| Course | GB700 Doctoral Studies in Business |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 3 |
| Paper type | Literature search log |
| Length | About 790 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for GB700 Unit 3
Three Fields, Three Words for the Same Benefit: A Unit 3 Literature Search Log on Tuition Assistance and Turnover
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
GB700: Doctoral Studies in Business
Unit 3 Literature Search Log
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The candidate and the yields are composite and illustrative; the databases, methods and sources cited are real.
Protocol
Review question. How do employer tuition assistance programs relate to voluntary turnover among employees, during and after their studies?
Definitions. Tuition assistance: any employer program that pays some or all of an employee's tuition for courses or degrees, whether by reimbursement after the course or payment in advance. Voluntary turnover: an employee's decision to leave, measured by records of resignations or, where coded separately, by stated intention to leave.
Inclusion rules. Empirical studies and reviews in English, in peer-reviewed journals or established working paper series; employees of private or public employers; at least one measure of turnover or retention. Studies of military education benefits are excluded because service commitments make leaving a different decision.
Time frame. 1964 to the present, to include the human capital work that later studies respond to.
Booth et al. (2016) recommend fixing a protocol before searching so that later decisions can be checked against it, and the protocol above was recorded before the first string was run.
Vocabulary Map
The same benefit goes by different names in different fields, and a search in one vocabulary misses most of the others.
Management and human resources: tuition reimbursement, tuition assistance, education benefits, development support, employee development, retention.
Labor economics: employer-sponsored training, general training, general human capital, employee mobility, job separation, quits.
Education and workforce studies: employer-paid tuition, adult learners, working learners, workforce education, degree completion.
Organizational psychology: perceived organizational support for development, career opportunity, turnover intention.
The map produced a core string combining benefit terms with turnover terms, adapted to each database.
A search run in one field's vocabulary finds that field's literature and calls it the literature.
Searches as Entered
Business Source Complete, searched February 3. ("tuition reimbursement" OR "tuition assistance" OR "education benefit*" OR "employer-paid tuition") AND (turnover OR retention OR quit* OR separation). Peer-reviewed filter on. Yield: 188 records.
EconLit, searched February 4. ("general training" OR "general human capital" OR "employer-sponsored training" OR "tuition") AND (mobility OR turnover OR separation OR quits). Yield: 143 records.
ERIC, searched February 5. ("employer-paid tuition" OR "tuition assistance" OR "working learners") AND (retention OR turnover OR "employee outcomes"). Yield: 97 records.
APA PsycInfo, searched February 6. ("development support" OR "tuition" OR "education benefit*") AND ("turnover intention" OR turnover OR retention). Yield: 121 records.
Web of Science Core Collection, searched February 7. Forward citation searching from Benson et al. (2004) and Manchester (2012). Yield: 236 citing records.
Once duplicates were dropped, 584 records were left. Screening their titles and abstracts against the protocol left 68 for full reading, and 31 passed every rule.
Decision Ledger
February 4. Added "general training" after finding that economists rarely use the phrase tuition reimbursement. Reason: the economics literature supplies the theory that general skills raise mobility.
February 5. Excluded studies of apprenticeship programs. Reason: apprentices are often hired into training roles, so their turnover differs from that of established employees taking courses.
February 6. Kept studies measuring only turnover intention, but coded them apart from studies using recorded resignations. Reason: intention is measured far more often, but it predicts actual leaving only moderately.
February 9. Added two working papers found by forward citation. Reason: both report original employer data on prepaid degree programs, which no refereed study yet covers.
Webster and Watson (2002) argue that a review's credibility depends on showing how its sources were found, and the ledger exists so that a committee member who wonders why a known study is missing can see whether it was sought and why it was excluded.
Gaps the Search Exposed
The search itself produced a finding. Almost every study of retention involved programs that reimburse tuition after courses are completed, usually for salaried staff. Only the two working papers examined programs that pay tuition in advance for hourly workers, which is the design the bank is considering. That gap will shape the synthesis in Unit 5 and the problem statement in Unit 9.
A Rerun by Someone Else
A classmate reran the Business Source Complete and EconLit strings on February 20 without seeing my results. Her Business Source Complete yield was 192 records, four more than mine, which she traced to newly indexed articles. Her EconLit yield was 141, two fewer, which we traced to a truncation symbol typed differently. All 31 included studies appeared in her results for the relevant databases, which suggests the search can be repeated within the limits of databases that change daily.
References
Benson, G. S., Finegold, D., & Mohrman, S. A. (2004). You paid for the skills, now keep them: Tuition reimbursement and voluntary turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 47(3), 315-331. https://doi.org/10.5465/20159584
Booth, A., Sutton, A., & Papaioannou, D. (2016). Systematic approaches to a successful literature review (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Manchester, C. F. (2012). General human capital and employee mobility: How tuition reimbursement increases retention through sorting and participation. ILR Review, 65(4), 951-974. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979391206500408
Webster, J., & Watson, R. T. (2002). Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: Writing a literature review. MIS Quarterly, 26(2), xiii-xxiii.
The Purdue Global GB700 Unit 3 instructions
The third GB700 assignment asks you to search the literature on your topic and log the search so it could be repeated. Start with a short protocol: the review question, definitions of key terms, inclusion and exclusion rules and the time frame, fixed before you search. Map the vocabulary different fields use for your topic. Record each search exactly as entered, with the database, the date, any filters and the number of records returned. Report how many records remained after duplicates were removed and after screening. Keep a dated ledger of decisions to change the rules, with reasons. Note what the search failed to find. If possible, have someone else rerun two searches. About seven pages with tables is common.
How the GB 700 Unit 3 example is put together
The log opens with a protocol defining tuition assistance and voluntary turnover and excluding military benefits, with Booth, Sutton and Papaioannou on fixing protocols in advance. A vocabulary map lists terms from management, labor economics, education and organizational psychology, and the highlighted sentence warns about searching one field's words. Five searches follow with exact strings, dates and yields, from Business Source Complete to forward citation tracking of Benson and colleagues and Manchester. Screening reduces 584 records to 31. Four dated ledger entries explain changes, framed by Webster and Watson on credible reviews. A gap section notes the shortage of prepaid program studies, and a classmate's rerun differs by a few records.
GB700 Unit 3 rubric: what earns full points
Points in the GB700 search log depend on reproducibility. A protocol fixed before searching earns credit because it shows decisions were not made to fit results. A vocabulary map across fields demonstrates awareness that one discipline's terms miss others' work. Strings recorded exactly, with dates and yields, carry heavy weight since they are what another researcher would need. Screening counts and a dated ledger of rule changes, each with a reason, show transparency. Noting what the search failed to find turns the log into evidence about the literature. A rerun by someone else, honestly reported, completes the test. Clear tables and APA 7 references finish the grade.
Common GB700 Unit 3 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Many GB700 search logs list databases and a few keywords without the exact strings, dates or yields, which makes the search impossible to repeat. Others search only one field's vocabulary and miss most of the relevant work. A common gap is changing inclusion rules midway without recording when or why. Writers often report only the final number of studies, hiding how many records were screened out. Few logs note what the search did not find, though that is often the most useful result. Fix your protocol first, map vocabularies, record every string exactly, count at each stage, date every decision, note the gaps and ask a classmate to rerun two searches. A free custom search log for your topic is available on request.
Get a GB700 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
Give the desk your research area, any databases your section names, and the Unit 3 instructions with the rubric. Earlier search attempts help too, even failed ones. Back within 24-48h, the custom search log shows strings as entered, a vocabulary map for your topic and a dated ledger of inclusion decisions. No charge applies to the first. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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GB700 Unit 3 questions, answered
Which databases suit a GB700 literature search?
Business Source Complete and ABI/INFORM cover most management journals, and many business topics also need a discipline database such as APA PsycInfo for organizational behavior or EconLit for economics. Working paper series are worth searching for recent evidence if they are flagged. The instructions and the library's holdings decide the final list, and the log should name each one.
Why record searches that did not work?
Because the path to a good string is part of what makes the search defensible. A committee member who wonders why a known study is missing can see which terms were tried and dropped. Recording failed or overly broad searches, briefly, also stops the same dead end being explored twice later in the program.
Where can I find a free GB700 Unit 3 sample paper?
This page holds a full GB700 Unit 3 literature search log on tuition assistance and turnover, with a protocol, a cross-field vocabulary map, exact search strings, a decision ledger and a classmate's rerun.
Why search economics databases for an HR topic?
Economists study the same benefit under different names, such as general training and employee mobility, and supply the theory about why degrees raise outside offers. A search limited to HR terms would miss that work.
How exact must the search strings be?
Exact enough that someone else could type them and get nearly the same results. Record the full string with operators, the filters applied and the date, since database contents change.