it is very important that new innovations are acquired as well as preserved in the organization since there is a very strict competition among companies in this industry. Furthermore, the modern consumers are increasingly demanding for innovative products and services necessary for the modern world.             An approach through quality control is basically aimed at the improvement of the quality of the products of a particular organization by means of quality safeguarding systems (1994). This approach is applicable to organizations involved in the manufacturing industry. The learning organization approach as well as the organizational approach is more general compared to the approach from the perspective of quality control. These two focuses on the whole organization, in other words knowledge management is aimed at organizational development.             Knowledge management approached from the point of view of knowledge technology has an emphasis on the transfer of knowledge. Transfer of knowledge in this scenario is made explicit in knowledge systems (2001). This approach is similar to the network approach. Like the former approach, the network approach is centered on knowledge sharing or the transfer of knowledge within the organization. In the network approach, knowledge is shared through an intensified collaboration agreements and alliances. A more advanced and comprehensive approach in terms of knowledge transfer is the information and communication technology approach. The ICT approach emphasizes on the contribution of information and communication technology to the co-ordination, communication and sharing of knowledge. This approach is also in a larger scale compared to the other two. That is, the ICT approach maximizes the use of the Internet and all the available resources of the advanced technology in knowledge management. This is particularly applicable to organizations operating internationally.             The approach to knowledge management from the perspective of the human resource management can be considered as the universal approach. That is, this can be applied to any industry, organization and company. Knowledge management through the human resources managers deals with self-governing teams, co-operation, motivation and stimulation of (natural) leadership to learn people in organizations to adjust and to change. In this approach, the human resource managers who are the most experienced when it comes to managing people are the major players. Since the people involved in the organization determine knowledge, it is a good practice that knowledge management is practiced together with human resources management (1994).             Organizations may choose to adopt any one of these approaches or combine several approaches that are applicable for their company. Organizations and companies of today are being confronted with a lot of different choices concerning knowledge management. Of all these approaches, however, three general approaches stand out (2002): <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Sharing existing knowledge: this was the thrust of many early knowledge initiatives.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Creating and converting new knowledge: this is the innovation thrust.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> A growing external focus on the approach: this has led to an upsurge in the interest in customer relationship management systems and interest in knowledge markets.</li>         Team Building      Teams are valued in large part for their outcomes whether the team won the basketball tournament, whether the army won the battle and so forth. However, such outcome often contains variance attributable to factors other than teamwork. Team process measures may give people a true picture of team functioning than do outcome measures. Over the past decades, much research has been devoted to the investigation of team leadership and performance (2000) as the communication involves the active exchange of information between more members of the teams providing information to others in the appropriate manner. Team leadership is includes the direction and structure provided by formal leaders as well as by other members (1998)). Team leadership implies that planning and organizing activities have enabled team members to respond as a function of the behaviors of others. Monitoring team performance is a crucial component (1999) which refers to the observation and awareness of activities and performance of other team members and that team members are competent in their individual tasks and have a substantive understanding of the tasks of other members. Therefore, before a group of individuals can function effectively as a team, the members must have the technical knowledge and skills to perform their own tasks ( 1997). In the workforce managers wants his team members to have positive attitudes toward the team and its task and support for accomplishing team goals and knows their own tasks and those of other members with whom they interact with as it allows the team members to coordinate their activities by monitoring the performance of other members, communicating with them and providing assistance when needed and then the team leaders and its members focus their attention and concern on improving teamwork rather than on individual success and performance. Members of highly interdependent teams experience to receive more training in order to assure development of shared cognitive models (2003) Basically, teams have been most effective when the leaders are directive and the team members are open and not afraid to speak up (1999) as these traits may influence the leader’s and members’ abilities of how to interact with team members, thereby affecting positively on team leadership and performance. If a team member believes for the lacking of certain team performance it will alter the individual’s cognitive model negatively affecting its performance. A condition of leadership teams is that the individual leaders form a coordinated and cohesive authority and decision-making structure presenting a unified front to the subordinate group. In particular, confusion over role definition and scope of responsibility between leaders can lead to an overlap of functions, lack of mutual trust and tension between the leaders (1982). In addition, because of absences during work, leaders must be able to step smoothly into higher level roles as well as trust and respect that leaders’ exhibit that could be crucial for such continuity of better leadership and performance in teams.  Many business organizations are concerned about team leadership and performance of their employees that deepens the skills and competencies of their leaders. Most organizations recognize that effective team leadership is one of the most powerful competitive advantages an organization can have which leads one to believe that few organizations are evaluating the effectiveness of their team development programs that will result in improved team skills (1999). Companies as of today are facing a multitude of outcome-based demands regarding their team performance from a variety of driving forces including increased competition and national standards.     There are challenges that confront managers to varying degrees in each of the team structures. These challenges include: (1971).   Ø  Power struggles as boundaries of authority and responsibility overlap Ø  Conflict with respect to the use of shared resources Ø  The integration required to coordinate work across projects Ø  The challenge of securing team member motivation and commitment to such outcomes   Many of the increased demands of managing a full complement of dedicated team members’ attention to team selection become more important. Working in a team with dedicated teammates increases the opportunity for role conflicts as well as interpersonal conflicts. Furthermore, team priorities may become unclear as the team members impose priorities based on personal interests as influenced by the priorities of certain functional discipline. Selecting collaborative team members appears to be particularly important for the teams because the team members and the manager will work together almost constantly for the duration of the business project.       Analysis and Conclusion Even though the issues in management are tackled in its complexity, it is no doubt that corporate social responsibility, staff retention and Knowledge management and team building play a great role in developing today’s business world. They may either contribute to efficiency, effectiveness, success or failure. What is important is that we are becoming more aware each day. No doubt that in this era, social responsibility should become every business’ obligation.                                 Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

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