A new construct, entitled job embeddedness, is introduced. Assessing factors from on and off the job, it includes an individual's (a) links to other people, teams and groups, (b) perception of their fit with their job, organization and community and (c) what they say they would have to sacrifice if they left their job. A measure of job embeddedness is developed with two samples. The results show that job embeddedness predicts the key outcomes of both intent to leave and voluntary turnover, and explains significant incremental variance over and above job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job alternatives and job search. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

A new construct, entitled job embeddedness, is introduced. Assessing factors from on and off the job, it includes an individual's (a) links to other people, teams and groups, (b) perception of their fit with their job, organization and community and (c) what they say they would have to sacrifice if they left their job. A measure of job embeddedness is developed with two samples. The results show that job embeddedness predicts the key outcomes of both intent to leave and voluntary turnover, and explains significant incremental variance over and above job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job alternatives and job search. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

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We reconceptualize employee turnover to promote researchers' understanding and prediction of why employees quit or stay in employing institutions. A literature review identifies shortcomings with prevailing turnover dimensions. In response, we expand the conceptual domain of the turnover criterion to include multiple types of turnover (notably, involuntary quits) and multiple types of staying. Guided by the premise that "everyone eventually leaves; no one stays with an organization forever," we also suggest considering where leavers end up-or post-exit destinations, such as another job, full-time parenting, or educational pursuits. We propose "proximal withdrawal states" that motivate members to participate or withdraw from organizations as an expanded criterion. These motivational states precede turnover and are derived from 2 overarching dimensions: desired employment status (whether employees want to stay or leave) and perceived volitional control (whether quit or stay decisions are completely up to them or at least partially under external regulation). Crossing these dimensions yields 4 prime states: enthusiastic leavers and stayers and reluctant leavers and stayers. We further subdivide these mind-sets into subtypes by differentiating employer from other forms of external control (e.g., family). Focusing on more common subtypes, we explain how they arise from particular motivational forces and profile how they differ by attitudes, behaviors, and turnover speed and destinations. We further discuss ways to measure this expanded criterion and proximal states (and subtypes) and investigate the latter's profiled differences. Finally, we discuss scientific and practical implications and future research directions.

We review seminal publications on employee turnover during the 100-year existence of the . 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

The model of employee turnover described in this paper applies constructs and concepts irom decision making, statistics, and social paychology to facilitate understanding and to redirect theory development and empirical research. The process of employee turnover is modeled by four distinctive decision paths; each decision path in* volves distinctive foci, psychological processes, and external events. Further, five specific contributions of the model are suggested, and recommendations for empirical testing and future research are offered. 1994Lee and Mitchell 53Because the major antecedents had been identified, Mobley (1977) refined the immediate links between job satisfaction and eventual voluntary turnover. Specifically, Mobley theorized that job dissatisfaction leads (1) to thinking about quitting, which m.ay in turn lead (2) to evaluations for the expected utility of searching for another job and costs associated with quitting the present job. From that evaluation, (3) an intention to search for alternative jobs may emerge, which in tum leads (4) to the actual search for alternatives and (5) to the evaluation of the acceptability of identified alternatives. This last evaluation results in (6) comparisons of these alternatives to the present job, which in tum can lead (7) to an intention to quit and eventual turnover. The Mobley model was not presented as a lock-step sequence that all employees experience identically, though researchers by necessity often empirically test the model as such. Rather, some employees may skip particular steps or experience an alternative ordering of steps. Nonetheless, the model's great values are its rich description of the psychological process between job dissatisfaction and turnover in a testable form and its elaboration of the satisfaction and alternative constructs.The empirical support for the Mobley (1977) model has been mixed. Whereas the antecedents to turnover have related to one another as generally theorized, the prediction of actual turnover has been weak (i.e.

Given the extensive research on the topic of voluntary employee turnover in the past decade as well as new managerial approaches to employee retention, labor market dynamism, and evolution in research methodology and technology, it is important that researchers evaluate the current state of the field. In 232 • The Academy of Management Annals this chapter, we critically review prior research to provide a solid foundation and clear perspective to guide future research. Some of the major trends of the past decade include: (1) new individual difference predictions of turnover (e.g., personality, motivating forces); (2) increased emphasis on contextual variables with an emphasis on interpersonal relationships (e.g., leadermember exchange, interpersonal citizenship behaviors); (3) enhanced focus on factors looking specifically at staying (e.g., organizational commitment and job embeddedness); and (4) dynamic modeling of turnover processes with the consideration of time (e.g., changes in job satisfaction). We believe these trends point to a number of important issues to consider in the next decade, including the influence of social networks, differences across cultures, temporal aspects (e.g., early vs. late turnover), consequences of turnover, multi-level investigations of turnover and other types of withdrawal (e.g., retirement).