Employee tenure, performance level, and turnover: field study evidence for curvilnear relations.

Abstract

Employee turnover is a very costly problem for virtually all organizations within the United States. Employee turnover can be classified as either voluntary or involuntary from the employee's perspective. Voluntary turnover is when employees voluntarily makes the decision to depart from their position at an organization (e.g.quitting). Involuntary turnover is when employees are involuntarily forced to leave their position with an organization (e.g. being fired). Over the years, researchers have studied the relationship among several employee characteristics and both types of turnover. Two such characteristics are employee tenure and employee job performance. However, research has yielded inconsistent findings. While no studies have investigated the possibility of a curvilinear relationship between employee tenure and turnover, Jackofsky (1984) proposed a set of hypotheses. However, only limited research has tested and supported these hypotheses. Thus, the present study investigated the possibility of whether employee tenure, performance level, and both voluntary and involuntary turnover were curvilinear related by assessing data over an eight-year period. Archival organizational records of 362 nursing home employees spanning the year 1988 through 1996 were evaluated. Additionally, 91 records included performance scores of showed limited support for evidence of a curvilinear relationship between employee tenure and turnover. However, strong support was found for Jackofsky's(1984) curvilinear hypothesis between employee performance level and turnover. Although only limited support was found for a curvilinear relationship between employee tenure and turnover, future studies should continue to investigate this relationship utilizing longer time frames of data collection. Furthermore, organizations should be cognizant of the possibility that both good and poor performers may be equally likely to voluntarily depart from the organization.