This is part two of a two-part interview with Terry Mitchell, where he talks about research he and Tom Lee have conducted in examining voluntary turnover. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that people stay in their jobs because they are satisfied, their research has discovered people often stay because they are stuck by factors both inside and outside the organization. Terry talks about ways that managers can help their employees to become more embedded, and thus reduce voluntary turnover.

Dr. Mitchell is the Edward E. Carlson Distinguished Professor in Business Administration at the University of Washington Business School in Seattle. He is a fellow in both the Academy of Management and the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and was chosen as a charter member in the Academy of Management's Hall of Fame. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

You can download the podcast by clicking here.

Date of the interview: July 24, 2007

Recommended further readings:

Holtom, B. C, Mitchell, T. R, Lee, T. W. 2006. Increasing human and social capital by applying job embeddedness theory. Organizational Dynamics, 35: 316-331.

Lee, T. W, Mitchell, T. R, Sablynski, C. J, Burton, J. P, Holtom, B. C. 2004. The Effects of Job Embeddedness on Organizational Citizenship, Job Performance, Volitional Absences, and Voluntary Turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 47: 711-722.

Mitchell, T. R, Holtom, B. C, Lee, T. W, Sablynski, C. J, Erez, M. 2001. Why people stay: Using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 44: 1102-1121.

Michael Johnson is an Assistant Professor in Department of Management and Organization at the University of Washington. He can be reached via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it