The systems psychodynamics of voluntary turnover

Abstract

The cost of voluntary turnover to organisations has prompted extensive research into the phenomenon over the past 70 years. Much of the initial research focused on predicting why individuals leave, with limited studies done on how the process is experienced. Many of the antecedents that researchers identified to predict voluntary turnover suggest it to be a psychologically challenging experience, yet little understanding exists to support groups, organisations, and individuals to adjust through it. Most process models furthermore focus on rational decision-making, and very little is known about the unconscious processes of voluntary turnover. Research has also focused on the individual as the primary subject of voluntary turnover, with antecedents and processes located in the individual, while limited understanding of group and organisational influences and processes exists. The study aimed to explore and describe seven cases of lived voluntary turnover experiences and analyse them using systems psychodynamics as a meta-theoretical lens. The study sought to create a depth of understanding of the phenomenon that would enable groups, organisations, and individuals to better adjust and develop psychologically through the voluntary turnover process. Hermeneutic phenomenology and the use of the theoretical framework of systems psychodynamics enabled me to provide in-depth descriptions and formulate abductive working hypotheses about the lived experiences of voluntary turnover. Triple hermeneutics allowed for the exploration of the transpersonal experiences of the researcher and the researched to inform the findings. The research strategy comprised case studies which were analysed individually before integrating findings across the cases into themes. The study revealed the unconscious psychodynamic processes of voluntary turnover at the levels of the group (meso), the organisation (macro), and the individual (micro). The themes that emerged at the level of the group included conflict, identity, boundaries, power, authority, role, task, and themes relating to toxic leadership dynamics. Themes at the level of the organisation included a culture of devalued people, a culture of cruelty shrouded in niceness, a messiah culture, a stagnated culture, a detached culture, and a paranoid-schizoid culture. The themes that emerged at the individual level included desire and trauma, emotional responses to the trauma, defences against anxiety, and coming to awareness. Themes culminated into three working hypotheses about the systems psychodynamics of voluntary turnover, one for each of the meso, macro and micro-levels. Triple hermeneutics themes that emerged included anxiety, shame, loss, idealisation, boundary, and phases of voluntary turnover. The triple hermeneutics themes were mirrored in the working hypotheses and informed the findings. The findings culminated in two systems psychodynamics models of voluntary turnover with recommendations for applying them to the fields of consulting and coaching psychology.