Article Reviews

Research Topic Employee Retention

Article #1 Organizational culture and employee retention - John e. Sheridan
The article shows study of retention rates of 904 college graduates hired in six public
accounting firms over a six-year period. Organizational culture values varied significantly
among the firms. The relationship between the employees' job performance and their
retention also varied significantly with organizational culture values. Although the findings
indicate that perceived cultural values varied among firms, they offer no insight into how or
why these cultural differences evolved within the public accounting industry in this particular
city. Qualitative assessment of these prior developmental processes may be essential for fully
understanding how organizational culture values influence employee retention in specific
organizations.
Article # 2 A Review of Employee Motivation Theories and their Implications for
Employee Retention within Organizations - Sunil Ramlall
This article provides a synthesis of employee motivation theories and offers an explanation of
how employee motivation affects employee retention and other behaviours within
organizations. In addition to explaining why it is important to retain critical employees, the
author analyses relevant motivation theories and explained the implications of employee
motivation theories on developing and implementing employee retention practices. Given the
emphasis within organizations on retaining its critical employees, the author has summarized
some of the most widely used employee retention practices and the causes for employee
turnover.
Article # 3 - Mission Attachment and Satisfaction as Factors in Employee Retention William A. Brown, Carlton F. Yoshioka
Non-profit organizations rely on the mission to attract resources and guide decision making.
Increasingly, mission statements are recognized as a strong management tool that can
motivate employees and keep them focused on the organizations purpose. This article studies
employee attitudes toward the mission in a youth and recreation service organization. In
general, the employees expressed positive attitudes toward the organizations mission, and
those attitudes were related to employee satisfaction and intentions to remain with the
organization. However, dissatisfaction with pay tended to override employees mission

attachment as explanation of why they may leave the organization. The implication is that
mission might be salient in attracting employees but less effective in retaining them.
Article # 4 - Targeted Employee Retention: Performance-Based and Job-Related
Differences in Reported Reasons for Staying - John Hausknecht, Julianne M. Rodda,
Michael J. Howard
A content model of 12 retention factors is developed in the context of previous theory and
research. Coding of open-ended responses from 24,829 employees in the leisure and
hospitality industry lends support to the identified framework and reveals that job
satisfaction, extrinsic rewards, constituent attachments, organizational commitment, and
organizational prestige were the most frequently mentioned reasons for staying. Advancement
opportunities and organizational prestige were more common reasons for staying among high
performers and non-hourly workers, and extrinsic rewards was more common among low
performers and hourly employees, providing support for ease/desirability of movement and
psychological contract rationales. The findings highlight the importance of differentiating
human resource management practices when the goal is to retain those employees valued
most by the organization.
Article # 5 - Is Mission Attachment an Effective Management Tool for Employee
Retention: An Empirical Analysis of a Non-profit Human Services Agency - Seok-Eun
Kim, Jung-Wook Lee
Non-profit organizations have been known as mission-driven entities, in which people are
attracted by their passion for the mission and remain there to accomplish it. This article
studies this traditional assumption of mission orientation among non-profit employees by
replicating Brown and Yoshiokas (2003) research on the role of mission attachment as a
factor in non-profit employee retention (Article #3). The results of hierarchical regression
analysis are generally consistent with Brown and Yoshioka: human services employees
showed a positive attitude toward the agencys mission, but dissatisfaction with working
conditionspay and career advancement. However, employees qualitative responses and
strong correlations between non-profit working conditions and mission attachment suggest
that mission can still play a significant role in retaining non-profit employees by reducing
dissatisfaction with pay and career advancement.

Article # 6 - An examination of employee retention strategy in a private organisation in

Zimbabwe - Malvern W. Chiboiwa, Michael O. Samuel* and Crispen Chipunza
The way people are paid, recognised and achieve salary advancement are critical factors in
attracting, retaining, and motivating employees. The challenge for most organisations today
is the formulation of an effective employee retention strategy that will help in retaining
employees that are considered critical in attaining organisational goals. This article shows a
case study of a major private sector medical laboratory company in Zimbabwe and was aimed
at achieving the following objectives: identify the causes of employee turnover in the
organisation, examine the current retention practices in the organisation, establish the
effectiveness of the practices, and attempt a workable retention practice that could reduce the
high rate of employee turnover in the organisation. The result of the research showed that
labour turnover is higher amongst non-managerial employees. Similarly, majority of the
employees

would

soon

quit

the organisation and lastly, the high rate of employee

turnover in the organisation is largely attributed to poor reward system administration.

Article # 7 - Stable Predictors of Job Satisfaction, Psychological Strain, and Employee
Retention: An Evaluation of Organizational Change Within the New Zealand Customs
Service - Angela Mansell, Paula Brough, Kevin Cole
In this article the authors evaluate the steps undertaken by one proactive employer to reduce
exposure of workers to unfavourable job characteristics. Three organization-wide surveys
were conducted over a 3-year period within the New Zealand Customs Service to determine
the influence of perceived job conditions on individual and organizational health outcomes.
Staff retention and employee satisfaction significantly improved over time and these
increases were attributable to workplace improvements. Stable predictors of job satisfaction
included minor daily stressors, positive work experiences, job control, and perceived
supervisor support. Research findings reveal better organizational strategies for managing
workplace stress, while maintaining a productive organization.
Article # 8 - The Impact of Increased Employee Retention on Performance in a
Customer Contact Center - Ward Whitt
This article focuses on development of a mathematical model to help analyse the benefit
increase in performance obtained from increasing employee (agent) retention, which is in
turn obtained by increasing agent job satisfaction. The modelling and analysis raise important
empirical issues. The model leads to ask if performance can indeed be regarded as an

increasing function of experience and, if so, what the shape is of the function. It also leads to
ask how much performance benefits are gained by increasing staff experience.
Article # 9 - Occupational pensions and employee retention - Stephen Taylor
This article explores the relationship, in the contemporary UK context, between employee
retention and the provision by employers of occupational pension schemes. Several sources
of literature are drawn on to develop cases for and against the proposition that pensions play a
discernible role in reducing employee turnover. Original research carried out by the author is
then presented which suggests that the retention effect is limited in terms of both its potency
and its extent. A particular finding is the varying importance of pension schemes in terms of
the retention of different staff groups. It was concluded that there are grounds for questioning
the extent and significance of the link between occupational pensions and employee turnover.
Article # 10 - The configuration of employee retention practices in Multinational
corporations foreign subsidiaries - B. Sebastian Reiche
The article is a contribution to turnover research by deriving a typology of retention practices
and investigating their applicability in multinational corporations (MNCs) foreign
subsidiaries in the light of home- and host-country effects. Linking institutional and strategic
HRM perspectives, the article then proposes a conceptual framework examining how MNCs
can maximize their retention capacity. It is further argued that characteristics of the
headquarters-subsidiary relationship will influence the relative importance of contextgeneralizable versus context-specific retention practices and that the relevant set of practices
for each subsidiary then needs to be configured individually.