5 Turnover and Retention Research: A Glance at the Past, a Closer Review of the Present, and a Venture into the Future

Given the extensive research on the topic of voluntary employee turnover in the past decade as well as new managerial approaches to employee retention, labor market dynamism, and evolution in research methodology and technology, it is important that researchers evaluate the current state of the field. In this chapter, we critically review prior research to provide a solid foundation and clear perspective to guide future research. Some of the major trends of the past decade include: (1) new individual difference predictions of turnover (e.g., personality, motivating forces); (2) increased emphasis on contextual variables with an emphasis on interpersonal relationships (e.g., leader–member exchange, interpersonal citizenship behaviors); (3) enhanced focus on factors looking specifically at staying (e.g., organizational commitment and job embeddedness); and (4) dynamic modeling of turnover processes with the consideration of time (e.g., changes in job satisfaction). We believe these trends point to a number of important issues to consider in the next decade, including the influence of social networks, differences across cultures, temporal aspects (e.g., early vs. late turnover), consequences of turnover, multi‐level investigations of turnover and other types of withdrawal (e.g., retirement).