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The Bellevue Downtown Association is a community development and event planning organization in Bellevue, Tennessee. Established in 1974 as a nonprofit, membership-based organization, the BDA has played the unique role of bringing together civic leaders and the heads of major businesses in collaborative problem solving and community planning for the downtown area (bellevuedowntown.org). The mission of this organization is to create an environment in which people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities feel welcome. The BDA works to achieve this goal through community events and social leadership in Bellevue. As the company focuses solely on downtown Bellevue, the employee team is fairly small. They must often work in coordination with larger organizations and companies to promote local events and business happenings. Additionally, due to the fact that the Bellevue Downtown Association is a non-profit organization, it depends heavily on event turnout, membership dues, and board member donations for its livelihood. It is thus very important that all employees of the BDA keep strong ties with these individuals and stay involved with these organizations' events in order to show their appreciation and support. Recently however, employee turnover in the Marketing and Special Events sector of the company has increased, causing business-to-business relationships and inter-employee relationships to erode. This negatively affects the company since team members are not equally informed on Bellevue community events, community or company needs and organizational culture of the BDA. Moreover, with a company that is heavily dependent on Public Relations and Marketing, it is important to stay on top of deadlines and respective papers. High turnover negatively affects this in that it is difficult to hire new employees and get them up to the same speed as ex-employees. In conclusion, it is our goal to research the Bellevue Downtown Association and find ways to decrease employee turnover with in the Marketing and Special Events division of the organization. Possible sources of turnover will be examined and potential solutions discussed. Finally, the solution that is felt to best solve the situation will be identified and its advantages will be discussed. 2.0 Problem Analysis 2.1 Socialization Upon entrance into the organization, new employees do not have a strong understanding of the company culture or their job responsibilities. Employees receive very little training and are expected to come into the environment with a full, working knowledge of their responsibilities. Often the new hire's position has been vacant for some time and it is not possible to contact or receive training from the person previously filling the position. This "greatly slows advancement for the new employee, as they spend much time deciphering old files and contact information" as stated by Jessica Sambora the PR director. As a result, "new employees become frustrated and unmotivated since they feel they are unable to accomplish tasks to the best of their ability," says Darbie Kirk the special event and marketing coordinator. 2.2 Communication The current leader-member exchange used by the BDA is that of out-group exchange. Kinicki affirms, "Leaders are characterized as overseers who fail to create a sense of mutual trust, respect, or common fate." As was revealed through our questionnaire to the BDA Marketing and Special Events team, on average, members do not feel that management does a good job of encouraging participation, upwards communication, or suggestions regarding new ideas. Additionally, they do not clarify goals/objectives on current projects, nor do they have an evaluation system from which to assess past employee performance. The combination of all these factors provides for a very inefficient system of leader-member communication and employee-employee communication. 2.3 Motivation A lack of motivation within the BDA contributes to the high level of turnover. Referring to McClelland's need theory, the BDA does not satisfy achievement or power needs for its employees. Supervisors initially give the employees the power and responsibility for a project. Yet later, the supervisor will point out the flaws of the project and implement their own ideas, which compromise the staff's feelings of achievement and power. The two parts of the Herzberg theory factor into the issue of motivation. The BDA does not provide Hygiene factors such as enough salary, technical supervision or interpersonal relationships with supervisors. Since the BDA is a non-profit company, they have less money to pay their employees than for-profit companies. Also, supervisors do not provide technical help on projects, but only give input on pre-specified dates. Lastly, the managers do not make an effort to become friends with the lower level workers. Achievement and responsibility are the Motivators the BDA lacks. The few management positions that exist rarely open up and when they do, outsiders are just as likely to be hired as the current employees. Also, managers confer accountability to the workers with out giving them the responsibility. The management will dictate how they want the project done, but the workers will deal with the consequences if the project does not succeed. 3.0 Solutions 3.1 LMX Model of Leadership The Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Model of Leadership is a valid solution to the problems that exist within the BDA's organization. According to the text, LMX "revolves around the development of dyadic relationships between managers and their direct reports," writes Kinicki. There are two types of LMX. One is in-group exchange, where the relationship between leaders and followers are, as defined in the text book, "characterized by mutual trust, respect and liking." The other LMX is out-group exchange, where "leaders are characterized as overseers who fail to create a sense of mutual trust, respect, and common fate," states Kinicki. The BDA has the latter type of LMX. There are a few methods to improve LMX or in-group exchange: . Managers should consciously try to expand their in-groups . Managers need to give employees ample opportunity to prove themselves . Promote a diverse workforce, not a homogenous one . Managers encourage setting high-performance expectations . New employees should offer their loyalty, support and cooperation to their manager The LMX can resolve the problem of socialization. Those that were given no training, contacts, or co-workers to support them in their new job will now be given training and certain managers will be there to help them adjust to their new environment. Due to LMX, managers will be encouraged to give new employees ample time to prove themselves. This will allow the new employees to build trust with their co-worker rather than feeling like they were just tossed into the position to figure things out on their own. This concept of socialization is very appealing. However, it doesn't address certain key issues that may arise as a result of implementation. First, there is no extrinsic reward to those training or mentoring new recruits. Second, this mentor/training process takes time out of current employees' schedules that could be used on other tasks. Third, members of support teams must be willing to do some 'hand holding' and give up some of their time in order to benefit the business at large. Using the in-group exchange model can solve the second problem of the BDA, no open communication between managers and employees. The in-group exchange leadership model will improve the organization's communication because leader and members will have a partnership characterized by mutual trust, respect and liking. Thus, leaders and members will have no problem in giving each other feedback, which is productive for the organization. LMX will fully address the problem of no open communication. The motivation problem that leads to turnover in the BDA will also be answered by the implementation of LMX in-group leadership model. In-group exchange leadership will solve the Hygiene and Motivators factors that are lacking in the BDA. According to research, positive LMX in an organization will lead to job satisfaction and performance, goal commitment, trust between managers and employees, a good work climate, and satisfaction with leadership (Kinicki 292). As implementation of LMX will increase communication, the problem of job dissatisfaction due to poor interpersonal relationships with supervisors will also decrease. Even though research shows that LMX can affect turnover and career outcomes such as promotability, salary level, and receipt of bonuses (Kinicki 292), the salary in the Hygiene factor and advancement in the Motivator factor also will not be fully answered. Since the BDA is a non-profit organization and does not have much funding, the employee' salaries will only improve slightly. The structure of the BDA will not be affected with the implementation of positive LMX, so the advancement issue factor will not be solved. There are two costs to implementation of positive or in-group exchange in the BDA. First, it will be difficult to transform the BDA's current out-group exchange into an in-group exchange culture. In order to do this, the BDA must set up some kind of monthly company dinner where managers and employees can interact with each other at an interpersonal level. We estimate each dinner will cost the organization $50 per employee and the managers will take out employees for eight dinners per month, totaling $400. Also, the process will consume time since the managers cannot build trust, respect and a friendship without a time investment. 3.2 Group to Team Another solution would be to change the Marketing and Special Events group into a team. The textbook gives a defines a team as "a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable." There are five criteria that must be met to create a team. However, I will only discuss the criteria that are applicable to BDA as a solution. First, here are few options for turning the BDA from a group to a team: . Adventure Dynamics . Treasure Hunts . Sport teams . Pressure Cooking