Introduction This paper provides a review of the article by Call, Nyberg, Ployhart and Weekley (2015) entitled “The Dynamic Nature of Collective Turnover and Unit Performance: The Impact of Time, Quality, and Replacements.” The article uses context-emergent theory to explain the relationship between turnover rate and turnover rate change. This paper will summarize the article, critique it, and discuss how its concepts can be applied in the real world of business.

Summary of the Article

The article by Call et al. (2015) shows that turnover in business, specifically in a large retail chain, has to be discussed in precise terms rather than in general, because context plays a significant role in how the turnover should be viewed. The precise elements that have to be considered are: 1) who is leaving the company and what level of quality did they bring, 2) how evenly or unevenly dispersed is the turnover throughout the company—i.e., are the majority of workers leaving from one department, such as sales or marketing or upper management. Focusing on these elements, the company will be in a better position to assess the cost of turnover and what it means to the company’s human capital resource system.

Relevant Points

The most relevant points of the article include: 1) context-emergent theory can be applied to a company’s assessment of turnover to better understand how aspects of quantity and quality with regard to turnover impact performance within the company; 2) there is a significant difference between turnover rates and turnover rate change; the latter will impact staffing requirements, which will impact forecasting and replacement cycles: if rates are high, staffing requirements are high—but if turnover suddenly drops, the change will impact HR focus on that particular area. In short, it is not just...

1226). This means that not only the extent of turnover but also how turnover rates change over a course of time will be able to tell HR something about why the turnover is occurring and what can be done to address it if it is an issue—i.e., something that is...…and no delays in unit performance. Managing staffing needs effectively depends on being able to understand when replacement hirers are likely to be needed and filling the gap as soon as it appears.
Finally, managers should make every effort to retain high-quality workers, so attention must be paid to the level of quality of workers quitting. Finding ways to incentivize these workers to stay or finding out why they are leaving will help to serve the company’s objectives in the long run. That cannot be accomplished, however, without using context-emergent theory. In other words, HR managers have to focus on the contextual aspect of turnover to make the right decisions.

Summary

Turnover rate and rate change are important issues for HR to look at. The article by Call et al. (2015) effectively analyzes the differences between the two and why it matters by applying context-emergent theory to the problem of turnover in the retail industry. The researchers find that turnover rate change will impact HR’s staffing decision-making. The article is well-rounded and provides relevant data for the industry overall. Managers in HR should focus on industry changes, timing, and quality of workers in turnover to be best prepared.…