Survival versus traditional methodologies for studying employee turnover: Differences, divergences and directions for future research

Despite initial enthusiasm for using survival analysis techniques to gain new insights into employee turnover, nearly one decade later hardly any studies based on survival methodologies are evident in the literature. Consequently, the potential for survival analysis to open new avenues in turnover research remains unassessed, and the need for research on this topic is readily apparent. In this study, survival analysis methods were compared with those inherent in 'traditional' turnover research. Results indicated significant divergences between these two methods. The traditional turnover methodology reproduced findings characteristic of the vast majority of research on this topic -job withdrawal intentions emerged as the sole predictor of employee turnover behavior. In contrast, continuance commitment and ethnicity were directly predictive of turnover behavior using survival analysis methods. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.