Employee Turnover Literature Review

A review of the literature on employee turnover Henry Ongori Department of Management, University of Botswana, Botswana. E-mail: [e-mail]. Accepted 22, May 2007 “Employee turnover” as a term is widely used in business circles. Although several studies have been conducted on this topic, most of the researchers focus on the causes of employee turnover but little has been done on the examining the sources of employee turnover, effects and advising various strategies which can be used by managers in various organisations to ensure that there is employee continuity in their organisations to enhance organizational competitiveness. This paper examines the sources of employee turnover, effects and forwards some strategies on how

Therefore, managers at all costs must minimize employee’s turnover. Although, there is no standard framework for understanding the employees turnover process as whole, a wide range of factors have been found useful in interpreting employee turnover Kevin et al. (2004). Therefore, there is need to develop a fuller understanding of the employee turnover, more especially, the sources- what determines employee turnover, effects and strategies that managers can put in place minimize turnover. With globalization which is heightening competition, organizations must continue to develop tangible products and provide services which are based on strategies created by employees. These employees are extremely crucial to the organisation since their value to the organization is essentially intangible and not easily replicated Meaghan et al. (2002). Therefore, managers must recognize that employees as major contributors to the efficient achievement of the organization’s success Abbasi et al. (2000). Managers should control employee turnover for the benefit of the organisation success. The literature on employee turnover is divided into three groupings: sources of employee turnover, effects of turnover and the strategies to minimize

Employee turnover is the rotation of workers around the labour market; between firms, jobs and occupations; and between the states of employment and unemployment Abassi et al. (2000). The term “turnover” is defined by Price (1977) as: the ratio of the number of organizational members who have left during the period being considered divided by the average number of people in that organization during the period. Frequently, managers refer to turnover as the entire process associated with filling a vacancy: Each time a position is vacated, either voluntarily or involuntarily, a new employee must be hired and trained. This replacement cycle is known as turnover Woods, (1995). This term is also often utilized in efforts to measure relationships of employees in an organization as they leave, regardless of reason. “Unfolding model” of voluntary turnover represents a divergence from traditional thinking (Hom and Griffeth, 1995) by focusing more on the decisional aspect of employee turnover, in other words, showing instances of voluntary turnover as decisions to quit. Indeed, the model is based on a theory of decision making, image theory Beach, (1990). The image theory describes the process of how individuals process information during decision making. The underlying premise of the model is that people leave organizations after they have analyzed the reasons for quitting. Beach (1990) argues that individuals seldom have the cognitive resources to