An event history analysis of employee turnover: The case of hospital employees in Australia

This study proposes an integrated model and alternative methodology in the study of voluntary employee turnover. A causal model comprising four categories of variables: personal, job-related, environmental, and employee orientations is formulated. This model is tested on a sample of 415 hospital employees over a 12-month period, employing the statistical procedure of event history analysis. During this period, 88 employees voluntarily left the hospital, representing a turnover rate of 21 percent. Consistent with expectations, the personal variable of kinship responsibility, the job-related variable of autonomy and the employee orientations of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to leave had significant effects on employees' decision to quit. The variables of sex and age were observed to play a moderating role in the analysis. Kinship responsibility had a significant negative relationship with turnover for females and males, and for those employees older than 30 years of age. The theoretical, empirical, and practical implications of the findings are discussed.