The elusive relationship between perceived employment opportunity and turnover behavior: A methodological or conceptual artifact?

Abstract

Recent conceptual work focused attention on the gap between psychological turnover theory and the empirical literature regarding the prominence of perceived employment alternatives in shaping turnover decisions (e.g., C. L. Hulin et al; see record 1985-21605-001 ). Meta-analysis confirmed that measures of perceived alternatives and turnover are weakly related ( M r = .13). The current review supplements earlier work by focusing on 3 methodological problems that may contribute to the lack of support for the predictive utility of perceived alternatives in the contemporary literature: (1) interoccupational vs intraoccupational variance or the dependence of turnover researchers on occupationally homogeneous samples, (2) attenuating effects of the turnover base rate, and (3) inadequate instrumentation. Potential solutions to these problems are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)