Feather-Tote Luggage is a producer of cloth-covered luggage, one of the primary advantages of which is its light weight. The company distributes its luggage through major department stores, e-commerce web sites, clothing retailers, and other retail outlets such as stationery stores, leather goods stores, and so on. The company advertises rather heavily, but it also supplements this promotional effort with a large field staff of sales representatives, numbering around 400. The number of sales representatives varies, and one of the historical problems confronting Feather-Tote Luggage has been the large number of resignations. It is not unusual for 10'to 20% of the sales force to turn over every year. Since the cost of training a new person is estimated at $5,000 to $10,000, not including the lost sales that might result because of a personnel switch, Mr. Harvey, the sales manager, is concerned and has been conducting exit interviews with each departing sales representative. On the basis of these interviews, he has concluded that the major reason for this high turnover is general sales representatives' dissatisfaction with company policies, promotional opportunities, and pay. But top management has not been sympathetic to Harvey's pleas regarding the changes needed in these areas of corporate policy. Rather, it has tended to counter Harvey's pleas with arguments that too much of what he is suggesting is based on his gut reactions and little hard data. Before it would be willing to make changes, top management wants more systematic evidence that job satisfaction, in general, and these dimensions of job satisfaction, in particular, are the real reasons for the high turnover. Harvey has called on the marketing research department at Feather-Tote Luggage to assist him in solving his problem.
a. As a member of this department, identify the general hypothesis that would guide your research efforts.
b. Might one or more exploratory research techniques help you to either refine your hypothesis or provide additional ideas or insights?
c. What would you recommend to Mr. Harvey?