Qian Wang

Teaching Assistant Chang Wang

Management 315
Sunday, March 1, y
Research Paper Requirement Why People Stay at Their Jobs
Employee turnover has to do with the amount of time an employee stays at a
company. Many times people see this number as a percent. Divide the number of
employees that leave in one month by the average employees working during the same
time and then multiplying that by 100 will give you the turnover percentage of a
company. Exploring what makes these numbers rise or fall is important because high
turnover is expensive. When people leave, others need to fill their place and training is
expensive, because during training there is no producing; and many times when they
begin they are not as efficient as someone who has been on the job for years. Therefore
companies want to make turnover as low as possible. Historically there have been
many studies on why people leave companies, but less on why they stay (Kilburn &
Kilburn, 2008; Zhao & Liu, 2010).
According to the article the degree an employee is embedded in a job relates to the
degree they are part of a web of social activity that relates them to the company. There
is a direct relation to amount of embeddedness that was just explained, and turnover in
a company (Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski, & Ezrez, 2001). This article goes into
reasoning of turnover and relationships that exist between them by selecting a random
sample of employees and asking them why they stay. A good foundation of thinking
knowledge is presented to the reader of the article before going into the actual results of
the article such as: Human Relations Theory, recruitment, generational differences and
retention, and leadership styles.

Qian Wang
Teaching Assistant Chang Wang
Management 315
Sunday, March 1, y
A multitude of research tactics was at the disposal of the researcher but it
phenomenological research was the most appropriate to use. Phenomenological
analysis seeks to grasp and elucidate the meaning, structure, and essence of lived
experiences of a phenomenon for a person or group of people (Patton, 2002, p. 482).
Eighteen Human Resources employees were selected from a government
organization that was not named for the sample that had been there for three or more
years (ranging 3 to 29). Of the 18, 13 were female and 5 were male. No certain gender
or college level was selected but it seems more females than males participated in the
sample, which makes me wonder about reliability that I will talk about soon. The study
took four months and each interview took between twenty to forty minutes long.
During the interviews the main question asked was how they perceive and described
their experiences of embeddedness (previously defined) on the job. In other words
asking why they stay at their current company. This was an open-ended question
because respected researcher Creswell (2007) recommends them. Though this was the
main question, other questions were asked to better understand the answers given from
the main question, and to provide a better foundation for the research. These questions
included: What do human resource practitioners do? How long have you worked for
your current organization? What made you stay with the organization up to this point?
What would you like to see changed or improved in the workplace? Is there anything
that would make you leave? Is there anything else you want to say or any questions?
(Paulette Holmes, D.M., Tina Chapman, Ed.D., Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D (2013).
That is how the data was collected, but now it needed to be organized. I learned that

Qian Wang
Teaching Assistant Chang Wang
Management 315
Sunday, March 1, y
even if you have the best research study idea ever if the collection an organization of
the data you get is not well thought out you can end up with a very bad study at the end
of the day. The van Kaam (VK) revised method and the NVivo8

software program

were used to do this. The VK method is a proven seven-step method used to analyze
large amounts of spoken data (in this case the answers from the interviews
themselves). NVivo8 is a computer program that can be used to take notes and better
organize interview data by coding it rather than just recording it and trying to work
through what it all means later on in the process. It was decided using those two tools in
together provided the best way to organize, categorize and interpret research results.
These tools resulted in not just a better study overall but I think it made it easier for
those doing the study.
The ultimate question of why the sample size stays within their organization resulted
in two main reasons: career advancement (72%) and the value of their work to them
(56%). Career advancement means that they think they have opportunities to grow in
their sector and that they are not upset about any type of job ceiling. Value of their work
relates to the fact that these people in the sample size think what they are doing when
they go into work every morning is very important. This value in their minds makes it
easier for them to not want to quit their jobs. Over half of the respondents also stated
improvements to reduce turnover would be better training and a mentorship programs.
Over half (78%) did not have thoughts of leaving the organization, but those who did
stated a more friendly organization for families and one closer to where they live as two
reasons. I wonder why this is not a bigger factor than the others.

Qian Wang
Teaching Assistant Chang Wang
Management 315
Sunday, March 1, y
Transitioning to the discussion phase five different themes were written about. The
1st illustrates that out of the sample size, 83% are recruiters, 50% consulting and 22%
benefits. The 2nd theme relates to tenure looking into the fact that people with more
tenure may not want to leave because they would have to forfeit benefits they have
earned over time. The 3rd theme and I think most important deals with why people stay.
The first two reasons: job advancement and value of work align with fit-organization
(degree of fit) and the next two of job security and location align with sacrificesorganization (what they would give up if they left). The 4 th theme re-emphasizes peoples
thoughts that training and mentorship would reduce turnover more, but that for them
personally the other themes outweigh this one (keeping them from quitting). The 4 th reemphasizes that 3/4ths had no thoughts of leaving.
A few things keep this research from being perfect because the study was only
carried out for a sample size of people in one organization of the government sector,
excluding the public sector. This takes away the ability for us to think of the survey
results applicable for everyone. Secondly because of the exploratory nature of the study
(using people to interview people), there was room for unintentional bias by questioning
one person different than another. Also there being more women than men in the
sample could skew the results. These things challenge the validity and reliability of the
research.
This research relates in many ways to things we have learned in class. For example
validity and reliability were recently covered in our class and even though in class we
used them in the context of evaluating performance management and this article

Qian Wang
Teaching Assistant Chang Wang
Management 315
Sunday, March 1, y
applies them to the research, it was good that I knew the definition of the two words
from class. I even think the research study could have applied some of the reliability
enhancing techniques we learned in class to better the study, such as by implementing
test-retest tactics. The interviewer could have come back in a few months to ask the
same questions to the same people. The research would be more reliable if they
answered similarly. If they did not want to wait as asking differently worded questions
with the same meaning could make the results more reliable.
We also covered various motivation theories in class and this study boiled down to
exploring peoples motivation to stay at their job, which made it perfectly relevant. I
noticed the motivator Opportunities for growth and career development within
Hertzbergs two-factor theory was something that people interviewed in the study said
was a main motivator for not quitting. Additionally, the sample size said the value of their
work was the 2nd reason they do not quit. This correlates to significance, from the Job
Characteristics Theory we learned about in lecture.
This study was interesting to me. I found it cool that much of the results the study
uncovered were supported by theories we learned in class. This is an indicator that we
are learning truthful studies! I look forward to seeing how future studies of different
sectors and sample size types reinforce or prove wrong these trends of the why
people leave, and stay at companies they are in. This will allow Human Resources to
better take care of their employees and will help people looking for jobs to realize what
jobs they might want to stay at for a long time.

Qian Wang
Teaching Assistant Chang Wang
Management 315
Sunday, March 1, y
Sources Cited from Article Used (*Including the article itself)
Kilburn, A. J., & Kilburn, B. R. (2008). Internal relationship quality: The impact of
relationship quality on internal customer perceptions. Academy of Marketing Studies
Journal, 12(1), 1-43. Retrieved from
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1559905531.html
Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research, and
application. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Mitchell, T. R., Holtom, B. C., Lee, T. W.,
Sablynski, C. J., & Erez, M. (2001). Why people stay: Using job embeddedness to
predict voluntary turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 1102-1121. Retrieved
from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3069391
*Paulette Holmes, D.M., Tina Chapman, Ed.D., Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D (2013)
Employee Job Embeddedness: Why People Stay. Paulette Holmes, D.M. et al |
Int.J.Buss.Mgt.Eco.Res., Vol 4(5),2013,802-813. Retrieved from
http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7734c0712931-443a-9fb0-915e1da83dc2%40sessionmgr198&vid=2&hid=120