One hundred years of employee turnover theory and research.

2017/01/26 by Peter W. Hom, Thomas W. Lee, Thomas Lee +2 · 960 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · #Centrality #Economic growth #Economics #Human capital #Human resource management #Human resources #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Law #MEDLINE #Management #Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports #Organizational Downsizing and Restructuring #Political science #PsycINFO #Psychology #Public relations #Scholarship #Social psychology #Turnover

paper · open access · doi:10.1037/apl0000103

published in Journal of Applied Psychology 102(3), 530-545 (American Psychological Association)

openalex publication_date 2017/01/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

. Along with classic articles from this journal, we expand our review to include other publications that yielded key theoretical and methodological contributions to the turnover literature. We first describe how the earliest papers examined practical methods for turnover reduction or control and then explain how theory development and testing began in the mid-20th century and dominated the academic literature until the turn of the century. We then track 21st century interest in the psychology of staying (rather than leaving) and attitudinal trajectories in predicting turnover. Finally, we discuss the rising scholarship on collective turnover given the centrality of human capital flight to practitioners and to the field of human resource management strategy. (PsycINFO Database Record

Citations

• WHY PEOPLE STAY: USING JOB EMBEDDEDNESS TO PREDICT VOLUNTARY TURNOVER.
• An evaluation of precursors of hospital employee turnover.
• The Job Search Grind: Perceived Progress, Self-Reactions, and Self-Regulation of Search Effort
• ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO THE EMPLOYEE-ORGANIZATION RELATIONSHIP: DOES INVESTMENT IN EMPLOYEES PAY OFF?

Cited by

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• Making sense of different perspectives on career transitions: A review and agenda for future research
• Predictors of turnover amongst volunteers: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
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• Understanding organizational embeddedness and career success: Who and what you know
• The optimality of an (s, S) hiring policy on a workforce planning problem with fixed recruitment costs and binomial turnover
• The effect of a 10‐week field‐oriented transition programme for new graduate registered nurses in critical care
• Supervisor Interpersonal Justice and Worker Turnover Intention in Global Supply Chains: Evidence from Bangladesh Garment Factories
• Building prediction models with grouped data: A case study on the prediction of turnover intention
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• Let’s Fix our Own Problem: Quelling the Irresponsible Research Perfect Storm
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• Conceptualizing Phygital Work Experience (PH-WX): A Framework for Enhanced Employee Well-Being
• Navigating the storm: How proficient organizational culture promotes clinician retention in the shift to evidence-based practice. [europepmc]
• Organizational culture and climate profiles: relationships with fidelity to three evidence-based practices for autism in elementary schools. [europepmc]
• "The hardest job you will ever love": Nurse recruitment, retention, and turnover in the Nurse-Family Partnership program in British Columbia, Canada. [europepmc]
• The importance of organizational commitment in rural nurses' intent to leave. [europepmc]
• Effectiveness of Psychological Capital Intervention and Its Influence on Work-Related Attitudes: Daily Online Self-Learning Method and Randomized Controlled Trial Design. [europepmc]
• Daily Work-Family Conflict and Burnout to Explain the Leaving Intentions and Vitality Levels of Healthcare Workers: Interactive Effects Using an Experience-Sampling Method. [europepmc]
• Organisational support and turnover intentions: A moderated mediation approach. [europepmc]
• Value, Support, and Advancement: An Organization's Role in Faculty Career Intentions in Academic Medicine. [europepmc]
• How Ethical Leadership Prompts Employees' Voice Behavior? The Roles of Employees' Affective Commitment and Moral Disengagement. [europepmc]
• A Conceptual Model of Nurses' Turnover Intention. [europepmc]
• The Paradoxical Effects of COVID-19 Event Strength on Employee Turnover Intention. [europepmc]
• Factors Affecting Employee's Retention: Integration of Situational Leadership With Social Exchange Theory. [europepmc]
• How Workplace Social Capital Affects Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction and Burnout. [europepmc]
• Gendered Impact of Caregiving Responsibilities on Tenure Track Faculty Parents' Professional Lives. [europepmc]
• "I'm too old for this!": A prospective, multilevel study of job characteristics, age, and turnover intention. [europepmc]
• The Effect of Nurse Support Programs on Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behaviors among Hospital Nurses: A Meta-Analysis. [europepmc]
• The Mediating Role of Employee Engagement in the Relationship between Flexible Work Arrangements and Turnover Intentions among Highly Educated Employees in the Republic of Serbia. [europepmc]
• Factors Associated With Intent to Leave the Profession for the Allied Health Workforce: A Rapid Review. [europepmc]
• UNCERTAIN TIME: PRECARIOUS SCHEDULES AND JOB TURNOVER IN THE US SERVICE SECTOR. [europepmc]
• Hospital doctor turnover and retention: a systematic review and new research pathway. [europepmc]
• Why do Stayers Stay? Perceptions of White and Black Long-Term Employees in a Community Mental Health Center. [europepmc]
• Investigating workplace bullying (WPB), intention to quit and depression among nurses in the Upper West Region of Ghana. [europepmc]
• I Was Merely a Brick in the Game: A Qualitative Study on Registered Nurses' Reasons for Quitting Their Jobs in Hospitals. [europepmc]
• Turnover intention among intensive care nurses and the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review. [europepmc]
• Understanding turnover in healthcare and welfare sectors of high-income countries: an umbrella review. [europepmc]

Related

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