Why Police Leave? An Examination of Turnover By Gender and Career Stage

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Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
School of Applied Psychology (Health)
The program of research presented in this thesis focuses on the construct of employee turnover. It is argued, despite the intense interest that employee turnover has attracted (Cotton & Tuttle, 1986; Griffeth, Hom & Gaertner, 2000), that turnover theory and research suffers from a number of notable shortcomings. These shortcomings primarily stem from the development and study of employee turnover models that attempt to make predictions for all individuals, at all times and across all places (Lee & Mowday, 1987). It is proposed that three shortcomings need to be addressed, specifically the need to develop employee turnover models that are organisationally specific, including predictors that are particularly relevant to the context under study and consideraton of the impact of career stage and gender on this process. Given the argument that employee turnover models need to be developed according to organisational context, a specific organisational population was identified for study in this research program. The current research program focused on a sample population of police officers employed in an Australian police organisation. This population was chosen due the paucity of research that has investigated turnover and turnover intention processes within the policing context and in light of the practical implications, specifically the significant financial cost, associated with police turnover. In addition to addressing the three key shortcomings of employee turnover theory and literature as identified above, the current program of research also addressed a number of limitations that are specifically relevant to police turnover research. This research represents an important contribution to the existing body of police specific turnover research due to the limited attention that the study of employee turnover within the policing context has attracted. Furthermore, the current research program studied large sample populations of Australian police officers given that pr