Some determinants of employee turnover in a psychiatric facility

Two approaches to enhancing the quality of work environments have been pursued. The first is an illness-prevention approach that emphasizes job stressors that make employees dissatisfied. The second is a job-enrichment approach that involves altering work environments to foster employee feelings of growth and accomplishment. Using past research from these two approaches, instruments were developed to assess both the number of job stressors and the level of task interest on units in a Psychiatric hospital. These instruments successfully predicted employee turnover during a 12-month period. Job stress and the interaction between job stress and task interest were found to be significant predictors of turnover. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.