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Turnover and Knowledge Loss: An Examination of the Differential Impact of Production Manager and Worker Turnover in Service and Manufacturing Firms
Author(s) -
Eckardt Rory,
Skaggs Bruce C.,
Youndt Mark
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/joms.12096
Subject(s) - business , production (economics) , turnover , service (business) , manufacturing , human capital , service worker , tertiary sector of the economy , knowledge worker , industrial organization , marketing , labour economics , economics , work (physics) , management , microeconomics , mechanical engineering , engineering , economic growth
This research examines the comparative effects of production manager and worker turnover in service and manufacturing settings. We suggest that, due to the centrality of human action in services and the ability of manufacturers to insulate the technical core, service and manufacturing companies are differentially dependent on and impacted by the loss of production manager and worker knowledge. The results from a survey of 150 service and manufacturing firms provide partial support for this notion and show that turnover impacts these organizations differently. More specifically, we find that: (1) the negative impact of production worker turnover on firm performance is greater in service settings than in manufacturing settings; and (2) the negative impact of production worker turnover on firm performance is greater than the impact of production manager turnover in service firms. In addition, our findings show that organizational capital moderates the turnover–performance relationship for production workers in service firms.