There is no "right" or "wrong" answer to
these questions, or to the exercise itself - the goal is to get students to
think analytically about the situation, and to be able to articulate their
thinking.
You could approach the actual exercise in one of two ways.
The first way would be to take the class through it as a group,
fostering discussion when possible. The
second way would to be to break the class into teams for about 5 minutes,
and have them generate some thoughts on their own, and then bring everyone
back together for a 5 minute de-briefing. Either way, here is an outline of
possible discussion points:
1) A first step in examining the turnover problem may be to
classify the turnover into several categories.
For example, 30% of the RA's may have left for personal, and
therefore unavoidable, reasons. 10% may have been fired or were performing
so poorly that they would have been fired anyway - a type of
"functional" turnover. Lastly,
60% of the RA's that left may have been performing well and ended up taking
other jobs on campus.
2) A second step may be to administer a job satisfaction
survey to all of the RA's on campus, such as the Job Descriptive Index (JDI)
which measures satisfaction with issues such as the work itself,
supervision, pay, promotions, and co-workers. Note: Given what your students
know of RA's jobs, there may be important topics that the JDI does not
cover. For example, after
interviewing a group of RA's, one might discover that they are unhappy with
the odd hours that they have to be on duty.
Are there other facets of RA's jobs that may be influencing their
attitudes?
3) Given what researchers know about the link between
behavioral intentions and actual behavior, are there additional survey
questions that we would like to ask? One
possibility would be to develop a series of questions that address the
likelihood that RA's intend to leave their jobs.
4) For argument's sake, let's say that you conclude that the
odd hours (working overnight shifts, weekends, etc.) is the issue that is
driving RAs' dissatisfaction, and in turn, their intent to leave their jobs.
Based on your expertise as an I/O psychologist, what recommendations
might you make? A "job
design" recommendation might focus on examining the amount of time all
RAs spend working odd hours, and if possible, adjusting schedules so that
these shifts are minimized. A
"personnel selection" recommendation might focus on clarifying the
scheduling expectations that RA candidates have during the interviewing
process. Other recommendations?