Searching for The Optimal Level of Employee Turnover: A Study of a Large U.K. Retail Organization

We study the relationship between sales assistant turnover and labor productivity in 325 stores of a large U.K. clothing retailer tracked over 1995–99. We find that the turnover-productivity relationship is contingent on type of work system. For a large group of part-timers, managed under a “secondary” work system, the relationship clearly has an inverted U-shape, but for the smaller group of full-timers, managed under a “commitment” system, the relationship is the conventional negative one. Implications for the contingency view of the link between turnover and productivity are discussed.