This research developed and tested a model of turnover ontagion in which the job embeddedness and job search behaviors of coworkers influence employees’ decisions to quit. In a sample of 45 branches of a regional bank and 1,038 departments of a national hospitality firm, multilevel analysis revealed that coworkers’ job embeddedness and job search behaviors explain variance in individual “voluntary turnover” over and above that explained by other individual and group-level predictors. Broadly speaking, these results suggest that coworkers’ job embeddedness and job search behaviors play critical roles in explaining why people quit their jobs. Implications are discussed.

hdl.handle.net/1765/20102
ERIM Top-Core Articles
Academy of Management Journal
Erasmus Research Institute of Management

Felps, W., Mitchell, T., Hekman, D., Lee, T., Harman, W., & Holtom, B. (2009). Turnover contagion: How coworkers' job embeddedness and coworkers' job search behaviors influence quitting. Academy of Management Journal, 52(3), 545–561. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/20102