Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

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

School

Management

Advisor

Annie H. Brown

Abstract

Employee turnover remains a ubiquitous phenomenon that could negatively impact the operations and profitability of any business entity. For decades, managers, business leaders, and individuals in academia have devoted considerable time and resources to understanding and reducing the phenomenon. This qualitative multiple case study was conducted to explore the successful strategies that restaurant managers used to reduce employee turnover. The population sample consisted of 4 restaurant managers from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago who had successfully used strategies to reduce employee turnover. The conceptual framework used was the transformational leadership model. Data for the study were gathered using semistructured interviews, employee records, and company documents. The data were analyzed using cross-case synthesis. The findings included 4 emergent themes. Two themes were tethered to the transformational leadership model with the focus on the constituents of individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation. One theme was linked to the transactional leadership style under the element of management by exception active approach. The 4th theme was unexpected and tethered to practice; actions involved the use of various labor configurations to reduce employee turnover. The results of the study might be beneficial to managers not only in the restaurant industry but within the wider business ecology. With the implementation of successful strategies to reduce employee turnover, business operations and profitability could be spared degradation from operational disruptions due to frequent recruitment and labor shortages. The improved margins could be reinvested towards improving the communities and the lives of workers through positive changes in wages, therefore, contributing to positive social change.

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