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Meaning and measurement of turnover: comparison of alternative measures and recommendations for research

Article Abstract:

In a review of two areas of turnover research - individual motivated choice behavior and organizational consequences - five alternative turnover measures are defined: reasons, voluntariness, avoidability, functionality, and utility. Turnover data for one year (1987) were gathered from 325 former employees, 568 supervisors, 418 replacement employees, and the personnel files of a university. Analyses indicated that organizational records are deficient as a source of information, especially because of the usual practice of recording a single reason for turnover. Voluntariness may result in a classification system that is too gross for validating motivational models. Avoidability, functionality, and utility each measure unique aspects of organizational consequences, but each has limitations. Turnover measures should be viewed as continua rather than as dichotomies. Recommendations for future research are provided. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Employee turnover

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Follow-up and extension of the interdisciplinary costs and benefits of enlarged jobs

Article Abstract:

This study provided a 2-year follow-up, including pretest-posttest and posttest-only quasi experiments, of M.A. Campion and C.L. McClelland's (1991) interdisciplinary evaluation of costs and benefits of a job enlargement intervention. Data were collected on 445 clerical employees and 70 managers in a financial services company. Costs and benefits changed substantially, depending on the type of enlargement. Task enlargement, the focus of the original study, had mostly long-term costs (less satisfaction, efficiency, and customer service and more mental overload and errors). Knowledge enlargement, which emerged since the original study, had mostly benefits (more satisfaction and customer service and less overload and errors). Findings have implications for the enlargement-enrichment distinction and for resolving conflicts between motivational (psychological) versus mechanistic (engineering) models of job design. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Job enrichment

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Sources of imprecision in formula cross-validated multiple correlations

Article Abstract:

Formula estimation of the predictive precision of a multiple regression equation is frequently presented as an alternative to actual cross-validation where appropriate, and a particular formula developed by Browne (1975) and evaluated by Cattin (1980) is cited as most useful in personnel psychology. One incorrectly specified term and an incorrect assumption regarding calculation of another term contained in identical formulae common to two influential personnel psychology texts suggest a shared misunderstanding of Browne's formula. Use of the incorrect formula will produce positively biased estimates of the squared population cross-validated multiple correlation. These discrepancies are examined, their practical implications are discussed, and correct presentation of Browne's formula is given. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Browne, M.W.

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