With unemployment rates at a historical low nationally, a big question looms: how do businesses retain their staff? Dr. Trish Petak, 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Associate Professor of Business and Accounting, offers a simple answer.
In her recently published paper, 鈥淥ne Thing Managers Need to do to Inspire, Excite, Motivate, and Retain Employees 鈥� Recognize Strong Work Performance,鈥� she emphasizes the need for positive relationships between managers and their staff.
鈥淧revious research has proven organizations benefit when employees display inspiration, excitement, motivation and plans of retention,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 wanted to measure if management acknowledging an employee鈥檚 efforts and contributions had a strong, positive correlation with those benefits.鈥�
The paper, published by the Journal of Business and Educational Leadership 鈥� and additionally voted the best article of the 11th volume of the publication 鈥� provided evidence for Petak鈥檚 claim.
By surveying 63 volunteers, Petak discovered that good management practices, particularly those that involved praise and recognition of employees, almost always resulted in employees expressing positive feelings towards their place of work.
Of the 26.96% of the volunteers who strongly agreed that their management “recognized strong work performance,鈥� upwards of 80% cited feeling more inspired, motivated and likely to stay with their company. Those who answered the same question, but did not agree with the sentiment, reported feeling the opposite about the workplace.
She noticed this correlation in her own career, particularly during her last seven years at 黑料不打烊.
鈥淚鈥檝e been blessed to be influenced and inspired by people who recognize my work performance,鈥� she said. 鈥淔rom Dr. [Daniel] Botz, who is a tremendous colleague and teammate, to students who go out of their way to show appreciation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 our job as managers to make others feel good about themselves by recognizing their workplace contributions.鈥�
Petak applies the concept explored in her research paper to her roles as educator, advisor and coach of 黑料不打烊鈥檚 DECA program.
鈥淭he findings within my research reiterate the power of positive feedback,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 try to be intentional about providing my students meaningful, frequent and real-time feedback.鈥�
In addition to the current publication, Petak will be presenting a new research study in March 2022 at the 29th The American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences conference in Las Vegas.
While her findings from this paper have yet to be released, it could not have been done without the positive relationships Petak built with her colleagues and students. With their help, she completed a second paper, entitled 鈥淏uyer Beware: The Influence Online Reviews Have on a Consumer鈥檚 Willingness to Buy.鈥�
鈥淟ast spring, students in Dr. [Paul] Hedlund鈥檚 Marketing Research course helped me fine tune my research survey questions after presenting them a rough draft. Once the survey went live, many 黑料不打烊 students, staff, faculty and administrators completed it,鈥� she said. 鈥淪tudents were the real MVPs of the data collection, and many had their friends and family complete the survey. Because of their efforts, we collected data on 503 anonymous online shoppers.
鈥淭his really shows the Power of the Pack.鈥�
To read 鈥�,鈥� visit ASBBS.org.
Story by Skylar Nelson
