EMPLOYEE TURNOVER AND COGNITION: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY

by

Steven Michael Firmand

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A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment

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of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Management in Organizational Leadership

UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

June 2008
 UMI Number: 3381823

Copyright 2009 by
Firmand, Steven Michael

All rights reserved

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 ABSTRACT

Employee turnover costs US organizations millions of dollars annually. The findings of

this qualitative phenomenological study, using a modified van Kaam method suggested

that the leader-follower relationship impacts an employee’s decision to remain or exit an

organization more than other factors. This study examined the lived experiences of 20

human resource managers who have worked in that role for a minimum of six months in

organizations with at least 100 employees. Collected data were analyzed using Atlas.ti

software. The research question asked, "How do people describe and perceive the

experiences that led to their decision to leave an employer?" The findings determined that

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while many factors are cited as reasons for exiting an organization, the actions of the
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leader play the primary role in an employee’s cognitive decision-making process to stay

or leave.
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DEDICATION

This dissertation is dedicated to my wife Julie. She has unselfishly endured my time spent

working on this project, with seemingly endless delays, obstacles, and deferred living

throughout the last few years. Without her love and motivation, none of this would be

possible. I also want to thank my daughters for their understanding and words of

enouragement.

My parents and sister were also very supportive over each stage of the journey. I wish my

mother would have been able to see this project come to its fruition.

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Finally, I want to thank my mentor, Dr. Rhonda Waters, and my committee members, Dr.

Don Smith and Dr. Freda Turner for their guidance.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to acknowledge the contributions from my mentor, Dr. Rhonda Waters, and my

committee members, Dr. Don Smith and Dr. Freda Turner for their guidance. Over the

last few years, and a great deal of effort by everyone, there is something to be proud of

and it rarely ever happens as a singular act. This dissertation was made possible by my

supervisor’s kind and generous support, my company’s support, the willingness of the

participants to slow their frenetic paces long enough to sit through the interviews, and last

but not least, the faculty at the University of Phoenix, who are extremely committed to

the quality of the doctoral program.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1 

Background of the Problem .................................................................................. 2 

Statement of the Problem...................................................................................... 4 

Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................. 5 

Significance of the Study to Leadership ............................................................... 6 

Nature of the Study ............................................................................................... 7 

Research Question ................................................................................................ 8 

Theoretical Framework......................................................................................... 9 

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Systems Theory ............................................................................................. 9 
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Definition of Terms............................................................................................. 13 

Assumptions........................................................................................................ 14 
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Limitations .......................................................................................................... 14 

Delimitations....................................................................................................... 15 
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Summary ............................................................................................................. 15 

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................. 17 

Employee Commitment ...................................................................................... 19 

Employee Satisfaction ........................................................................................ 21 

Compensation ..................................................................................................... 24 

Growth and Development ................................................................................... 24 

Supervisor-Employee Relationship .................................................................... 25 

Organizational Culture........................................................................................ 27 

Summary ............................................................................................................. 29 

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Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 29 

CHAPTER 3: METHOD .................................................................................... 30 

Research Design.................................................................................................. 31 

Appropriateness of Design.................................................................................. 34 

Research Question .............................................................................................. 37 

Population ........................................................................................................... 38 

Informed Consent................................................................................................ 38 

Sampling Frame .................................................................................................. 39 

Confidentiality .................................................................................................... 40 

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Geographic Location........................................................................................... 40 
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Instrumentation ................................................................................................... 41 

Data Collection ................................................................................................... 41 

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Data Analysis ...................................................................................................... 42 

Validity and Reliability....................................................................................... 44 

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Reliability .................................................................................................... 45 

Internal Validity........................................................................................... 45 

External Validity.......................................................................................... 46 

Summary ............................................................................................................. 46

CHAPTER FOUR: EXPLICATION OF DATA 48

Sample 48

The Data Collection Process 50

The Interview Questions 50

Phenomenological Research Methodology 51

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Phenomenological Reduction: From Theory to Practice 52

Imaginative Variation 53

Coding and Managing Data 55

Findings 55

Patterns 56

Themes and Nodes 57

Table 1. Factors of Attraction 58

Table 2. Factors of Satisfaction 59

Dissatisfaction with the Role 60

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Table 3: Factors of Dissatisfaction 61

From Passive to Active Discontent

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Emergent Patterns and the Study's Problem Statement 68

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Significance of the Findings 69

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS, INTERPRETATIONS, AND

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RECOMMENDATIONS 72

Comparison to Similar Research on Voluntary Turnover 72

Suggestions for Future Studies on Turnover 78

Summary 78

REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 80 

APPENDIX A: INFORMED CONSENT ........................................................ 105 

APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.................................................... 106 

APPENDIX C: REQUEST TO PARTICIPANT ORGANIZATIONS ............ 107 

APPENDIX D: PERMISSION TO USE PREMISES………………………….75

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The high cost of employee turnover has received much attention from

organizations (Autry & Daugherty, 2003; Bernthal & Wellins, 2005; Kaliprasad, 2006;

Morice & Murray, 2003). Research on the issue of employee turnover has shown that the

cost to an organization included hidden factors such as disruption in customer service,

uncompleted work, and decreased morale (Abbasi & Hollman, 2000; North, Rasmussen,

Hughes, & Finlayson, 2005; Waldman, Kelly, Arora, & Smith, 2004). Researchers and

organizational leaders have attempted to understand the phenomenon of employee

turnover and find ways to keep employees satisfied with their jobs.

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Studies have suggested that many factors were involved in a person’s decision to
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leave an organization (Birt, Wallis, & Winternitz, 2004; Lee & Liu, 2006). Compensation

theory posited that paying fair market value for employees’ services was sufficient to
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retain an organization’s workforce (Kim, 1999; Milkovich & Newman, 1996; Mobley,

1982). Other researchers advocated the need for attention to the human factors of
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employment (Birt et al., 2004; Bryson & McKenna, 2002; Lee & Liu , 2006). Fair

compensation equal to the market value of employees’ skills is the most important factor

in employees’ decision to stay in their jobs. Other factors include (a) organizational

support, (b) opportunities for advancement, (c) recognition, (d) values that align with the

employee’s values, (e) organizational success, and (f) honesty.

The proposed qualitative phenomenological study will be carried out with semi-

structured interviews to explore the lived experiences of 20 human resource managers

throughout the United States. The focus of the interviews will be on the managers’

decision to voluntarily resign from an employer. The research question guiding the study
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addresses how people describe the experiences that precede their decision to leave an

employer. Using the modified van Kaam method as designed by Moustakas (1994), the

interviews will be the data collection method used to explore the decision stages that

preceded the participants’ decision to seek new employment.

Knowledge of specific conditions that precede an employee’s decision to seek

alternative employment might affect leadership and organizational behavior. Chapter 1

provides a description of the problem and the theoretical impact the inquiry might have

for leadership studies. Phenomenology is discussed as an appropriate methodology, and

an exploration of the value of the study for leadership studies is included.

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Background of the Problem
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In the last 30 years, the relationship between employers and employees has

undergone a significant shift. According to Baker (2006),

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the historical relationship between company and employer, in which corporations

offered what amounted to lifetime employment in return for a high degree of

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loyalty on the part of employees, has essentially broken down in the face of the

financial reengineering of the 1980s and early 1990s. (p. 42)

The lack of trust employees are willing to grant their employer has affected the

workplace.

Generational differences between individuals are evident when one considers the

demographics of the baby-boomer generation compared to the following generation,

often referred to as Generation X or GenExers (Dychtwald, Erickson, & Morison, 2006).

One generational factor relates to birth rates. After the baby-boomer generation between

1946 and 1964, birth rates declined from an average of 4 million births annually to below
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3 million births annually in the Generation X period (1965-1980) (U.S. Census, 2000).

The decline in native birth rates during the period from 1965 to 1980 occurred in all

industrialized nations of the world (Dychtwald et al., 2006).

A second generational factor is the shift in attitudes towards motivational factors.

The significance to organizations in the retention of key employees is the recognition that

different generations respond to different motivators. Baby-boomers are oriented toward

seeking meaningful work (Yang & Guy, 2006) while GenXers expect recognition,

opportunities to learn, interaction with managers, and high stimulation (Cordeniz, 2002).

Both factors, demographic and attitudinal, have impacted the labor market with a decline

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in the number of highly productive knowledge workers. Dychtwald et al. (2006) reported,
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In the present decade, the ranks of the youngest workers (ages sixteen to twenty-

four, by Bureau of Labor statistics groupings) are growing by fifteen percent,

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thank to the “echo-boom” as baby boomers’ children enter the workforce. The

twenty-five to thirty-four year-old segment is growing at just half that rate, and
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the workforce population between thirty-five and forty-four years old – prime

executive development years, is actually declining. (p. 6)

In order to attract and retain the best workers, organizational leaders must understand

differences between individuals (Hart, 2007). As Friedman (2006) explained, a new

social contract between the employee and the employer is replacing the older dependency

model. Friedman stated,

The social contract that progressives should try to reinforce between government

and workers, and companies and workers, is one in which government and

companies say, We cannot guarantee you any lifetime employment. But we can
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guarantee you that we will concentrate on giving you the tools to make yourself

more lifetime employable – more able to acquire the knowledge or the experience

needed to be a good adaptor, synthesizer, collaborator etc. (p. 369)

Knowledge workers represent the employee group most critical to the success of

any organization, but they are no longer passive organizational resources that can be

taken for granted. According to a recent report from the Society for Human Resources on

retention, three-fourths of currently employed survey respondents indicated that they

were either actively or passively seeking alternative employment (Frincke, 2006). Active

job seekers were defined as employees accepting interviews from other companies, and

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passive job seekers were actively browsing classified ads and sending their resumes to
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employers through job boards and other venues.

The relationship between employers and employees has evolved. Without a

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relationship of lifetime loyalty in return for lifetime security, companies have to seek a

different formula to motivate employees towards commitment. In order for organizations

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to reduce voluntary turnover, organizational leaders must understand why employees

leave, what triggers their thoughts or desire to leave, what patterns in these behaviors can

be discerned, and what changes organizations and human resource departments can

implement to adapt to the new employee-employer relationship.

Statement of the Problem

The problem of employee turnover costs the typical large American company

with approximately 13,000 employees over $27 million annually, according to a recent

2005 study (Bernthal & Wellins, 2005). The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as reported

by the Nobscot Corporation (2007), estimated that annual employee turnover among
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American companies exceeded 23%. Premature turnover of highly skilled workers can

cost an organization approximately 26% to 46% of the employees’ annual salary when

they must be replaced (Bernthal & Wellins, 2005). The cost of employee turnover

represents a challenge to organizational viability if the trend continues unabated.

The proposed qualitative study will be carried out with a transcendental

phenomenological methodology. Data collection will consists of conducting personal

interviews with 20 human resource managers located in the United States. The purpose is

to explore the personal experiences and cognitive patterns that led to the managers’

choice to leave an employer. The interviews will be semi-structured, and the participants’

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comments will be recorded for subsequent analysis focused on identifying themes that

might explain employee turnover.

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Purpose of the Study
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The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological study that will include the

recording and analysis of data obtained from semi-structured interviews is to explore the
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cognitive perceptions that preceded the participants’ decision to voluntarily exit an

employer. The interviews will take place with a purposive sample of 20 human resource

managers throughout the United States. The qualifying criterion for participation will be

that, at some time in their career, the participants voluntarily left an organization because

of factors that made leaving more favorable than staying.

Phenomenological studies are appropriate in research projects with a focus on

understanding a person’s perspective or perceptions of a specific phenomenon. The

participants will be asked the following question: “How would you describe and perceive

the experiences that led to your decision to leave an employer?” The chosen research
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design is based on an interview methodology that incorporates the following three stages:

(a) identifying statements related to the topic of turnover, (b) grouping the statements into

units of meaning, and (c) constructing a composite template to derive meaningful

information from the responses.

The qualitative methodology is appropriate because the design allows access to

both subjective and objective knowledge. “The challenge facing the human science

researcher is to describe things in themselves, to permit what is before one to enter

consciousness and be understood in it meanings and essences in the light of intuition”

(Moustakas, 1994, p. 27). The focus of the research will be on understanding the

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cognitive stages experienced before making the decision to resign or quit an employer.
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Knowledge can be gained from the essence of employees’ cognition. With

phenomenological interviews, the intent will be to seek only what is present in the
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participants’ consciousness rather than exploring the traditional interpretations of the

phenomenon of employee turnover.

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Significance of the Study to Leadership

Kaliprasad (2006) and Autry and Daugherty (2003) identified the high costs of

employee turnover as a major concern for organizations. Literature on retention

suggested that salaries and other monetary incentives played a dominant role in retention

(Morice & Murray, 2003; O’Byrne, 2004), but as Upenieks (2005) pointed out, “While

larger starting bonuses and other monetary marketing strategies have been instrumental in

alleviating the (labor shortage) . . . to an extent, they do not address one of the most

imperative causes” (p. 22).

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The proposed study has significance for human resource professionals as they

seek to understand practices that might contribute to high employee turnover. Because

the study involves human resource professionals as interview participants, the findings

might offer a unique perspective. Human resource professionals are not only employees

but also the organizational group often tasked with maintaining or increasing retention

rates.

The study has significance for organizational leaders. Leaders do not always have

a unilateral or direct impact on employees’ compensation, but they can influence many

other factors in the relationship between employee and supervisor/leader. The

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information that will be generated in the proposed study might change the way leaders
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see their role in maintaining employee retention at acceptable levels.

Nature of the Study

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The study will be guided by Edmund Husserl’s philosophy of phenomenology

(1977) and its later methodological adaptation used by Moustakas (1994). The interview
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method is appropriate for the proposed research because the inquiry will focus on

“people’s perceptions, perspectives, and understandings of a particular situation” (Leedy

& Ormrod, 2001, p. 153). Husserlian phenomenology provides parameters for

understanding reality based on the concept known as epoche, designed to promote

objectivity (Newton, Boblin, Brown, & Ciliska, 2006).

Epoche, also called phenomenological reductionism, “permits us to make a useful

distinction between two attitudes that we can take toward the world and consequently, the

role it is allowed to play in explaining various phenomena that appear within experience”

(Beavers, 2002, p. 71). With phenomenological reductionism, experiences exist within an

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ontological existentialism. The interview process with participants who have lived an

experience will generate only the description of the cognitive process that preceded the

decision to leave an employer.

Using the Husserlian methodology of epoche, as modified by Moustakas (1994),

information gained from the interview process will be systematically bracketed into

meaning units, allowing the data to be analyzed for the cognitive patterns the participants

experienced. The research design will be based on determining whether (a) the comments

have relevance to the phenomenon and (b) the responses can be identified and labeled in

meaning units. If responses meet both criteria, the expressions will qualify as invariant

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constituents.
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Research Question

The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological study is to understand the

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cognitive decision-making process that individuals experience before making a

determination that leaving an employer is more desirable than remaining in the job. The
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research question is, “How do people describe and perceive the experiences that led to

their decision to leave an employer?” The data will contribute to understanding the

growing concern among organizations that employee turnover is becoming a growing

impediment to business effectiveness. In order to understand the cognitive factors that

lead to one’s decision to find alternative employment opportunities, semi-structured

interviews will be conducted with a focus on determining which cognitive factors lead to

the decision to seek new employment.

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Theoretical Framework

The phenomenological method will serve as an appropriate theoretical framework

for understanding the motivations that immediately precede an individual’s final decision

to seek new employment. The focus of the research study is on exploring the lived

experiences of employees who voluntarily chose to leave their employers.

Phenomenology as a methodology is a product of the philosophies of Martin Heidegger

and his student, Edmund Husserl. Phenomenology refers to “a person’s perception of the

meaning of an event, as opposed to the event as it exists external to the person” (Leedy &

Ormrod, 2001, p. 153). Phenomenology moves away from Cartesian dualism, rejecting

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the notion that reality is an external entity completely independent of individuals (Jones,
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1975; Koch, 1995). A large amount of literature contrasts the positivistic and

constructivist traditions of research (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; Gergen, 1985; Kvale,
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1996; Packer & Addison, 1989; Polkinhorne, 1983).

Systems Theory
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A fundamental assumption of phenomenology is that systemic patterns exist,

waiting to be exposed. “Subsystem interdependence produces features and characteristics

that are unique to the system as a whole” (Hatch, 1997, p. 35). Ludwig von Bertalanffy

presented the general systems theory in the 1950s. In 1968, von Bertalanffy asserted that

the interconnectedness of biological systems was an appropriate assumption for all of

science. This assertion led to the emergence of a variety of other systems theories as

viable methodological frameworks to understand and resolve many organizational

problems and challenges (Checkland, 2002; Miller & Rice, 1967; Silverman, 1970).
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In Eupsychian Management, Maslow (1998) described an ontological systemic

framework that humans beings as employees can use to construct their perceptions of

organizational life: “The only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at

something they consider important . . . They were metamotivated by metaneeds . . .

expressed in their devotion to, dedication to, and identification with some great and

important job” (p. 9). Phenomenology as a method of inquiry addresses the possible

overlap of organizational and human systems without defining or debating these systems

but rather allowing “a blending of what is really present with what is imagined as

present” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 27).

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Phenomenological studies primarily follow one of two courses, transcendental or
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hermeneutic. Each methodology brings a specific perspective on the way its proponents

think meaning should be derived. In hermeneutic phenomenology, the focus on lived

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experiences is on the details and seemingly trivial aspects that might otherwise be taken

for granted (Wilson & Hutchinson, 1991). Heidegger and Husserl were not in full
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agreement on this point. Husserl emphasized understanding things like acts of attending,

perceiving, recalling, and thinking about the world (Laverty, 2003). Heidegger

considered dasein, roughly interpreted as the situation in the world being the most

relevant epistemology. Heidegger saw the human experience as concerned primarily with

one’s fate in the world (Annells, 1996; Jones, 1975).

In transcendental phenomenology, meaning is at the core of the methodology.

Meaning is not personal and reflective, as in hermeneutics, but discerned through analysis

in a search for patterns and meaning units (Moustakas, 1994). Moustakas provided a

structured methodological approach to transcendental phenomenology that many

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researchers have used, including the lived experiences of people who have experienced

head injuries (Padilla, 2003), the spirituality of African-American women recovering

from drug abuse (Wright, 2003), the experience of pregnancy for women (Bondas &

Eriksson, 2001), and physically active women over 65 (Kluge, 2002).

Moustakas (1994) created a systematic process that researchers have found useful

to interpret participants’ lived experiences. The process consists of asking participants to

describe an experience or phenomenon, identifying significant statements, clustering the

statements into meaning units and themes, and providing textual, descriptive themes that

capture the essence of the experience (Moerer-Urdahl & Creswell, 2004).

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The proposed study will be carried out with Moustakas’ transcendental
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phenomenological method to understand the lived experiences of 20 human resource

managers who voluntarily chose to leave their employer. In the phenomenological

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methodology, the inquiry is of the lived experience of the participants who are asked to

relive the cognitive stages they experienced immediately before their decision to leave.
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The data will be examined to identify specific patterns. The attraction that many

researchers find to the phenomenological approach is in the purposeful omission of

preconceived notions or hypotheses. Phenomenology is a methodology that rejects the

Cartesian concept of positivism and instead accepts subjective interpretation as

epistemology (Jones, 1975; Koch, 1995).

Moustakas referred to a condition of indifference into the inquiry process

identified by Husserl as epoche. It is an approach consciously taken at the beginning of a

phenomenological study in which “no position whatsoever is taken . . . nothing is

determined in advance . . . (and the researcher’s consciousness remains focused on)

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whatever is therein, memory, perception, judgment, feeling, whatever is actually there”

(Moustakas, 1994, p. 84). In phenomenological studies, one sets aside preconceived

notions to strive for epoche, allowing the participants to speak for themselves.

Previous research on voluntary employee turnover has included the exploration of

numerous factors. Studies looking at employee commitment to the organization as a

determinant of the likelihood the employee will remain with an organization have

suggested the importance of this dynamic. The specific contribution of previous studies is

the discussion about the roles that attitudinal and emotional attachment play in the

employee’s decision to remain with an employer. Previous research suggested that

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employers could increase employee retention by increasing the emotional connections of
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employees to the company. Possible correlations between the level of satisfaction

employees experience with their role in an organization and the rate of voluntary turnover
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represents another theoretical framework. Previous literature suggested that employees’

disposition toward their occupational role, the situational factors of the job environment,
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and in some cases the integration of both of these theoretical frameworks play a

significant role in employees’ decision to remain with an employer.

Another theoretical framework used to study and understand voluntary employee

turnover includes compensation as a major determinant of retention. The underlying

premise is that a correlation exists between higher pay and increased retention.

Compensation has been shown to have an impact on retention but other factors mitigate

the connection between compensation and the desire to remain with an employer. Other

theoretical frameworks include the impact of training and development, an employee’s

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sense of personal and professional growth, the relationship between the employee and the

supervisor, and the organization’s culture.

Each theoretical framework has contributed to a collective body of knowledge

regarding voluntary retention, and each frames the phenomenon of employee turnover as

an external and affective ontology. For example, employees might choose to leave an

organization if a lack of training and development opportunities inhibits their

professional growth, so organizational leaders might provide additional developmental

opportunities to their employees, anticipating that increased retention rates will follow.

The proposed study will be an attempt to understand the cognitive patterns that precede

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an employee’s decision to leave an organization. Voluntary turnover is the focus of the
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study through the perspective of the participants’ lived experiences and the awareness of

the cognitive staged they experienced, leading up to the ultimate decision to leave an
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employer.

Definition of Terms
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Terms are defined as they are used throughout the study in order to convey the

intended meaning in the specific context of the proposed study. The following terms are

defined with a brief discussion of their intended meaning.

Epoche. The researcher’s act of setting aside biases and prejudgments before

studying a phenomenon (Schmitt, 1976/1959-1960).

Hermeneutic phenomenology. An epistemic methodological approach to meaning

making that utilizes a reflective interpretation of an act or event (Moustakas, 1994).

Transcendental phenomenology. An epistemic methodological approach to

meaning making that explores the essence of human experience (Moustakas, 1994).
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Assumptions

It is assumed that the participants in the study will represent a population sample

with sufficient variability in their characteristics to be representative of a larger

population. A purposive sample of 20 human resource managers working in the United

States will be drawn. It is assumed that the participants will have a heightened sense of

retention as an organizational problem because of their role as human resource managers.

Qualitative phenomenological studies rely on inductive thinking. Concepts and theories

emerge from the responses and analyses of the participants in an interview process. It will

be assumed that the participants will speak truthfully and openly. It will be further

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assumed that the participants will accurately recall their lived experiences and cognitions
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before their decision to leave an employer.

Limitations
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The limitations of the qualitative study using transcendental phenomenology are

that (a) the study is based only on the lived experiences of the participants, (b) there is
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limited time available to conduct the interviews, and (c) the accuracy of the findings is

dependent on the validity of the data collected and subsequent analysis. The sincere and

accurate responses of the participants will be essential.

The participants will be qualified for the study by their direct experience of

working for an organization, coming to the conclusion that employment at that

organization is not desirable, and the subsequent cognitive determination that leaving the

organization is preferable to remaining. Participants will be interviewed in a process that

will last approximately 45-90 minutes. The validity of the phenomenological study will