Applying a Causal Analytic Framework to the Mobley, Horner, and Hollingsworth (1978) Turnover Model: A Useful Reexamination

Mobley, Horner, and Hollingsworth (1978) have proposed a sequential decisional model of the employee withdrawal process. In their model, cognitive and behavioral variables mediate the job satisfaction and turnover relationship. The authors of that model presented an explicit causal structure which has yet to be examined with causal analysis. In the present study, a path-analytic approach was used to conduct such an examination using the original data, which Mobley et al. derived from a sample of 203 full-time hospital employees from four general job categories: service, technical, clerical, and nursing services. The results of our analysis provide support for the general theoretical structure of the Mobley et al. model, but also point to more complexity in some of the model's hypothesized relations.