ORGANIZATIONAL RETENTION STRATEGIES: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Employee turnover is a much studied phenomenon. There is a vast literature on the causes of voluntary employee turnover dating back to the 1950s. By developing multivariate models that combine a number of factors contributing to turnover and empirically testing the models researchers have sought to predict why individuals leave organisations. Many studies are based on only a small number of variables which often only explain a small amount of variability in turnover. Another criticism of turnover studies is that they do not adequately capture the complex psychological processes involved in individual turnover decisions. A recent study of turnover by Boxall et al (2003) in New Zealand confirmed the view that motivation for job change is multidimensional and that no one factor will explain it. However, over time there have been a number of factors that appear to be consistently linked to turnover. An early review article of studies on turnover by Mobley et al (1979) revealed that age, tenure, overall satisfaction, job content, intentions to remain on the job, and commitment were all negatively related to turnover (i.e. the higher the variable, the lower the turnover). In 1995, a meta-analysis of some 800 turnover studies was conducted by Hom and Griffeth, which was recently updated (Griffeth et al, 2000). Their analysis confirmed some well-established findings on the causes of turnover. These include: job satisfaction, organisational commitment, comparison of alternatives and intention to quit. These variables are examined in more detail below, as are a number of other factors where the evidence on the link to turnover is less conclusive.