9 - Network Perceptions and Turnover in Three Organizations

Summary

We have emphasized in previous chapters the importance of individuals' perceptions of networks within which they are embedded. In this chapter, we continue this theme, looking this time at the question of organizational turnover. Do people who perceive each other as playing similar roles in the organization tend to affect each other's turnover decisions? And what about the attitudes of the people left behind when somebody leaves – how do people react to the departure of those perceived to be their friends? These are the issues we address in two studies of turnover across three fast food restaurants.

Several reviews of turnover research (e.g., Griffeth, Horn, and Gaertner, 2000; Horn and Griffeth, 1995) have underscored the continuing interest in this area. Models of turnover have become complex (e.g., Steel, 2002), incorporating in excess of forty organizational, individual, and societal variables in at least one case (Mobley, Griffith, Hand, and Meglino, 1979). This complexity suggests the value of exploring new kinds of variables rather than clouding the picture with more variables of the same nature. Research on the dynamics of voluntary groups indicates the general importance of considering social ties inside and outside groups in order to understand rates of turnover (McPherson et al., 1992). A case study of an organization in crisis illustrated the potentially devastating effects of turnover on the attitudes of those left behind (Burt and Ronchi, 1990), but without specifying the social psychology of the attitude formation process.