Title: Retaining front-line service employees: introducing analytic hierarchy process in the retail industry

Authors: Pallavi Pandey; Gokulnanda Patel

Addresses: IMI Bhubaneswar, IDCO Plot No 1, Village-Gothapatna, PO-Malipada, PS-Chandaka, Dist-Khurda, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751003, India ' Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida, U.P., India

Abstract: Despite decades of studies employee attrition still remains one of the major issues in the Indian retail industry. The increase in attrition rate is attributed to factors that are pertinent to on the job as well as off the job sources. Talent retention is crucial for service organisations because employees are considered to be the functional element that is responsible for creating customer-specific outcomes. Therefore, careful considerations must be taken when supporting retention. This paper attempts to identify the best alternative for employees' retention by developing a decision hierarchy. Analytic hierarchy process was applied to test and identify the most appropriate management style for employees' retention. Experts' opinions were taken to compare the scores of decision elements. The result of data analysis revealed that management by objectives ranked first, followed by management by values and management by instruction in explaining retention. In addition, weights of criteria and sub-criteria further exhibited the contribution of other decision elements (autonomy, socialisation, manager's support) in employees' acquisition.

Keywords: retail employees; strategy; retention; analytic hierarchy process; AHP.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMP.2020.106937

International Journal of Management Practice, 2020 Vol.13 No.3, pp.321 - 337

Received: 20 Feb 2018
Accepted: 12 Mar 2019
Published online: 28 Apr 2020 *

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