Promotions, Pay, Performance Ratings and Quits

This study investigates the determinants of quitting among a sample of 8,500 white, male professional employees of a large manufacturing firm. The major hypothesis is that sample heterogeneity creates noncompeting groups, which have different promotion rates ceteris paribus, and that absence of promotion increases quitting. Absence of promotion is found to significantly increase quitting for the whole sample, but among more homogeneous subsamples, defined by either of two measures of specific training, the promotion effect is much smaller and generally not significant. The basic hypothesis is supported, although small samples may have influenced the results for the subsamples.