Re-examining the relationship between age and voluntary turnover

Abstract

In their quantitative review of the literature, Healy, Lehman, and McDaniel [Healy, M. C., Lehman, M., & McDaniel, M. A. (1995). Age and voluntary turnover: A quantitative review. Personnel Psychology, 48, 335-345] concluded that age is only weakly related to voluntary turnover (average r = -.08). However, with the significant changes in mobility patterns among employees over the last two decades, the strength of the age-turnover relationship may have changed as well. In a meta-analysis of studies published between 1990 and 2008 (49 studies, N = 71,053), we found that the age-voluntary turnover relationship was in fact stronger (-.14) than what Healy et al. (1995) found. In addition, moderator tests revealed that race, tenure, and education level help explain differences in effect sizes across studies linking age to turnover. That is, the age-turnover relationship is stronger when there are more racial minorities in the sample (-.16), when organizational tenure is higher (-.18), and when education level is lower (-.20). In addition, the relationship is strongest when the timeframe for measuring turnover behavior is 1-2 years and when the research is conducted with U.S. samples. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.