Turnover, Social Capital Losses, and Performance

Abstract

A theory of turnover, social capital losses, and store performance was developed and tested in 38 locations of a restaurant chain. We assessed the ability of social capital losses to predict variance in store-level performance above and beyond that predicted by overall turnover rate and in-role performance losses from turnover. We further predicted that turnover rate and network density would moderate the curvilinear relationship between social capital losses and performance. Results strongly supported turnover rate's moderation of social capital losses: performance declines from network disruptions were more apparent when overall turnover was low. The network density interaction prediction was not supported.