Voluntary Turnover and Job Performance: Curvilinearity and the Moderating Influences of Salary Growth, Promotions, and Labor Demand

In this study we investigated the relation between job performance and voluntary employee turnover for 5,143 exempt employees in a single firm in the petroleum industry. As hypothesized, we found support for Jackofsky\u27s (1984) curvilinear hypothesis as turnover was higher for low and high performers than it was for average performers. Three potential moderators of this curvilinearity were examined in an attempt to explain conflicting results in the performance turnover literature and contradictory predictions from turnover models. As predicted, pay growth, promotions, and labor demand each differentially influenced the turnover patterns of low, average, and high performers. Most notably, paying high performers according to their performance predicted substantial decrements in turnover. A utility analysis indicated that the benefits of paying high performers according to their performance more than offset the costs and that such an approach was a superior strategy when compared to a more egalitarian pay growth policy

New Directions in Compensation Research: Synergies, Risk, and Survival

We describe and use two theoretical frameworks, the resource-based view of the firm and institutional theory, as lenses for examining three promising areas of compensation research. First, we examine the nature of the relationship between pay and effectiveness. Does pay typically have a main effect or, instead, does the relationship depend on other human resource activities and organization characteristics? If the latter is true, then there are synergies between pay and these other factors and thus, conclusions drawn from main effects models may be misleading. Second, we discuss a relatively neglected issue in pay research, the concept of risk as it applies to investments in pay programs. Although firms and researchers tend to focus on expected returns from compensation interventions, analysis of the risk, or variability, associated with these returns may be essential for effective decision-making. Finally ,pay program survival, which has been virtually ignored in systematic pay research, is investigated. Survival appears to have important consequences for estimating pay plan risk and returns, and is also integral to the discussion of pay synergies. Based upon our two theoretical frameworks, we suggest specific research directions for pay program synergies, risk, and survival

Voluntary Turnover and Job Performance: Curvilinearity and the Moderating Influences of Salary Growth and Promotions

[Excerpt] The relationship between job performance and voluntary employee turnover was investigated for 5,143 exempt employees in a single firm. As hypothesized, support was found for E. F Jackofsky\u27s (1984) curvilinear hypothesis, as turnover was higher for low and high performers than it was for average performers. Two potential moderators of the curvilinearity were examined in an attempt to explain conflicting results in the performance-turnover literature. As predicted, low salary growth and high promotions each produced a more pronounced curvilinear performance-turnover relationship. Most notably, salary growth effects on turnover were greatest for high performers, with high salary growth predicting rather low turnover for these employees, whereas low salary growth predicted extremely high turnover. Additionally, once salary growth was controlled, promotions positively predicted turnover; with poor performer turnover most strongly affected

Experimental investigation of the impact of optical injection on vital parameters of a gain-switched pulse source

An analysis of optical injection on a gain-switched distributed feedback (DFB) laser and its impact on pulse parameters that influence the performance of the pulse source in high-speed optical communication systems is presented in this paper. A range of 10 GHz in detuning and 5 dB in injected power has been experimentally identified to attain pulses, from an optically injected gain-switched DFB laser, with durations below 10 ps and pedestal suppression higher than 35 dB. These pulse features are associated with a side mode suppression ratio of about 30 dB and a timing jitter of less than 1 ps. This demonstrates the feasibility of using optical injection in conjunction with appropriate pulse compression schemes for developing an optimized and cost-efficient pulse source, based on a gain-switched DFB laser, for high-speed photonic systems

Is It Worth It To Win The Talent War? Evaluating the Utility of Performance-Based Pay

While the business press suggests that “winning the talent war,” the attraction and retention of key talent, is increasingly pivotal to organization success, executives often report that their organizations do not fare well on this dimension. We demonstrate how, through integrating turnover and compensation research, the Boudreau and Berger (1985) staffing utility framework can be used by industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists and other human resource (HR) professionals to address this issue. Employing a step-by-step process that combines organization-specific information about pay and performance with research on the pay-turnover linkage, we estimate the effects of incentive pay on employee separation patterns at various performance levels. We then use the utility framework to evaluate the financial consequences of incentive pay as an employee retention vehicle. The demonstration illustrates the limitations of standard accounting and behavioral cost-based approaches and the importance of considering both the costs and benefits associated with pay-for-performance plans. Our results suggest that traditional accounting or behavioral cost-based approaches, used alone, would have supported rejecting a potentially lucrative pay-for-performance investment. Additionally, our approach should enable HR professionals to use research findings and their own data to estimate the retention patterns and subsequent financial consequences of their existing, and potential, company-specific performance-based pay policies

Prevalence of Alcohol Consumption among Primary and Secondary School Adolescents in Obiaruku Community in Delta State, Southern Nigeria

Consumption of alcohol by underage teenagers and adolescents is a major public health problem confronting many developing countries including Nigeria. Studies have shown the increasing rate of alcohol consumption among these high risk groups. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of alcohol use among Primary and Secondary School teenagers in Obiaruku Community. The study employed a descriptive cross sectional study among pupils and students in primary and secondary schools in Obiaruku community. The study utilized random sampling technique in selecting 326 pupils and students from both primary and secondary schools in Obiaruku community. The instrument for data collection was a semi-structured questionnaire. The collected data was analysed with SPSS version 21 and presented in percentages and frequencies, with Chi-Square used to analysed association between demographic characteristics and prevalence of alcohol with level of significance set at P<0.05. The findings show that almost half of the respondents 150(46.88%) were between the ages of 13-15 years and 220(68.75%) were males. The prevalence of alcohol consumption was 25.0%, with being a male more likely to increase alcohol consumption (P<0.05). Furthermore, about 20(25.0%) of the respondents could not stop drinking when they want to and more than one third do get drunk. Furthermore, age showed a significant relationship with use of alcohol (p<0.05). The study showed prevalence of alcohol consumption among the respondents and therefore recommended schools should organize seminars for students to provide education on the health-related issues surrounding alcohol consumption

Cooling requirements fueled the collapse of a desert bird community from climate change.

Climate change threatens global biodiversity by increasing extinction risk, yet few studies have uncovered a physiological basis of climate-driven species declines. Maintaining a stable body temperature is a fundamental requirement for homeothermic animals, and water is a vital resource that facilitates thermoregulation through evaporative cooling, especially in hot environments. Here, we explore the potential for thermoregulatory costs to underlie the community collapse of birds in the Mojave Desert over the past century in response to climate change. The probability of persistence was lowest for species occupying the warmest and driest sites, which imposed the greatest cooling costs. We developed a general model of heat flux to evaluate whether water requirements for evaporative cooling contributed to species' declines by simulating thermoregulatory costs in the Mojave Desert for 50 bird species representing the range of observed declines. Bird species' declines were positively associated with climate-driven increases in water requirements for evaporative cooling and exacerbated by large body size, especially for species with animal-based diets. Species exhibiting reductions in body size across their range saved up to 14% in cooling costs and experienced less decline than species without size reductions, suggesting total cooling costs as a mechanism underlying Bergmann's rule. Reductions in body size, however, are unlikely to offset the 50 to 78% increase in cooling costs threatening desert birds from future climate change. As climate change spreads warm, dry conditions across the planet, water requirements are increasingly likely to drive population declines, providing a physiological basis for climate-driven extinctions