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Training and Turnover in the Evolution of Organizations

Author

Listed:
  • Natalie S. Glance

    (Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, California 94304)

  • Tad Hogg

    (Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, California 94304)

  • Bernardo A. Huberman

    (Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, California 94304)

Abstract

An organization's decision whether or not to train its workers affects the overall economy, even if the firm does not factor the economy into its decision. If all firms within an industry fail to train their workers, the whole economy suffers. Hence, training workers is a type of public good, a category that encompasses a broad range of social dilemmas. Employees face a similar dilemma in their choice of how much to contribute to the overall productivity of the organization. If employees receive a share of the profits regardless of their contribution, some may decide to free ride on the efforts of their fellow workers. If all employees decide to do so, the company will fail.The two dilemmas on the employee and organizational levels are closely interrelated. On one side, the benefits of training accrue only to the extent that employees contribute to the organization. Thus, a firm should take into account how it expects a training program to affect employee effort as well as employee turnover. On the other side, trained workers produce at higher rates, which in turn may affect how much they contribute and how often they migrate to other firms in comparison with untrained workers.The authors study the dynamics of training and turnover in firms facing both organizational- and employee-level dilemmas. First they establish a simple model that captures those conflicts and incorporates imperfect information and both worker and organizational expectations. Organizations can be both created and dissolved, and employees can move between firms, start new ones, or leave the industry for good. Next the authors summarize the different ways the dilemmas can unfold over time, collated from a number of computer experiments. For example, under one set of conditions, the double dilemma can be resolved for the industry as a whole and productivity then increases steadily over time. Alternatively, the organizational-level dilemma may remain unresolved and workers may contribute at fluctuating levels. In that case the overall productivity stays low. The authors find a positive correlation between high productivity, low turnover, and enterprise size, a relation that has also been observed in the empirical literature on training, stability, and turnover in organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Natalie S. Glance & Tad Hogg & Bernardo A. Huberman, 1997. "Training and Turnover in the Evolution of Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(1), pages 84-96, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:8:y:1997:i:1:p:84-96
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.8.1.84
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Chang, Myong-Hun & Harrington, Joseph Jr., 2006. "Agent-Based Models of Organizations," Handbook of Computational Economics, in: Leigh Tesfatsion & Kenneth L. Judd (ed.), Handbook of Computational Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 26, pages 1273-1337, Elsevier.
    2. Hamdia Mudor, 2011. "Conceptual framework on the relationship between human resource management practices, job satisfaction, and turnover," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 2(2), pages 41-49.
    3. Steven E. Phelan & Zhiang Lin, 2001. "Promotion Systems and Organizational Performance: A Contingency Model," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 207-232, October.
    4. Fasolo, Barbara & Heard, Claire & Scopelliti, Irene, 2024. "Mitigating cognitive bias to improve organizational decisions: an integrative review, framework, and research agenda," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125404, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Connie Zheng & David Lamond, 2010. "Organisational determinants of employee turnover for multinational companies in Asia," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 423-443, September.
    6. G. Lawrence Zahn & Gerrit Wolf, 1998. "Coordination and Cooperation in Dyadic Relationships," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 249-265, December.
    7. Francesco Pasimeni & Tommaso Ciarli, 2018. "Diffusion of Shared Goods in Consumer Coalitions. An Agent-Based Model," SPRU Working Paper Series 2018-24, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    8. Michel Zaitouni, 2016. "Creating positive outcomes through perceived investment in employee development: Evidence from Kuwait," International Journal of Business and Social Research, MIR Center for Socio-Economic Research, vol. 6(1), pages 10-21, January.
    9. Katherine C. Kellogg & Jenna E. Myers & Lindsay Gainer & Sara J. Singer, 2021. "Moving Violations: Pairing an Illegitimate Learning Hierarchy with Trainee Status Mobility for Acquiring New Skills When Traditional Expertise Erodes," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(1), pages 181-209, January.
    10. Michel Zaitouni, 2016. "Creating positive outcomes through perceived investment in employee development: Evidence from Kuwait," International Journal of Business and Social Research, LAR Center Press, vol. 6(1), pages 10-21, January.
    11. Keisuke Kokubun, 2017. "Organizational Commitment and Rewards in Malaysia, with Comparison between University Graduates and Others," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(6), pages 1-51, October.

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