Evidence From the Telecommunications Industry, Essay Example

A grounded theory on salespersons’ reasons for staying in workplaces with high employee retention rates

Abstract

This proposed study seeks to develop a grounded theory on why sales employees decide to stay in workplaces with high retention rates. This study is formulated based on an existing gap in literature on sales-industry specific studies on employee retention. A qualitative paradigm is adopted and the grounded theory approach is selected. A convenience, purposive sample of employees and managers in sales workplaces with high retention rates is sought. Unstructured, one-on-one interviews will be conducted on the sample. Gathered data will be encoded in NVivo and analyzed for emergent themes and patterns. These will be synthesized to generate a grounded theory.

Opening statement

This study seeks to investigate the retention of employees in sales workplaces, with the main purposes of developing a theory on why salespeople want to stay in a workplace and how they come about this decision by analyzing decisions-making processes from the perspectives of employees, employers, and managers in workplaces that have high retention rates.

Background of the study

Summary of the literature

Employee retention is a timeless critical issue in business management research. As such, there is a wide range of studies found about the matter. Studies from Spencer (1986) to Testa (2008) have considered different ways through which employee retention can be improved, such as providing employees with a means to express their complaints about the establishment and engaging with employees about company spirit and culture as soon as they are hired. Coldwell, Billsberry, van Meurs, and Marsh (2008) considered that how well a person fits into the organizational ethics of the company that he or she is with is the strongest indicator of how long that person would be staying in the company, while Maertz and Campion (2004) developed profiles of employees who quit their jobs early in order to determine what demographic factors possibly affected the phenomenon. Hom and Kinicki (2001) conducted a study on how employee dissatisfaction measured through a questionnaire is related to employee turnover rates while Tsao Tsao, Lin, Pitt, and Campbell (2009) investigated if having rewards and loyalty programs had an impact on employee retention.  All of these studies about employee retention in general have yielded mediocre results, with each suggesting that further studies must be conducted in industry-specific settings in order to gain a more accurate understanding of the phenomenon. Industry-specific studies such as that of Batt, Colvin, and Keefe (2002) found that giving employees a voice in shaping human resource practices and other office policies significantly improved retention rates in the telecommunications industry, while Kennedy and Daim (2010) found that a strategy to improve retention in high technology engineering which is focused on providing employees with an engaging and flexible work environment proved effective. Similarly, Mak and Sockel (2001) confirmed that information systems employees are significantly motivated to stay in their jobs by the level of engagement and productive development that they perceive from management. This seems to follow since employees in high tech engineering and information systems are similar in a number of ways. Ellett, Ellis, Westbrook, and Dews (2007) found that personal dedication and sense of mission played an important role in employee retention in child welfare workplaces. This shows that in each industry, thorough research on employee retention should be conducted.  In the sales industry, there was limited research collected about employee retention. Moncrief, Hoverstad, and Lucas (1989) attempted to model the survival of employees in the sales industry and considered that high turnovers for that industry were typical. However, in a case study conducted by Richardson (1999), it was found that for at least one company, fast employee turnovers in the sales department was considerably affecting sales output, such that when polices were instituted to improve retention, sales also improved by US$2.5 million.

Gaps in prior research

Based on the reviewed studies, it is clear that employee retention is a widely researched topic in business. However, a difficulty is that as concluded by a number of studies, employee retention is an industry-specific element. That is, factors that affect retention differ from one industry to another. As such, it is important for there to be strong research in each industry in order for employee retention in that industry to be sufficiently understood. In sales, there was found to be limited research on employee retention. Furthermore, there has been found to be limited qualitative research on employee retention in general. As such, this proposed study seeks to fill that gap by conducting a qualitative study on why salespersons stay in high retention rate workplaces.

Importance of present study

This study should be pursued because it addresses and existing gap in current literature. Furthermore, this study is significant to a number of stakeholders, specifically salespersons, sales management, and business management researchers.

Problem statement

Based on the review of literature, the problem that this study seeks to tackle is the current lack of understanding on why salespeople stay in high retention rate sales workplaces.

Purpose of the study

This study adopts a qualitative research paradigm and seeks to utilize a grounded theory approach in understanding the reasons behind some businesses in the sales industry’s ability to maintain high employee retention rates. The central phenomenon investigated in the study is salespersons’ reasons to stay in high retention rate workplaces, wherein high retention is defined to be a long average length of stay of individuals in a given workplace.

Research questions

The central question in this study is what theory governs how and why salespeople in workplaces with high retention rates decide to continue working at their respective workplaces? This central research questions is broken down into the following sub-questions:

• What are the characteristics of sales employees who work in workplaces with high retention rates?
• What are the opinions of these employees about their respective workplaces?
• What are the qualities of workplaces that seem to inspire the loyalty of sales employees are?

Conceptual framework

A number of concepts are important to this study. First is the concept of retention rate. The retention rate in the context of this study is basically the average length of time that employees in a company spend in it. This concept has been used in studies such as Tsao, et al. (2009) which determined if the existence of incentive programs affected retention rates, and in Spencer (1986) which considered the effect of giving employees grievance avenues on retention rates. The premise in this study is that there are some companies that have higher retention rates than other companies. The next concept that is important in this study is that of decision to resign. The usage of this concept in this study refers to employees’ action of leaving their current employment. Maertz and Campion (2004) used this concept in investigating employee profiles for leaving their positions while Hom and Kinicki (2001) considered how different aspects of dissatisfaction lead employees to make the decision to resign. The premise in this study that is tied with this concept is that the decision to resign is a rational choice. This means that it comes from a series of decision steps that an employee makes. Based on these two main concepts and the premises built from them, the theoretical framework of this proposed study can be viewed. Rather than surmising upon possible reasons why salespeople stay in workplaces with high retention rates, this proposed study simply assumes that companies with high retention rates have qualities that make it appealing for salespeople to stay in them and salespeople have reasons related to those qualities for staying. That is, the company in general has something to do with its ability to maintain the loyalty of its people, and this phenomenon is not just a random consequence of circumstances involving salespersons lives.

Nature of the study

Design

The paradigm selected for the study is qualitative. In a qualitative research paradigm, the purpose is to gain an in-depth understanding of why and how people make decisions about certain matters. This requires intensive investigation into people’s thoughts and is viewed largely from the subjective perspective of the participants rather than from the objective, statistical perspective that is taken in quantitative paradigms. What is preventing this study from being carried out using a quantitative methodology is the fact that there are vast possibilities on the reasons that salespeople may have for wanting to stay in a particular workplace. Thus, a qualitative approach is required to develop some theory about workplace retention for this particular set of workers, which may be tested through quantitative means in a succeeding study.

From among the five traditions described in Creswell (2007), the one selected for this study is the grounded theory approach. In this approach, the main purpose is to develop a theory (Creswell, 2007). That is, an explanation for how something comes to be or comes about. Among the different approaches, the grounded theory approach seems to be the most formal, and seems to be the approach that most closely resembles quantitative approaches in research. These are some of the reasons why this particular approach was used for the study. However most importantly, the grounded theory approach is most applicable based on what the research problem is that is sought to be addressed. This research problem is the observed high employee turnover rates in sales workplaces. The purpose of the research is to develop a theory on what makes salespeople want to stay in a workplace, which is to be carried out by analysis of multiple perspectives, employees, employers, and managers in workplaces that have high retention rates.  The multi-faceted nature of this purpose makes grounded theory most applicable. However, other traditions were also considered. In particular, the case study approach had been considered as another applicable approach to a multi-faceted study. The case study approach could also useful in answering the research questions from different sources of data, such as employees, employers, and managers. However, the grounded theory approach offers a more systematic and organized manner of approaching the research problem and its questions than the case study approach. Furthermore, the grounded theory approach was a better approach to use if the there was an intention to transfer the results of the study to other settings, something that is a weakness for the case study approach because of the constraints placed by the context in which a case study is performed.

Methodology

Participants

Creswell (2007) explained that what was traditionally studied in grounded theory were different individuals who have chosen to respond to a specific action, or have participated in some part of the process of the main topic that is being investigated. Correspondingly for this study, it is necessary to draw a sample that is involved in different aspects of the topic. As such, the sample that is sought to be selected should be composed of different people who are involved in sales workplaces wherein workers are known to remain loyal. This sample can include sales persons, their managers, even customers who interact with people in sales. Each of these groups of people may provide useful information for the study.

Site

Since the study is seeking to employ the grounded theory approach, several sites may be used for data collection. Basically, all sales workplaces with high retention rates is what composes the entire frame that this study seeks to investigated. However, limited time and resources constrain this study to limit itself only to a convenient section of that frame. As such, this has been identified as sales workplaces within the city where the study is being conducted which has high average retention rates and which has employees who have stayed in the workplace for at least 7 years who are willing to participate in the study. A company that has a high average retention rate, based on the results of other studies that were reviewed was at least 7 years (Kennedy & Daim, 2010; Mak & Sockel, 2001; Tsao et al., 2009).

Researcher’s role in data collection procedures

The role of the researcher in the data collection procedures is that of a flexible human instrument. While the researcher would be making use of an interview to conducted data gathering, the interview in itself will not be able to gather data without the direction of the researcher. That is, the pre-made interview questions cannot simply be given to the respondent and their responses recorded. Rather, the researcher upon asking the pre-made questions from the interview must ask subsequent questions depending on the nature of the participants’ answers, with the objective of drawing out as much information from the respondents as possible on how the respondent came about decisions to stay in the company that he or she is currently working for. As such, the researcher’s judgment as an interviewer is very important in ensuring the success of each interview, specifically the breadth, quality, and credibility of the data gathered from each interviewee.

Sampling

As shown in Creswell (2007), there are so many purposive sampling strategies to choose from. With regard to this, Creswell (2007) tied in some of the sampling strategies with the specific traditions for which they may be most applicable. In grounded theory, Creswell (2007) recommended the theoretical sampling strategy. In grounded theory, it is important to determine the concepts that are relevant to what will be investigated at the start of the study.  This means that the individuals sampled should come from some common background that represents what the study is investigating. Applied the qualitative research project, this means that the respondents selected should come from sales workplaces where in can be said that sales employees have developed a high sense of loyalty. This may purposively be selected by reviewing the human resources records of some companies, and choosing companies wherein employee turnover rates are low. The turnover rate refers to the number of employees who have left the company divided by the average total number of employees in the company over a calendar year (Testa, 2008). As explained by Testa (2008), the turnover rate is one the primary ways that companies test how long they are able to maintain the satisfaction of people in their workplace. By selecting only companies that have low turnover rates, a homogenous frame is developed in which the investigation can be conducted. This is very important in selecting the grounded theory approach, as it is necessary to determine appropriate bounds for the theory that is to be developed. For example, the reasons and considerations that people who work for companies with high turnover rates have for still persisting to stay in the company may be very different from the reasons that people in companies with low turnover rates have for staying. As such, a theory developed through the grounded theory approach for one setting may not be appropriate for the other setting. This is why it is important for homogeneity to be established. However within this homogenous frame, there is a diversity of sources of information to draw from. As previously explained, different groups of people in different positions in such a homogenous setting can contribute different perspectives to the study, which can verify or dispute findings from other groups within the same homogenous setting.

A review conducted of different studies that have made use of the grounded theory approach in the field of business show no consensus with regard to a definite number of participants required with respect to population size (Crook & Kumar, 1998; Farias, Nataraajan, & Kovacs, 2009; de Chernatony & Cottam, 2009). This is because in qualitative research, the sample does not necessarily have to statistically represent the population. As examined by Mason (2010), qualitative studies in general make use of an average of 31 respondents per study, but Mason (2010) pointed out that what is the most important concern with regard to sampling size in qualitative studies is saturation. That is, the point where further sampling no longer yields any previously unknown data. Based on this, an initial sampling size of 31 is selected for this study. The rationale for this sampling size is that it is the average number of participants used for qualitative research, and that it is similar in number to the number of participants used in grounded theory studies reviewed within the business field. However, this is only a preliminary size. The possibility is acknowledged that upon coding the responses of participants from the sample, the resulting responses are so diverse as to require further sampling, in order to be able to find out if there are other pieces of data about the topic that have not yet been gathered. Thus, the sample size may be increased later on in the study, up to a point where samples selected are no longer able to give any new information for the study. At this point, sampling shall be discontinued. The flexibility of the sampling size ensures that the research would not be limited to its initial selection of participants. The researcher may review what these initial participants have to say, and based from this seek out other potential participants within the set constraints who can add more detail and greater credibility to the theory being developed.

Data collection procedures

Interviews are selected as a suitable data collection technique. This is since through an interview the researcher may derive what a participant is thinking about. The reasons behind participants’ decisions to stay in a workplace can thereby be determined based from their own reflections. In order to refrain from generating initial theoretical assumptions at the start of the data gathering procedure, it is best to adopt an unstructured interview protocol. In such a protocol, base questions are formulated prior to the interview. These are very broad questions that respondents can take anywhere. The task of the researcher is to probe into the responses of the respondents and gather more data based on the direction that the respondent takes the interview. Some base questions that may be asked are “How do you feel about your work as a salesman?”, “How do you feel about your current workplace?”, and “What are your thoughts about workplace loyalty?” These are good questions because they are broad enough so that the respondents can be free to share their thoughts more openly, yet have enough bounds to enable the interviewer to keep the discussion within the topic at hand. While the observation method for data collection was also considered, it lacks the necessary personal viewpoint from respondents to be used as the data collection method for this study. The researcher can technically observe participants during their work and can draw out notes which may be able to infer into why they are loyal to their workplace, but these would all be mere assumptions heavily influenced by the researcher’s personal bias and previous theoretical constructs. In order to manage the data collection, all interviews would be audio recorded with the interviewees’ permission. These recordings would then be transcribed verbatim. If the interviewee does not permit a recording, then the researcher would have to take down detailed notes during the interview and spend an hour immediately after the interview organizing the notes.

Data analysis and interpretation plan

Data analysis consists of three steps. First, data gathered from the interview would be coded and categorized. Three repetitions of categorization would be conducted. With each repetition, the objective is to identify more codes that go with one another and consolidate the categories that they previously belonged to. These final categories that emerge after the repetitions are referred to as themes. After the themes have been identified, memos are prepared which would connect patters from the themes that emerged. These patterns would be decided based on how the different themes are related to one another based on the perspective of the researcher. Finally, the patterns would be synthesized to formulate the theory. This theory would be grounded on the data from the multi-level analysis conducted. In managing data for the data collection and analysis processes, NVivo will be used. Firstly, it will be used to store and catalog different data sources. Second, it will be used to assist the researcher in searching for specific data in order to identify common patterns and develop themes.

Limitations

As with all qualitative studies, the potential weakness of the designed of this proposed research is in the generalizability of the answers to the research questions. While the inferences and the overall theory that is expected to be developed in this study should be applicable to the respondents who participated in it and their workplaces, it cannot be immediately applied to the entire frame of investigation. That is, to other sales workplaces with high retention rates that was not included in the data collection of the study.  In order to address this weakness, this study must adhere to the rule for data collection in qualitative research which is to keep on collecting data and gathering more respondents until data gathering reaches a saturation point. Another means of addressing this weakness is recommending that a follow-up quantitative study testing the theory that was developed in this study be conducted.

Since the researcher serves the role of the data collection instrument in this study, some of the threats to the quality of this study are the biases that may be committed by the researcher. First, there may be loaded questions that can influence a respondents’ answer to be biased. For example, “what are the things that you love about your job?” If this was the first question that was asked, then it generates the assumption that the respondent loves his or her job. A more appropriate question would be “Do you love your job?” followed up by the question on what the things are that one loves about one’s job. As such, questions should be examined for possible bias. In addition to this, the interview settings may also generate procedural bias from respondents. For example, if the interview is conducted during employees’ break times, employees may be pressured to think about the quickest answer to a question rather than seriously reflect upon his or her most genuine response. If the interview location was in an open space, then it is possible that the respondent would feel concerned about his or her privacy, and limit responses to safe answers that he or she believes would not get him or her into any trouble. As such, the researcher should prepare an interview setting in which the respondents would feel most comfortable, and would have enough time and space to answer questions to the best of their ability. This can be done by having respondents pick the schedule where they can be interviewed. The researcher can give them the basic guideline that the schedule should be one in which they can comfortably share an hour of their time to focus solely on answering questions. The researcher can designate a private location for the interview venue, or enable researchers to select an option in which the researcher would visit them in their home for the interview if that would be better for them.

Ethical Concerns

The ethical considerations that need to be addressed are consent and anonymity. First, participants should be aware of what they are signing up for and should willingly participate in the study. As such, each prospective respondent will be provided with a document that states the purpose of the study, the role that the respondent would play, and the measures taken to ensure their anonymity and protection. In return, the respondents would be asked to sign the document, signifying their informed consent to participating in the study. Second, it is very important for the study to protect the anonymity of each respondent. Considering the nature of the topic to be investigated, it is possible that during interviews, participants may reveal some information that is self-incriminating. For example, a salesman may reveal that the reason why he stays in the workplace is because he is attracted to a coworker, or to his boss. Such information, if revealed to other people who know the identity of the respondent may lead to backlash on the respondent’s reputation. Clearly, this is something that the study should watch out for. As such, the interview conducted should be one-on-one, rather than a focus group interview. Furthermore, possible respondents should be contacted privately, and sessions should be scheduled such that respondents would not be aware of who the other people are who are participating in the study.

1. Significance of the study
2. Practical contributions of the study

The main contribution of this study is a theory on why sales workplaces are successful in retaining employees. This theory can subsequently be tested empirically in order to ascertain its value. Rather than guessing at possible factors that affect retention and then testing such factors through quantitative models, this study presents a viable theory grounded on real information which can then be assessed quantitatively in succeeding studies. The importance of this research is emphasized by the case study findings of Richardson (1999) which proved that having strong retention rates can potentially lead to higher sales output. As such, this study is significant to sales managers who wish to keep sales output at a maximum. It is also important to salespersons themselves in order for them to gain a deeper understanding of why people in their profession decide to stay in a particular workplace and be able to compare it with their own perspective. Finally, this research would serve as a crucial stepping stone for researchers in the field of businesses to pursue deeper studies in the employee retention of sales personnel.

References

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