Chapter 3: Revisiting the Cosmopolitan–Local Construct: An Event History Analysis of Employee Turnover

This study examines Gouldner’s (1957) original cosmopolitan-local construct. Using organizational and professional commitment, we extended the cosmopolitan-local construct by the two additional categories of cosmopolitan/local, and nether cosmopolitan/local (Blau & Scott 1962; Grimes & Berger, 1970). Three hypotheses were proposed. First, locals will display lower turnover than cosmopolitans. Second, individuals who are classified as cosmopolitan/local (i.e., dually committed) will display lower turnover than cosmopolitans. Third, and final, individuals who are classified neither cosmopolitan/local (i.e., dually uncommitted) will display higher turnover than cosmopolitans. These hypotheses were tested (controlling for demographic, job-related, environmental, and contextual variables) on a sample of 838 public school teachers from 405 schools over a five-year period employing the statistical procedure of event history analysis. During this period, 104 teachers voluntarily left the school district, representing a corrected turnover rate of approximately16 percent. Hypotheses 1 and 2 were affirmed: Both locals and those teachers who were dually committed (cosmopolitan/local) were less likely to leave than their cosmopolitan counterparts. We failed to find support for Hypothesis 3. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.