Article Gold Open Access 2025

Training and employee turnover: A social exchange perspective

BRQ Business Research Quarterly
Journal · Vol. 28 · Issue 1 · pp. 304-323
Abstract

Training is often thought to benefit organizations; however, these benefits only materialize if trained employees remain at the organization. Empirical findings are mixed regarding the direction and significance of the training-turnover association, which implies there are important moderators for this association. Drawing on the social exchange theory, we posit the training-turnover association varies as a function of two characteristics of an organization’s employees: job qualification and educational background. We assess hypotheses for their moderating impact on the training-turnover link using the Human Capital Corporate Panel data sets from 2009 to 2017. The panel data analyses support the hypotheses regarding the interaction effects of training and job qualification on employee turnover and demonstrate three-way effects among training, job qualification, and educational background. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings for the varied perceptions of the value of training and the value of staying at the organization from a social exchange perspective. JEL CLASSIFICATION: (1) M53 Training and (2) J63 Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs © The Author(s) 2023.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Training educational backgrounds Employee turnover job qualification social exchange theory

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
Center for Leadership Studies and School of Management, Binghamton University State University of New York, Binghamton, NY, United States
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
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