How do Leader Departures Affect Turnover Among Those Employees Left Behind?

Abstract

[Excerpt] In large organizations, mid-level unit leaders regularly vacate their positions for a variety of reasons, including promotions, transfers, quits, and terminations. Certainly there are reasons to expect that these departures have residual effects – both positive and negative – on the units involved. Surprisingly, though, researchers have thus far paid scant attention to these dynamics. The present study takes a major step toward filling this void. Specifically, it looks at data from 287 locations of a company in the food and hospitality industry to examine the extent to which succession patterns among mid-level unit leaders influence both short- and longer-term voluntary turnover rates among core employees in the affected entities.