Date of Award
2014
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
Committee Chair
Phillip A. Farrington
Committee Member
Eric C. Sholes
Committee Member
Sampson E. Gholston
Committee Member
James J. Swain
Committee Member
Donald D. Tippett
Committee Member
Dawn R. Utley
Subject(s)
Job satisfaction, Organizational commitment, Employee motivation, Employees--Rating of, Organizational effectiveness
Abstract
Retention of employees is a significant concern for employers. Vacancy rates and turnover in the workforce is disruptive and costly. As a result employers spend a great deal of money and time on policies and programs to improve retention. Previous research in this area has focused on linking motivation to retention. While there has been much success in this area of research, assessing motivation is difficult and actually motivating employees into staying has been elusive for managers. This study will assess the relationship of role value and role conflict as factors in employee retention. The hypothesis being tested is that Human Resources (HR) policies, such as telework or flexible work hours, that support role value and minimize role conflict will decrease turnover. A survey based on Greenhaus et al.'s 1997 work on retention of public accountants was modified and used to assess these measures on employees at the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), a federal facilities engineering organization. The survey was distributed to two component commands, NAVFAC Washington, headquartered in Washington D.C., and NAVFAC Northwest, headquartered in Washington State resulting in 692 valid responses. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate the relationship of role value and role conflict on turnover intention. Based on the analysis of the data this research confirmed that role conflict is significant in an employee's intent to leave. However, this research shows that flexible work policies do not appear to be significant in an employees' intent to leave the organization. The study confirmed that Role Value did have a relationship with employee participation in flexible work policies. This study can aid organizations in targeted human capital polices based on employee role value and thereby target retention initiatives and reduce resources invested in order to improve retention.
Recommended Citation
La Duca, Michelle C., "The relationship between role conflict and employee retention in a government engineering organization" (2014). Dissertations. 48.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-dissertations/48