The relationship between perceptions of organizational functioning and voluntary counselor turnover: A four-wave longitudinal study.

Using data from the nationwide CTN platform project “Managing Effective Relationships in Treatment Services” (MERITS I), researchers have been annually tracking a cohort of 598 substance use disorder counselors from a variety of CTN community treatment programs over a four-wave period to (a) document the cumulative rates of voluntary turnover and (b) examine how counselor perceptions of the organizational environment (procedural justice, distributive justice, perceived organizational support, and job satisfaction) and clinical supervisor leadership effectiveness (relationship quality, in-role performance, extra-role performance) predict voluntary turnover over time. Survey data were collected from counselors in Year 1, and actual turnover data were collected from organizational records in Years 2, 3, and 4. Findings reveal that 25% of the original counselors turned over by Year 2, 39% by Year 3, and 47% by Year 4. Counselors with more favorable perceptions of the organizational environment are between 13.8% and 22.8% less likely to turn over than those with less favorable perceptions. None of the leadership effectiveness variables are significant.

Conclusions: This is the first study to systematically examine substance use disorder counselors’ actual turnover rates over a 3 year time frame and investigate predictors of turnover over time. These findings highlight the importance of examining voluntary turnover and suggest that efforts to reduce turnover and stabilize the substance use disorder workforce should focus on efforts to improve job satisfaction, perceptions of distributing and procedural justice, as well as organizational support.