Turnover: The Unfolding Model
The next model that will be presented is one that has been recently developed and is gaining acceptance into the turnover literature. This new model was developed by Lee and Mitchell (1994) and is identified as the Unfolding Model. This model takes what was demonstrated in Mobley’s Model (1977) and presents a new perspective on the turnover process that is different from what Mobley Model (1977) describes. Mobley’s Model (1977) first starts with the idea that the employee evaluates their job when deciding to quit. Lee and Mitchell (1994) in contrast argue that employee’s don’t just randomly evaluate their job unless there is a situation that gives them a reason to evaluate their current position. The Unfolding Model labels these situations as “shocks”and describes them as an event that forces the employee to evaluate their job (Lee & Mitchell, 1994). Shocks may seem that they are only negative events, like being laid off, but they can also be positive events such as, promotions or bonuses. This model presents five distinct paths employees can experience that result in the leaving their current job. Below is a modified presentation of what Lee and Mitchell (1994) were trying to describe through the Unfolding model (Lee & Mitchell, 1994).
Similar to what was done with Mobley's Model (1977) click on the button below to further explore each of the paths associated with the Unfolding model to gain a better understanding.
Essentially the Unfolding Model (Lee & Mitchell, 1994) presents different paths employee take when quitting their job as a result of some shock or situation that caused them to evaluate their job. This model is still gaining empirical support but a recent article provided the empirical evidence this model has been waiting for (Kulik, Treuren, and Bordi, 2012). Click on the Recent Research button below to see what current research is saying about this model is gaining acceptance into the turnover literature.