Employee Voice, Human Resource Practices, and Quit Rates: Evidence from the Telecommunications Industry

Abstract

Using data from a 1998 establishment-level survey in the telecommunications industry, the authors examine the predictors of aggregate quit rates. They draw on strategic human resource and industrial relations theory to identify the sets of employee voice mechanisms and human resource practices that are likely to predict quit rates. With respect to alternative voice mechanisms, they find that union representation predicts lower quit rates, even after they control for compensation and a wide range of other human resource practices that may be affected by collective bargaining. Direct participation via offline problem-solving groups and self-directed teams has a negative, statistically significant relationship with quit levels, but nonunion dispute resolution procedures do not. In addition, higher relative wages and internal promotion policies predict lower quit rates, and contingent staffing, electronic monitoring, and variable pay predict higher rates.

JEL Classification: J51, J52, J63, L23, L96, M12