Mobley revisited: dynamism in the process of employee turnover

Abstract

In the employee turnover literature, studies of antecedents at static points prior to the ‘stay versus leave’ decision have generally not exhibited great predictive power. Mobley (1982) suggests that such studies require the inclusion of change, time, actions and operations. A study is accordingly reported here in which employee recall of satisfaction, commitment and withdrawal intentions at three periods prior to the stay/leave decision is examined. Measures recalled at a single time (static) are found to be unreliable or even contrary to expectation. Alternately, change in variables is found to be significantly more predictive of final turnover than static measurements of these variables, especially over a year. Different antecedents appear to dominate in the turnover process at different times. Furthermore, antecedents differ over demographic groups, suggesting that movement capital may affect turnover.

Keywords:

• Employee turnover
• South Africa
• change
• time
• human resource practises