IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v54y2011i5p481-491.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Combating the effects of turnover: Military lessons learned from project teams rebuilding Iraq

Author

Listed:
  • Murnieks, Charles Y.
  • Allen, Scot T.
  • Ferrante, Claudia J.

Abstract

The literature concerning turnover has traditionally been composed of studies and analyses which assume that turnover rates are malleable, and can be reduced. We take the opposite position and contend that turnover rates for certain organizations are not variable, but rather remain fixed. Is it possible, then, to reduce the deleterious effects of turnover without reducing the actual churn of individuals? To answer this question, we draw from experiences of the U.S. military during Operation Iraqi Freedom, in order to learn from its methods of dealing with high personnel turnover during the management of projects. Specifically, we offer four best practices that reduce the negative effects of turnover, while allowing the rate itself to remain constant. These best practices aim toward sharing the knowledge and mental models critical for sustained operations, to insulate the organization against the departure of key personnel. Herein, we demonstrate how efficient operations can be maintained amidst high churn rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Murnieks, Charles Y. & Allen, Scot T. & Ferrante, Claudia J., 2011. "Combating the effects of turnover: Military lessons learned from project teams rebuilding Iraq," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(5), pages 481-491, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:54:y:2011:i:5:p:481-491
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681311000656
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglas, Matthew A. & Strutton, David, 2009. "Going "purple": Can military jointness principles provide a key to more successful integration at the marketing-manufacturing interface?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 251-263, May.
    2. George P. Huber, 1991. "Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 88-115, February.
    3. Weeks, Michael R., 2007. "Organizing for disaster: Lessons from the military," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 479-489.
    4. Herbert A. Simon, 1991. "Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 125-134, February.
    5. Kathleen Carley, 1992. "Organizational Learning and Personnel Turnover," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(1), pages 20-46, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Makarius, Erin E. & Dachner, Alison M. & Paluch, Rebecca M. & Pedde, Jenn, 2024. "Feel the churn: Exercising talent management practices to support a climate for career mobility," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 55-69.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abhoy K. Ojha & John L. Brown & Nelson Phillips, 1997. "Change and Revolutionary Change: Formalizing and Extending the Punctuated Equilibrium Paradigm," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 91-111, June.
    2. Pooja Kushwaha & M. K. Rao, 2017. "Integrating the Linkages between Learning Systems and Knowledge Process: An Exploration of Learning Outcomes," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 5(1), pages 11-23, January.
    3. Martina Linnenluecke & Andrew Griffiths & Peter Mumby, 2015. "Executives’ engagement with climate science and perceived need for business adaptation to climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 321-333, July.
    4. Hoppmann, Joern & Wu, Geng & Johnson, Jillian, 2021. "The impact of demand-pull and technology-push policies on firms’ knowledge search," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    5. Andrew Hargadon & Angelo Fanelli, 2002. "Action and Possibility: Reconciling Dual Perspectives of Knowledge in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 290-302, June.
    6. Tsang, Eric W. K., 2002. "Learning from overseas venturing experience: The case of Chinese family businesses," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 21-40, January.
    7. Kathleen M. Carley & David M. Svoboda, 1996. "Modeling Organizational Adaptation as a Simulated Annealing Process," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 25(1), pages 138-168, August.
    8. Gerald C. Kane & Maryam Alavi, 2007. "Information Technology and Organizational Learning: An Investigation of Exploration and Exploitation Processes," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(5), pages 796-812, October.
    9. Petty, Jeffrey S. & Gruber, Marc, 2011. ""In pursuit of the real deal": A longitudinal study of VC decision making," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 172-188, March.
    10. Krishnan Hariharan & Vivekanand G, 2018. "Perspectives on Organizational Learning," Indian Journal of Commerce and Management Studies, Educational Research Multimedia & Publications,India, vol. 9(1), pages 81-86, January.
    11. Agulles, Remei & Prats, Mª Julia, 2011. "Learning in practice: What organizational and management literature can contribute to professional and occupational development," IESE Research Papers D/938, IESE Business School.
    12. Linda Argote & Henrich R. Greve, 2007. "A Behavioral Theory of the Firm ---40 Years and Counting: Introduction and Impact," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 337-349, June.
    13. Jeoung Yul Lee & Alfredo Jiménez & Timothy M. Devinney, 2020. "Learning in SME Internationalization: A New Perspective on Learning From Success versus Failure," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 485-513, August.
    14. Freixanet, Joan & Renart, Gemma, 2020. "A capabilities perspective on the joint effects of internationalization time, speed, geographic scope and managers’ competencies on SME survival," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(6).
    15. Yang, Yumei & Secchi, Davide & Homberg, Fabian, 2018. "Are organisational defensive routines harmful to the relationship between personality and organisational learning?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 155-164.
    16. Ang, Siah Hwee & Benischke, Mirko H. & Hooi, Andrea Wai-Leng, 2018. "Frequency of international expansion through high control market expansion modes and interlocked directorships," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 493-503.
    17. Dev K. Dutta & Mary M. Crossan, 2005. "The Nature of Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Understanding the Process Using the 4I Organizational Learning Framework," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(4), pages 425-449, July.
    18. Li, Georgi & Rajagopalan, S., 1998. "A learning curve model with knowledge depreciation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 143-154, February.
    19. Sriram Narayanan & Sridhar Balasubramanian & Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, 2009. "A Matter of Balance: Specialization, Task Variety, and Individual Learning in a Software Maintenance Environment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(11), pages 1861-1876, November.
    20. Chila, Vilma, 2021. "Knowledge dynamics in employee entrepreneurship : Implications for parents and offspring," Other publications TiSEM a1f5d18c-783b-4af6-8414-6, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:54:y:2011:i:5:p:481-491. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.