Nowhere to grow: Ranking success and turnover composition in elite employers

The rankings literature implicitly assumes that rankings success universally benefits organizations. However, in some instances, this assumption may be unwarranted. In this study, we employ a mixed-methods approach that moves the literature beyond examining whether employees leave, to examine who leaves elite Best Places to Work (BPTW), defined as organizations which place in the top 10 in BPTW rankings perennially (i.e., year after year). In Study 1, examination of elite BPTW organizations shows that proportions of voluntary turnover comprising high performers increase over associated BPTW ranking cycles. Study 2 commences with 40 semistructured interviews among employees in an elite BPTW organization, from which two relevant and explanatory themes emerge. First, some employees interpret BPTW success as restricting opportunities for advancement within the organization, a phenomenon we term "perceived promotion constraint." Second, some employees perceive BPTW success as building their own personal resumes. Integrating our findings from Study 1 and the qualitative portion of Study 2 with the career management literature, we propose and deductively test "perceived promotion constraint" and "perceived resume building" as two potential high performer turnover mechanisms, finding that perceived promotion constraint mediates the relationship between performance status and turnover intentions.