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How to attract and retain employees of all ages

Veldhuizen, B.G. van (2012) How to attract and retain employees of all ages.

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Abstract:The percentage elderly on the total Dutch population will increase in the coming decades. This will entail a greater demand for elderly care. The number of young people choosing a career in health care is declining and the workforce in the organization is getting older. In the near future is a threat of staff shortage. It is important for the Zorgzoog to retain its employee and to attract new employees. Therefore it is important to know what attracts and binds employees to the organization and whether there are differences between age groups can be distinguished. This leads to the following question: - How could the organization increase organizational commitment of its employees to prevent them from leaving the organization? Allen and Meyer (1990) make a distinction between three general components: affective attachment to the organization (affective commitment), perceived costs associated with leaving the organization (continuance commitment), and feelings of obligation to the organization (normative commitment). A literature review revealed that there should be sought towards affective commitment with the organization. When employees an emotionally involved with the organization makes them want to stay with the organization and more productive than when they are predominantly continuance or normative committed with the organization. Satisfied and committed employees make the organization more attractive to new employees. For the organization to increase the affective commitment of its employees it is important to know which factors influence affective commitment. Based on research by Allen and Meyer (1990), Fornes, et al (2008) and Mathieu and Zajac (1990) a list of antecedents is composed. This list consists only of antecedents where the organization can exert influence. This to the following question and subquestions: 1) Which factors are of interest to improve organizational commitment for employees preventing them from leaving the Zorgboog? a) Are there differences between the departments of the Zorgboog regarding these factors that are of interest to improve organizational commitment? b) Are there differences between the different age groups within the Zorgboog regarding these factors that are of interest to improve organizational commitment? A survey conducted among employees (who provide direct care to the client) working in care homes, nursing homes, maternity and crosswork. Since the population is too large for the whole to be surveyed, a random selection of 40 percent of the population is made. Maternity is taken as a whole because otherwise this group is too small to be able to draw conclusions. The correlation analysis shows that all antecedents mentioned in the conceptual framework are of interest to improve affective organizational commitment except for role clarity. Role clarity is not significant related to affective commitment which is different from the literature. This indicates that in this case role clarity plays no part in improving affective commitment with the organization. Age is significant correlated with affective commitment. The factor years working at the organization is significant correlated to more antecedents in comparison to age, but is not significant correlated with affective commitment. This indicates that, when trying to improve affective organizational 4 commitment of the employees, years working at the organization should be taken more in consideration, in this case, as age. The research shows that employees who work more than five years for the organization, experience significant less organizational support and feedback in comparison to the other employees. The Zorgboog could pay more attention to continues development of employees and giving feedback when employees apply what they have learned in practice. When looking at the differences between departments the group maternity appear to get a better provision of information which leads to them knowing what are the goals and ideas of the organization, and what is expected from them. The organization should look where it is that the information expires at the maternity care so this could also be applied at the other departments and improve to provision of information.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Clients:
De Zorgboog
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:88 social and public administration
Programme:Business Administration BSc (56834)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/62002
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