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Voluntary turnover and women administrators in higher education

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Abstract

A salient characteristic about the U.S. workforce is the continual process of voluntary employee turnover, which can be problematic for employers who invest a substantial amount of time and money in recruiting and training employees. This paper discusses the effects of workplace policies and practices on the voluntary turnover of women administrators in higher education. According to the results from in-depth interviews with ex-administrators of one Ivy League university, the top three reasons were conflict with supervisor, inadequate advancement opportunities, and incompatible work schedule. The results from this study revealed several interesting findings which add to our understanding of the staff turnover process for midlevel administrators in institutions of higher education. The findings could offer important insight into implementing cost-effective retention programs to help reduce unwanted turnover among women administrators in colleges and universities.

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  1. Department of Foreign Language Education, Catholic University of Korea, Yeokgok 2-dong, Bucheon-si, 420-743, South Korea

    Victoria H. Jo

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Correspondence to Victoria H. Jo.

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Jo, V.H. Voluntary turnover and women administrators in higher education. High Educ 56, 565–582 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-008-9111-y

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