Involuntary turnover among small-town superintendents

Eaton, William E.; Sharp, William L.

doi:10.1207/s15327930pje7102_6

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Beyond its relevance to voluntary quitting, the idea of embeddedness propensity may also have implications for involuntary turnover in that supervisors may be more hesitant to fire employees more embedded at hire. Because embeddedness emphasizes feelings of being “stuck” or immersed in an organizational web (Allen et al, ), such stickiness is effectively a two‐way street: More embedded employees may be less prone to quit, but they also may be more difficult to get rid of (Eaton & Sharp, ). Highly embedded employees could be particularly harder to fire because they are already better adjusted at the point of hire (i.e., they are already significantly integrated into a company's operational network).…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Embedded” at hire? Predicting the voluntary and involuntary turnover of new employees

et al. 2018

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Summary Embeddedness theory has been invoked to describe factors that constrain employee turnover, such as fit with the environment, interpersonal links, and potentially sacrificed benefits. In contrast with previous assumptions that embeddedness requires considerable time to develop on the job, we extend theory by demonstrating how biographical characteristics (i.e., biodata), assessed at or before the point of hire, are related to individual's propensity to be embedded, while also showing how such characteristics predict one's future turnover likelihood. Beyond voluntary turnover, we also build embeddedness‐based theoretical explanations for involuntary turnover (i.e., terminations). To test these ideas, we conducted two studies at and before employees' point of hire, respectively: Study 1 examined how assessed biodata items of new employees relate to established embeddedness measures, whereas Study 2 linked the same biodata items assessed during the application process to employees' future involuntary, avoidable voluntary, and unavoidable voluntary turnover. Study 1 results revealed various biodata items predicted embeddedness in two distinct samples. In Study 2, results showed that biodata predicted turnover forms in unique ways. Our study highlights the utility of point‐of‐hire embeddedness propensity as a means to explain organizational exit, thereby demonstrating how organizations can use embeddedness tenets for employee recruitment and selection purposes.

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Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Embedded” at hire? Predicting the voluntary and involuntary turnover of new employees

et al. 2018

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“…In surveys of superintendents who had left positions in Nebraska and South Carolina by Grady and Bryant (1991) and Monteith and Hallums (1989), respectively, board conflict or interference was cited by more than half of respondents as a contributor to their departure. In Eaton and Sharp’s (1996) survey of superintendents to ask why their predecessor left the district, board relationship conflict was identified as a similarly large factor. Though not articulated in these studies, it is important to emphasize that intraboard conflict and a strained relationship between the board and the superintendent can influence both the superintendent’s decision to stay or go and the board’s decision to retain the superintendent or not.…”

Section: Conceptualizing Superintendent Turnovermentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Superintendents Turn Over

Grissom

Andersen

2012

American Educational Research Journal

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Although superintendent turnover can hinder district reform and improvement, research examining superintendent exits is scarce. This study identifies factors contributing to superintendent turnover in California by matching original superintendent and school board survey data with administrative data and information hand-collected from news sources on why superintendents left and where they went. Among 215 superintendents studied beginning in 2006, 45% exited within 3 years. Using a multinomial framework to separate retirements from other turnover, the authors find that factors such as how highly the school board rates its own functioning and the superintendent’s performance and whether the superintendent was hired internally strongly predict non-retirement exits 3 years later. Short-term district test score growth, however, is uncorrelated. Superintendents who move migrate away from rural districts toward larger, higher-paying districts in urban and suburban locations.

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“…Despite these concerns, the research base in this area is very small and limited primarily to qualitative studies (Chance & Capps, 1992; Eaton & Sharp, 1996; Parker, 1996). The dearth of studies has made establishing patterns in superintendent turnover difficult and limited inquiry into potential policy levers for promoting superintendent retention.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Salary, Performance, and Superintendent Turnover

Grissom

Mitani

2016

Educational Administration Quarterly

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Purpose: Superintendent retention is an important goal for many school districts, yet the factors contributing to superintendent turnover are poorly understood. Most prior quantitative studies of superintendent turnover have relied on small, cross-sectional samples, limiting the evidence base. Utilizing longitudinal administrative records from Missouri, we employ panel methods to investigate factors that predict turnover, including superintendent salary and district performance. Research Methods: We model turnover probability as a function of superintendent and district characteristics. Further investigation differentiates types of turnover, including movement to other superintendent positions and exits from the system. A series of binary and multinomial regression models with district, labor market, and/or superintendent fixed effects are estimated. Findings: Like prior cross-sectional work, we find that district characteristics such as size and student race/ethnicity predict superintendent turnover, but only before district fixed effects are included. Districts with lower test scores also have higher rates of turnover, though we also find surprising evidence of nonlinearities, with lower turnover in the lowest performing districts. Superintendent salary is an especially strong turnover predictor; even with district and superintendent fixed effects, higher paid superintendents are substantially more likely to stay, an association that is even stronger in high-performing districts. Moreover, moves to new superintendent positions are associated with substantial salary gains and systematic changes in district characteristics, such as increases in district size and achievement level, with rural districts losing superintendents to urban and suburban districts. Implications: Increasing superintendent salary may be a worthwhile strategy for retaining superintendents, and may be especially important in smaller and rural districts and districts with lower student achievement whose superintendents are more likely to move to higher paying positions in larger, higher performing districts in more urban areas.

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Involuntary turnover among small-town superintendents

Cited by 5 publications

References 1 publication

“Embedded” at hire? Predicting the voluntary and involuntary turnover of new employees

“Embedded” at hire? Predicting the voluntary and involuntary turnover of new employees

Why Superintendents Turn Over

Salary, Performance, and Superintendent Turnover

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