Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Business Administration

Advisor

George Bradley

Abstract

The U.S. manufacturing industry produces products that ship all over the world. Because of the shortage of skilled labor, some manufacturing human resource professionals lack the strategies and processes necessary to acquire and retain skilled employees. Guided by Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore the strategies and processes that manufacturing human resource professionals use to acquire and retain skilled employees. Data were gathered from a population of manufacturing human resource professionals in Giles County, Tennessee from individual interviews; focus group; and participants' internal documents, public documents, and websites. Transcribed interview data and focus group data, along triangulated data from other gathered documents, were inductively coded following Yin's approach to analysis. Six themes emerged as key strategies to acquire and retain skilled employees: company culture, succession, benefits, finding new employees, incentives, and employee attraction and retention. These findings may contribute to improving business practices in manufacturing industries or human resource management. The implications for positive social change include the potential for the community to become more attractive for other industries and improve the quality of life for individuals who reside in the community.

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