Socialization Tactics of New Retail Employees: A Pathway to Organizational Commitment

To address the prevailing issue of high turnover and low employee commitment in the retail industry, this study explores the role of newcomers’ individual differences and proactive socialization tactics in developing employee organizational commitment and reducing employee turnover. Based on data collected from 239 employees in a major U.S. retail store chain, this study found that individual differences, such as goal orientation and proactivity, are significantly related to employees’ choices of different socialization tactics, including inquiry, observation, and networking. The three tactics are associated with organizational commitment and furthermore employees’ actual turnover mainly through role clarity and attitudes toward a retail career. Among the three proactive socialization tactics, observation plays the most important role in the socialization process.     

The effect of leader-member exchange on turnover among retail buyers

Many studies have analyzed employee turnover. The study expands our understanding of turnover by including leader-member exchange in a model of turnover among retail buyers. Controlling turnover is especially important among retail buyers where it can exceed 30%. The results indicate that leader-member exchange influences turnover indirectly through certain facets of job satisfaction (supervisor satisfaction and pay raise satisfaction).     

Quantifying the link between employee engagement,and customer satisfaction and retention in the car rental industry

In the retail service industry, employee engagement may play an important role in customer satisfaction and retention, as employees often interact directly with customers. This paper investigates the empirical link between employee engagement and customer satisfaction and retention by analyzing a unique data set from a large car rental company. Our analysis makes use of retirement-induced employee turnover as an exclusion restriction that is plausibly induced by employee age, thereby allowing for variation in employee engagement that is partially exogenous to common underlying factors that also impact customer satisfaction and retention. We show that there is a positive effect of employee engagement on customer satisfaction and retention. Further analysis of moderating effects highlight potential limits to employee engagement, as service disruptions in the form of car downgrades can dampen the positive effects of employee engagement. However, despite the dampened impact of employee engagement its overall effect remains positive indicating that employee engagement can be a key factor in building resilience to unforeseen service disruptions.

     

Making working in retailing interesting: A study of human resource management practices in Danish grocery retail chains

This paper discusses how five retail chains in the Danish grocery industry attempt to make low-wage, low-status store-level retail jobs as checkout operators and sales assistants interesting. It does so from the perspective of both retailers and employees. Following analysis of the social and institutional context of Danish grocery retailers, we identify three types of retail employees (transitional workers, core employees and career seekers), who have different motivations and aspirations for working in grocery retailing. The central challenge for retailers is to make store-level retail jobs interesting to the different employee types. Although retailers mainly focus their attention on career seekers, we find that working in retailing is interesting for all employee types because the retailers are currently able to meet their respective motivations and aspirations. Nevertheless, we identify several areas in which retailers can improve their practices.     

事业满意感在我国销售员工离职倾向决定中的调节效应研究

用层级回归方法分析了员工离职倾向的主要结构化变量和环境变量 ,检验了事业满意感在员工离职倾向决定过程中的调节效应。主要结论包括 :第一 ,报酬满意感、晋升机会、工作自主性和上级支持与其它工作机会对员工的离职倾向具有显著的解释能力 ;第二 ,事业满意感与工作自主性之间的交互作用以及事业满意感与上级支持之间的交互作用对员工离职倾向有显著的解释作用。为员工离职倾向决定的权变主义观点提供了证据。讨论了研究结果的管理学含义。     

Effect of newcomer socialisation on organisational commitment,job satisfaction,and turnover intention in the hotel industry

The academic literature features organisational socialisation as playing a crucial role in the early stages of newcomer employment. During this assimilation stage, newcomers adapt to a new workplace more effectively if socialisation is encouraged. It has been found that socialisation minimises the negative effects of unmet expectations on overall organisational effectiveness, including employee turnover – an issue that has become a considerable problem for many hotels. Extending this logic, this study aims to understand socialisation by specifically assessing whether turnover is determined by employees' beliefs about job satisfaction and individual commitment to an organisation and the hotel profession in general. The study of 428 respondents from 61 international tourist hotels in Taiwan implies that social interaction enables organisations to gain, from an increase in commitment to the organisation, job satisfaction and a decrease in newcomers' intent to leave the hotel profession. Two major contributions to the existing literature result (a) commitment to the organisation plays a dominant role in employee turnover intent and (b) job satisfaction is a powerful method of reinforcing individual commitment to the organisation.     

The Role of Service Operations Management in New Retail Venture Survival

While the factors related to the survival of established retail firms are well researched, current understanding of drivers of new retail venture survival is limited. We assess the influence of retail operations characteristics on the survival of new retail ventures. Based on data from 15,901 Portuguese retail ventures that were founded between 2006 and 2010 and followed until 2014, the new retail ventures with faster inventory turnover or higher staff expenses per employee had a higher likelihood of survival while higher investment in intangible assets had a negative but negligible effect on survival. The implications of these findings for entrepreneurs of new retailing ventures are discussed.     

Travel agency employees' career commitment and turnover intention during the recent global economic crisis

One hundred and eighty-four travel agency employees in South Korea participated in this study to examine (1) the effect of career commitment (CC) on employee turnover and (2) the moderating effect of job insecurity on the relationship between CC and turnover intention. This study was conducted during the recent global economic crisis and found that the participants of this study had a tendency to stay in their organization even though they felt insecure at work while having high CC. Managerial implications on career development and commitment of travel agency employees were discussed on the basis of the results of this study.     

Exploiting consumer–employee–retailer interactions in technology-enriched retail environments through a relational lens

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationships between consumer, frontline employees and retailer (organization) subjected to the disruptive force prompted by the adoption of innovative technologies in retail settings. Starting from qualitative data involving 43 frontline employees with different experiences, our analysis revealed that the way for building and maintaining organizational relationships changes differently considering consumer–employee and employee–retailer perspective. In particular, the emergent computer-mediated relationships seem to produce beneficial effects, while combining employees׳ existing capabilities with new competencies, thus resulting in an improvement of the entire retail process. Similarly, they are more satisfied and appreciated organization effort in supporting their jobs through the innovative technologies. Hence, the study provides an empirical contribution to the emerging literature on consumer–employee–retailer (organization) relationships in the innovative scenario through the in-depth investigation of these relationships of four case firms.     

Returning the favor: positive employee responses to supervisor and peer support for training transfer

Drawing on social exchange theory and associated notions of reciprocity, we argue that interpersonal support for training transfer in the workplace is associated with increased employee task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and reduced turnover intention. We test our hypotheses using survey data from 786 Chinese retail employees. The findings show that when employees perceive high levels of supervisor/peer support for training transfer, they are more likely to deliver higher levels of task performance and OCB in response, which in turn, lead to reduced turnover intention. We also found that the strength of the relationship between supervisor/peer support for training transfer on individuals’ OCB varied across regions within China. The results confirm the moderating role of regional context (coastal and inland regions) on the relationship between supervisor/peer support for training transfer on individuals’ OCB, with a stronger effect found in less economically developed inland regions. The moderating effect of region indicates that cross‐cultural researchers need to be aware of possible within‐country variations in employee attitudes and values.     

Building the bottom line by developing the frontline: Career development for service employees

Service firms must remember that the way they treat their employees is exactly how those employees will, in turn, treat customers. As such, taking good care of frontline personnel should be a top management concern. One way that service employees can be shown they are valued members of the organization entails the implementation of thoughtful and organized career development programs, initiatives which help increase employees’ job satisfaction and feelings of empowerment in their customer-facing roles. Before they can become enthusiastic about meeting the needs of their customers, employees have to feel that their own needs are being met within the organization. In this regard, firm investment in frontline employee career development programs will be money well spent: they are capable of reducing employee turnover and increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability. This article provides a conceptual model of career development which should prove useful to service managers in evaluating their own career development efforts. Also presented herein is a framework for tying together many disparate areas of career development that have heretofore been handled separately in the services literature.     

Theory to practice: HIV/AIDS policies in operation within British retailing

Despite recent scientific advancements, Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV)/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) remains a serious health issue for those involved in employee management. The introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) has meant that increased numbers of HIV/AIDS infected workers are able to remain in employment, fully protected by this legislation. Because of the nature and characteristics of retail employment, it is suggested that retailers have an increased likelihood of encountering employees and/or customers with the disease, compared with most other industries. This paper examines one particular aspect of the challenge facing retailers, notably that of the ‘operationalization’ of their HIV/AIDS policies into practices, especially in terms of company selection rocesses, education and training, employee relations and employee assistance programmes. Data were collected from a number of leading retail companies, ¹ from which, important observations can be made with regard to retailers' attitudes towards employee welfare in general, and in relation to HIV/AIDS in particular. The research results indicate potential discrimination in terms of employee selection involving a significant number of major retailers, and little comprehensive education/training on HIV/AIDS occurring, despite evidence of disruptive behaviour by staff. In addition, the findings provide evidence that even major companies find it difficult to balance issues of employee welfare against the financial concerns of the organization, in terms of assisting affected employees.     

Does an (in)congruent corporate social responsibility strategy affect employees' turnover intention? A configurational analysis in an emerging country

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives toward internal and external stakeholders can independently contribute to employee attitudes and behaviors. However, little is known about the joint effects of (in)congruent internal-external CSR strategies on employee outcomes. Drawing from social exchange theory, we argue that when employees perceive that their organizations excessively favor CSR efforts to external rather than internal stakeholders, it can trigger a psychological contract breach, resulting in increased employees' turnover intention. We utilized a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method and the data of 511 employee from various industries in the Philippines to investigate the interaction effects. The results revealed that a congruent CSR strategy with high internal and external CSR perceptions is critical in fulfilling employees' psychological contracts and retaining employees. However, for employees with low perceived internal CSR, a high incongruent CSR perception led to a psychological contract breach and ultimately to high turnover intention. Psychological contract breach weakened the negative joint effect of high perceived internal and external CSR on turnover intention and strengthened the positive effect of high perceived incongruent CSR on turnover intention. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Retail employee guardianship behaviour: A phenomenological investigation

Supermarkets suffer significant losses as a consequence of shoplifting. Amongst the existing electronic and manual surveillance measures for retail crime management, the role of employees in preventing or controlling retail crime has not been systematically addressed within the extant literature. This paper contributes to addressing this gap by examining how employers’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) involvement influences employee proclivity towards guardianship behaviour in shoplifting prevention. A phenomenological approach is adopted comprising semi-structured interviews of twenty-nine shop-floor employees of two national supermarket chains within a cosmopolitan city of New Zealand. Findings strongly support the suggestion that employee perceptions of employer internal and external CSR may shape their feelings of organisational attachment, resulting in employee guardianship behaviour that manifests in in-store shoplifting prevention. Further, from a societal perspective, this study suggests that a reduction in retail crime contributes towards positive relationships among key stakeholders such as supermarkets, their employees, and society at large based on the social, environmental, and employee welfare practices of supermarkets.     

人力资源管理实践与小企业绩效关系的实证研究

以江苏省部分小企业为例,采用结构方程建模方法,对人力资源管理实践与小企业绩效之间的关系进行实证分析,研究结果表明:人力资源管理实践水平越高,小企业的劳动生产率越高,员工自愿离职率越低;人力资源管理实践对小企业的盈利能力有积极的正面作用,这种作用以生产率和员工自愿离职率为中介变量。     

“80后”员工组织支持感对离职倾向的影响研究

采用问卷调查法以及验证性因素分析、偏相关分析和分层多元回归分析等统计方法,探讨"80后"员工的组织支持感对其离职倾向的影响作用进行分析,并在影响作用方面与工作满意度方面进行了比较。结果表明,"80后"员工的组织支持感呈多维结构,可分为工具性支持感、情感性支持感、利益性支持感、价值性支持感和发展性支持感五个维度。"80后"员工的组织支持感总体对其离职倾向有显著的负向影响作用,并且单独地、利益性和发展性支持感对离职倾向具有显著的负向影响作用。"80后"员工的组织支持感比工作满意度对其离职倾向有更强的影响作用。     

关于企业员工流动问题的探讨

随着用人制度的逐渐放开 ,在我国企业中产生了员工高流动率现象。员工高流动率给企业带来了各方面的成本。因此 ,分析导致员工高流动率的原因 ,采取相应的措施降低员工流动率 ,留住优秀员工 ,降低企业成本 ,大有必要     

The Impact of Moral Stress Compared to Other Stressors on Employee Fatigue, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover: An Empirical Investigation

Moral stress is an increasingly significant concept in business ethics and the workplace environment. This study compares the impact of moral stress with other job stressors on three important employee variables??fatigue, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions??by utilizing survey data from 305 customer-contact employees of a financial institution??s call center. Statistical analysis on the interaction of moral stress and the three employee variables was performed while controlling for other types of job stress as well as demographic variables. The results reveal that even after including the control variables in the statistical models, moral stress remains a statistically significant predictor of increased employee fatigue, decreased job satisfaction, and increased turnover intentions. Implications for future research and for organizations are discussed.     

Reducing turnover intention: Perceived organizational support for frontline employees

Frontline employees are generally under great pressure, and carry out repetitive and mundane daily tasks, leading to burnout and a high turnover intention among them. To identify ways to reduce this turnover intention, this study examines the effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on burnout and turnover intention in the Chinese context and adds to the literature on frontline employee burnout. Using data from a survey of the frontline employees of a gas station in Beijing, we examine the mediating effects of frontline employee burnout on their POS and turnover intention. This study shows that POS has a significant negative impact on burnout and turnover intention, and that job resources cannot substitute POS.