Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Koster Fleur 
Author-Name: Grip Andries de
Author-Name: Fouarge Didier 
Author-workplace-name: METEOR
Title: Does Perceived Support in Employee Development Affect Personnel Turnover?
Abstract: This paper focuses on the question whether it is beneficial for firms to invest in the general skills of their workforce or that these training investments merely encourage personnel turnover. We examine two contrary theoretical perspectives on how investments in employee development are related to their turnover behaviour. Estimation results derived from a sample of 2,833 Dutch pharmacy assistants show that participation in general training does not induce the intention of assistants to quit, as predicted by human capital theory. We find that a firm’s investments in general training, significantly contribute to the perceived support in employee development (PSED) among their workforce. Our results also show that PSED is negatively related to the intention of employees to quit the firm. This effect is to a large extent mediated by the job satisfaction of pharmacy assistants. Our findings support the importance of social exchange theory in explaining turnover behaviour as a consequence of personnel development practices. It should be noted, however, that PSED only diminishes the intention to quit for other occupations.
Keywords: labour economics ; 
Series: Research Memoranda
Creation-Date: 2009
Number: 048
File-URL: http://digitalarchive.maastrichtuniversity.nl/fedora/objects/guid:f42b75b9-e0f7-4ecd-ac28-9682bc903cc5/datastreams/ASSET1/content
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 407310
Handle: RePEc:unm:umamet:2009048