• John P Hausknecht, Charlie O Trevor, and Michael J Howard.
• Department of Human Resource Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. jph42@cornell.edu
• J Appl Psychol. 2009 Jul 1; 94 (4): 1068-75.

AbstractDespite substantial growth in the service industry and emerging work on turnover consequences, little research examines how unit-level turnover rates affect essential customer-related outcomes. The authors propose an operational disruption framework to explain why voluntary turnover impairs customers' service quality perceptions. On the basis of a sample of 75 work units and data from 5,631 employee surveys, 59,602 customer surveys, and organizational records, results indicate that unit-level voluntary turnover rates are negatively related to service quality perceptions. The authors also examine potential boundary conditions related to the disruption framework. Of 3 moderators studied (group cohesiveness, group size, and newcomer concentration), results show that turnover's negative effects on service quality are more pronounced in larger units and in those with a greater concentration of newcomers.

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