Peter W. Hom

A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents and Correlates of Employee Turnover: Update, Moderator Tests, and Research Implications for the Next Millennium

This article reports the results of a comprehensive meta-analysis of turnover antecedents, extending an earlier one by Hom and Griffeth (1995). As such, this updated meta-analysis represents the most wide-ranging quantitative review to date of the predictive strength of numerous turnover antecedents. Importantly, the present investigation identifies various moderators of antecedent-turnover correlations. The implications of these findings for both theory and practice are discussed.

Structural equations modeling test of a turnover theory: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.

Hom, Griffeth, and Sellaros (1984) theoretical alternative to Mobleys (1977) turnover model was investigated in two studies. In Study 1, conceptual distinctions among model constructs and operationalizations of those constructs were validated. 206 nurses were surveyed, and constructs were assessed

A meta-analytical structural equations analysis of a model of employee turnover

The present study combined meta-analysis with structural equations modeling (SEM) to validate Mobley, Horner, and Hollingsworths (1978) turnover theory as well as alternative structural networks proposed by Dalessio, Silverman, and Schuck (1986), Hom, Griffeth, and Sellaro (1984), and Bannister and Griffeth (1986). We aggregated correlations from 17 studies (N = 5,013 employees), correcting for unreliability and sampling error. Then we used SEM to assess the models, comparing their relative fits to data

Toward a Greater Understanding of How Dissatisfaction Drives Employee Turnover

This study generalized a leading portrayal of how job dissatisfaction progresses into turnover (Horn & Griffeth, 1991) and more rigorously tested this model using structural equations modeling and ...

SERV*OR: A managerial measure of organizational service-orientation

Abstract An organizational service orientation scale (SERV ∗ OR) is developed and validated in this study. Service orientation is defined as an organization-wide embracement of a basic set of relatively enduring organizational policies, practices and procedures intended to support and reward service-giving behaviors that create and deliver “service excellence.” The SERV ∗ OR managerial measure captures the extent to which an organization is perceived bu its employees as having adopted and embraced specific policies, practices and procedures that represent an organizational service orientation. A comprehensive and rigorous program to develop the valid and reliable measure was undertaken. Key features of the methodology included executive focus group interviews, multiple rounds of pre-testing, multi-sample assessment, and multi-industry replication. The results strongly indicate that organizational service orientation may be represented by a structure comprised of ten factors. The factors are carefully described and theoretically based. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.

Explaining Employment Relationships With Social Exchange and Job Embeddedness

The research reported in this article clarifies how employee-organization relationships (EORs) work. Specifically, the authors tested whether social exchange and job embeddedness mediate how mutual-investment (whereby employers offer high inducements to employees for their high contributions) and over-investment (high inducements without corresponding high expected contributions) EOR approaches, which are based on Tsui, Pearce, Porter, and Tripolis (1997) framework, affect quit propensity and organizational commitment. Two studies evaluated these intervening mechanisms. Study 1 surveyed 953 Chinese managers attending part-time master of business administration (MBA) programs in China, whereas Study 2 collected cross-sectional and longitudinal data from 526 Chinese middle managers in 41 firms. Standard and multilevel causal modeling techniques affirmed that social exchange and job embeddedness translate EOR influence. A second multilevel test using lagged outcome measures further established that job embeddedness mediates long-term EOR effects over 18 months. These findings corroborate prevailing views that social exchange explains how mutual- and over-investment EORs motivate greater workforce commitment and loyalty. This study enriches EOR perspectives by identifying job embeddedness as another mediator that is more enduring than social exchange.

Challenging Conventional Wisdom About Who Quits: Revelations From Corporate America

Findings from 20 corporations from the Attrition and Retention Consortium, which collects quit statistics about 475,458 professionals and managers, extended and disputed established findings about who quits. Multilevel analyses revealed that company tenure is curvilinearly related to turnover and that a jobs past attrition rate strengthens the (negative) performance- exit relationship. Further, women quit more than men, while African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans quit more than White Americans, though racial differences disappeared after confounds were controlled for. African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American women quit more than men of the same ethnicities and White Americans, but statistical controls nullified evidence for dual discrimination toward minority women. Greater corporate flight among women and minorities during early employment nonetheless hampers progress toward a more diversified workforce in corporate America.

In search of the elusive U-shaped performance-turnover relationship: are high performing Swiss bankers more liable to quit?

This project revisits the perennial debate over the relationship between job performance and turnover. Disputing traditional findings, C. Trevor, B. Gerhart, and J. Boudreau (1997) observed that high and low performers quit more than do average performers. They further challenged received wisdom by showing that promotions can induce turnover, especially among poor performers, by signaling ability. The authors sought to replicate and extend these unconventional findings by exploring curvilinear and moderating effects on the performance-exit relationship among 11,098 Swiss nationals employed in a bank. Survival regression revealed that performance is curvilinearly related to quits and that bonus pay deterred superior performers from leaving more than did pay increases. Further, the average number of job levels advanced per promotion rather than promotion rate increased quit risks. Cultural and organizational moderators of performance-termination associations and effective strategies for retaining top performers are discussed.

The predictive utility of the vertical dyad linkage approach

Abstract In a constructive replication of past vertical dyad linkage (VDL) research, the leader-member exchange scores of 192 hospital employees in the United States were used to predict reports of felt equity and satisfaction, as well as employment status over a one-year period. Although the results failed to establish leader-member exchange as predictive of employee turnover, leader-member exchange was closely associated with satisfaction and felt equity. These results suggest that previous findings reported by Graen, Liden, and Hoel (1982) and Ferris (1985) should not be overgeneralized and that additional conceptual refinement of the VDL approach may be necessary.

Effects of Job Peripherality and Personal Characteristics on the Job Satisfaction of Part Time Workers

Sixteen groups of part time employees in a retail sales organization were created by classifying employees by the number of hours they worked per week and whether they were employed on a seasonal o...