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Article
Publication date: 11 January 2011

Shawn M. Carraher

This paper seeks to examine the efficacy of predicting turnover for employees and entrepreneurs from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania using attitudes towards benefits, pay…

12237

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to examine the efficacy of predicting turnover for employees and entrepreneurs from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania using attitudes towards benefits, pay satisfaction, pay, gender, and age across a four‐year time frame.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey that included information on attitudes towards benefits and pay satisfaction was used to collect data from 153 Estonian, 157 Latvian, and 146 Lithuanian employees and 243 Latvian, 103 Estonian, and 109 Lithuanian entrepreneurs. The turnover of the employees and business owners was then followed over a four‐year time period with assessments done each year allowing for an examination of temporal variations in the relationships over time. Actual salary/income data was also obtained from organizational records.

Findings

It was found that for the employee samples the classification rates increased slightly as compared to base rates over time (e.g. did better the longer the time period included), while for the employers the classification rates and R2 values were relatively flat as compared to base rates. For the employee samples the R2 values decreased over time. Attitudes towards benefits were generally significant predictors of turnover for employees and entrepreneurs over a four‐year time period while satisfaction with pay was typically significant for employees but not for entrepreneurs. It was also found that for the employees both equity and expectancy considerations were able to explain differences in turnover rates while for entrepreneurs expectancy theory considerations were more powerful than equity theory explanations.

Research limitations/implications

The research is limited both by geography, job types, and the theoretical construct of turnover. Few studies have examined turnover among both employees and business owners, and few studies have explored the similarities and differences between the two.

Practical implications

Pay and benefits are important for employees. Pay seems to be important for attracting employees while benefits are important for retaining them.

Originality/value

This study examines turnover for both employees and entrepreneurs with a four‐year longitudinal design with data from three different countries – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Temporal variations in the relationships are also examined on a year by year basis. As employee retention has been an important factor in the Baltic region over the last two decades it is vital to understand how to retain employees.

Details

Baltic Journal of Management, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 September 2010

Shawn M. Carraher, Jason K. Buchanan and George Puia

The decision one makes to engage in entrepreneurial activity is affected by many different motivators. The paper aims to focus on one specific motivator for entrepreneurial…

4055

Abstract

Purpose

The decision one makes to engage in entrepreneurial activity is affected by many different motivators. The paper aims to focus on one specific motivator for entrepreneurial activity which is the Need for Achievement. The prevailing methods of studying achievement motivation will also be discussed as shall constructs related to Need for Achievement. The paper also examines the dynamics of achievement motivation. The dynamic ability of individual traits is important, if it were not one's traits would be constant and not capable of being changed or developed. Some of the main factors that can influence achievement motivation are also examined in the paper.

Design/methodology/approach

Specifically, data from 249 entrepreneurs from the USA, 220 from China, and 173 from Latvia were used in order to examine the relationships between variables related to Need for Achievement.

Findings

Goal orientation, conscientiousness, cognitive complexity, age, and gender were found to be able to account for 29.4 percent of the variance in Need for Achievement among American entrepreneurs, 45.3 percent among Chinese entrepreneurs, and 33.5 percent among Latvian entrepreneurs. Differences are found between the countries with cognitive complexity being statistically significant in the USA and China, but not in Latvia. Gender was significant in the USA and China but not in Latvia. Age was not significantly related to Need for Achievement in any of the three countries, while goal orientation and conscientiousness were significantly related to Need for Achievement in all three countries. Finally, the implications of this research as well as areas that need to be considered for future research are discussed.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is limited to entrepreneurs of small to medium‐sized enterprises in North America, Asia, and the Baltics. The implications of the research include that Need for Achievement is important for entrepreneurs across these three very diverse cultures and that variables related to Need for Achievement vary between the countries. As Need for Achievement is related to economic development, it is important to understand the factors which might be able to influence the Need for Achievement of entrepreneurs from around the world.

Originality/value

The development of entrepreneurs is important if economies desire to have sustainable growth. Little empirical research has examined these issues with data‐sets from three continents. Even less research has examined these issues among entrepreneurs. The paper addresses these areas.

Details

Baltic Journal of Management, vol. 5 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 January 2008

Vida Scarpello and Shawn M. Carraher

The purpose of this study is to test the extent to which pay satisfaction is equivalent to perceptions of pay fairness in order to call to attention the need for care in designing…

3691

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to test the extent to which pay satisfaction is equivalent to perceptions of pay fairness in order to call to attention the need for care in designing instruments in order to lessen the likelihood of the confounding of concepts within measures as has been in numerous previous studies.

Design/methodology/approach

Questionnaire data were collected as part of a larger project seeking to understand the customer service behaviors of business owners for four groups of self‐employed business owners from Latvia, Germany, the UK, and the USA.

Findings

It is found that while pay satisfaction and pay fairness are not the same construct, with the exception of internal pay comparisons, the self‐employed may not distinguish between pay fairness and pay satisfaction in a meaningful manner.

Research limitations/implications

All four of the samples included in the current study had limited control over their compensation as the economy and industry are the most powerful influences on the income of the self‐employed in small businesses. It might prove useful to examine whether these results hold true for individuals with highly variable compensation.

Practical implications

Organizations should not assume that individuals naturally differentiate between pay fairness and pay satisfaction. It also would appear that there are few differences in the perceptions between the self‐employed based upon country of origin.

Originality/value

While many studies have been performed on pay fairness and pay satisfaction that have assumed that they are distinct constructs, this is the first study to use a multi‐step process in order to systematically and empirically examine the degree to which they are similar. This is done across four countries and with a sample of self‐employed business people – a group rarely examined in human resource research.

Details

Baltic Journal of Management, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2003

Shawn M. Carraher, Darren E. Hart and Charles E. Carraher

The dimensionality of a multi‐dimensional questionnaire – the Attitudes Towards Benefits Scale (ATBS) – was examined using a principal components analysis with an orthogonal…

3580

Abstract

The dimensionality of a multi‐dimensional questionnaire – the Attitudes Towards Benefits Scale (ATBS) – was examined using a principal components analysis with an orthogonal rotation and multiple‐group confirmatory factor analysis for a sample of 851 employees of entrepreneurial organizations in the USA. As previously found by Hart and Carraher, it is found that the questionnaire contains three separate dimensions of attitudes towards benefits.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 32 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2006

Shawn M. Carraher, Geralyn McClure Franklin, John A. Parnell and Sherry E. Sullivan

The purpose of this paper is to examine the utility of a selection instrument in predicting service and technologically oriented performance in technologically oriented businesses…

3398

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the utility of a selection instrument in predicting service and technologically oriented performance in technologically oriented businesses in mainland China and Japan.

Design/methodology/approach

Data was collected from 262 employees in mainland China and 236 employees in Japan pertaining to their service and technology orientations with regard to on‐the‐job performance in a high technology management environment. Employees completed a personality‐oriented employment questionnaire that has been previously examined.

Findings

Each dimension predicted performance in both samples, although the structures were not consistent across the two countries. In China, the seven dimensions consist of extroversion, emotional stability, the desire to make good impressions on others, conscientiousness, life satisfaction, performance orientation, and helpfulness. In Japan, the seven dimensions consisted of extroversion, emotional stability, the desire to make good impressions on others, conscientiousness, closed mindedness, empathy, and helpfulness. Results from multiple regression analyses suggested that substantially less of the variance in service‐oriented and technologically oriented performance could be explained in China than in Japan.

Research limitations/implications

Researchers and practitioners alike should be careful when applying surveys developed and validated in western countries because they may not measure the same constructs in China. Further, although countries in Asia share physical proximity, their cultures are so diverse that the utility of such assessments may vary substantially from one country to another.

Originality/value

There is a dearth of empirical research examining on‐the‐job performance in China. This paper, however, adds to the literature by examining high technology businesses in China and demonstrating how their internal processes may differ both from western organizations and those in other Asian cultures.

Details

Journal of Technology Management in China, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8779

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 6 April 2012

Shawn M. Carraher

155

Abstract

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2006

Shawn M. Carraher, Jane Whitney Gibson and M. Ronald Buckley

This study aims to examine the extent to which the demographic and work‐related variables of educational level, gender, age, salary level, organizational tenure, and union…

7497

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the extent to which the demographic and work‐related variables of educational level, gender, age, salary level, organizational tenure, and union membership are useful predictors of satisfaction with pay level, benefits, raises, and the structure/administration of a compensation system. These variables have previously been utilized in the prediction of satisfaction with pay levels, but have not been tested as useful predictors of the other three dimensions of compensation satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used multiple regression analyses and samples of 423 employees in the USA with a 63 percent response rate and 519 employees in the Baltics with a 73 percent response rate.

Findings

It was found that not all of the variables are equally useful predictors of each of the four dimensions of compensation satisfaction and that differential prediction is occurring among the four dimensions and across the two world regions. Surprisingly, it was found that in seven of the eight analyses the strongest predictor of satisfaction with the four dimensions of compensation satisfaction is job tenure, while actual compensation level, which was expected to be the strongest predictor, was found to be quite weak.

Research limitations/implications

A major weakness is that all of the data were self‐reported. Ideally the demographic and work‐related variables would have been collected directly from the organization in addition to being collected from employees. A second limitation is that the characteristics of the present sample may limit the generalizability of the results. An inordinate number of the subjects were unionized, female, and married. The major implication is that the paper supports the differential prediction for various dimensions of compensation satisfaction and for the need to explore for additional variables that can account for significant proportions of the variance in these dimensions.

Originality/value

The paper is the first of its kind to examine in a single or cross‐cultural setting the relationship between common demographic and work‐related factors and compensation satisfaction while controlling for organizational level. The literature review traverses the research in the area stretching from the 1940s to 2005 and makes specific suggestions for future research that could advance the field.

Details

Baltic Journal of Management, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5265

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 July 2014

Shawn Carraher

92

Abstract

Details

Journal of Technology Management in China, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8779

Content available
Article
Publication date: 2 September 2014

Shawn M. Carraher

583

Abstract

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 20 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Content available
Article
Publication date: 30 September 2014

Shawn Carraher

1168

Abstract

Details

Journal of Technology Management in China, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8779

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