Psychological Antecedents of Employee Turnover

The aim of our article is to present a Hungarian review about the phenomena of employee turnover. This is a well-researched topic in the field of organizational psychology, however, Hungarian literature on the topic is almost none existent. We think that this kind of review may inspire Hungarian researchers. Our review divides the literature into four sections. Section one is about personal factors: these factors explain employee turnover in terms of personal attitude, competence, personal life, commitment, and satisfaction. Section two highlights the organizational factors. These aspects of organizational life cannot be controlled by employees, nevertheless they play a crucial role at the workplace. Aspects like organizational culture and organizational climate, HR practices and leadership style are listed here. Section three contains the social factors of employee turnover. These factors are created by the everyday interactions between employees and they shape the organization as well as the psychological processes of employees. We define workplaces here as social networks which by their everyday workings create social capital: a specific resource organizations possess. Also, we outline the impact of organizational identification on employee turnover. Section four is about the personal and organizational consequences of employee turnover. What is the price organizations and employees pay when leaving the workplace. Based on the literature review, we define employee turnover as the consequence of the psychological relationship between employee and its workplace. We suggest that workplaces should put an emphasis on strengthening this relationship in order to keep their employees around for a long time.