Kuo-hsien Su Su, Chen, S. T., and Yeh, S. K. 1999. Demographic Composition and Organizational Performance: An Analysis of Enterprises in Taiwan. NTU Management Review, 10 (1): 001-038
Kuo-hsien Su Su, Associate Professor, Department of Business Management, National Sun Yat-sen University
Shin-tien Chen, Associate Professor, Management College, National Defense University
Kuang S. Yeh, Professor, Department of Business Management, National Sun Yat-sen University
Abstract
Despite the large amount of extensive research on organizational demography, there has been a lack of conclusive evidence concerning the effects of organizational demography on performance outcomes. This study uses three different measures of performance --- return on assets, economic productivity index, and price-cost margin to investigate the relationships among organizational demography, employee turnover, and performance. Analysis of data from over 6,000 firms suggests that (1) Seniority configuration is unrelated to performance, but performance of the pyramidal organization is higher than diamond for age structure. (2) The effects of age and seniority structure on performance do not seem to disappear even after turnover rate is introduced as an intervening variable, suggesting a robust direct effect of organizational demography on performance.
Keywords
Organizational demography Employee turnover Organizational performance