An extension of Lee and Mitchell's unfolding model of voluntary turnover

Lee and Mitchell (1994) proposed a decision process-based voluntary turnover model, which identifies the psychological processes involved in the decision to quit a job. The current study tests and extends the Lee and Mitchell's (1994) unfolding model of voluntary turnover using a sample of voluntary 'quitters' and 'stayers'. Survey and interview results from 84 practicing accountants suggest that the Lee and Mitchell's (1994) model does an excellent job of capturing employee decision process-data in an accounting environment. Additional extension hypotheses pertaining to economic consequences and gender differences are also proposed and subsequently supported. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.