A Study of the Causes of Employee Turnover: The Case of an Accounting Firm

Employee turnover has become one of the most significant issues confronting managers and human resource professionals A review of the literature Indicates fairly clearly that most studies oil the topic have been undertaken in the United States. As a result little is known about the underlying Causes of employee turnover in less developed economics. Using a case Study approach, this paper further explores the issue of employee turnover in the professional services industry in Ghana. The research Involved a survey of forty former employees of a major accountancy firm over a seven-year period. In terms of the reasons for employee turnover, the Study demonstrates that the root causes or turnover originate from dissatisfaction ill four key areas: compensation and benefits, working conditions, opportunities for Job growth; and reasons unrelated to the job. While uncompetitive salary is the strongest reason for resignations, the results also show that the intrinsic need for a challenging interesting work is a significant motivation for job change.