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The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel direction of enquiry into predictions of employee turnover through the application of a qualitative method adapted from marital research. This method focuses on diagnosing the relationship, and has been able to predict divorce with an accuracy of over 90 per cent, as opposed to existing turnover prediction methods’ modest success of about 30 per cent. By demonstrating that the method can be applied to turnover research, this study completes a seminal step in developing this promising direction of enquiry.

The Oral History Interview method for predicting divorce is adapted to employment settings, and tested on Australian legal and healthcare employees. A qualitative analysis of their responses maps the results from this inquiry onto separation-predicting processes identified in marital research. The results are compared to turnover data collected two years later.

Similar relational processes exist in marital and employment relationships when the marital relationship diagnostics method is applied to organisational settings, demonstrating the utility of this tool in the employment context. Preliminary turnover data indicate that some relational processes are significantly associated with employee turnover.

Future research should examine the predictive power of this tool on a larger sample, and apply it to a wider range of professions, tenure, and positions.

The results indicate that it is viable to diagnose an employment relationship using this diagnostics method developed in marital research.

The novel perspective offered in this paper has potential to greatly improve this employment relationship across jobs and organisations, thus improving organisational productivity and individual wellbeing.

Researchers of employee turnover and practitioners seeking to understand and manage it can benefit from this novel and practical perspective on employment.

Purpose – This chapter presents research on determinants of economic hardship and the effect of economic hardship on marital quality in two social contexts in Croatia: postwar recovery period (Study 1) and economic recession starting in 2009 to present (Study 2).

Methodology/approach – In Study 1 the sample consisted of 505 married couples (quota sample of Zagreb and neighboring villages). In Study 2 the sample consisted of 850 married couples (quota sample of Zagreb and 14 regions in Croatia). We have used the SPSS 18 Mixed Linear Model approach for data analysis. A number of variables representing individual characteristics of marital partners were entered as level 1. A number of variables representing marital dyad (duration of marriage, size of the family) were entered as level 2.

Findings – The variables of education, employment status, and size of the family turned out to be most predictive for economic hardship in both studies. Also, in both studies economic hardship turned out to be a very important predictor of marital quality.

Research limitations – The limitations of the studies are the absence of longitudinal approach and a probability sample.

Social implications – The studies carry important social implications showing that in the absence of government or community social support, partners’ social support could moderate negative effect of economic hardship on marital quality. We assume that this conclusion could be generalized to other social contexts as well.

Originality/value of chapter – The strength and originality of the studies was in multilevel approach in data analysis and treating marital partners as a dyad.

The study was conducted to investigate the association between nonsexual predictors (personal, interpersonal, and dyad variables) and sexual satisfaction in the long-term marriages. The theoretical model was created according to the socio-ecological model proposed by Huston (2000), including 12 personal, 8 interpersonal, and 3 dyad variables as predictors. The model treated personal and interpersonal variables as level 1 variables, while dyad variables were defined as level 2. The research was performed in 14 counties of Croatia and in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. The sample included 315 marital couples. Marital partners were interviewed individually and separately, at their home. The analysis was performed using the MLM statistical procedure. Four models were tested: (1) personal, (2) interpersonal without gender variable as predictor, (3) interpersonal with gender variable, and (4) final model made up of all groups of predictors together. In Model 1, Self-esteem and Physical attraction turned out to be predictive of sexual satisfaction. In Model 2, Emotional and Recreational intimacy were positive, while Marriage duration proved to be negative predictor. Model 3 generated same predictive variables as Model 2 plus the variable Gender. Model 4 yielded Gender, Physical Attraction, Emotional Intimacy, Participation in key decision-making, and Marital Quality as positive predictors, while Anxiety and Depression proved to be negative predictors. Obtained results are showing that in long-term marriages not only sexual variables are good predictors of marital sexual satisfaction but some nonsexual variables such as emotional intimacy, recreational intimacy, physical attractiveness, participation in key decision-making, and marital quality are also important. The results are discussed and study limitations are emphasized at the end.

Every society has unique factors that contribute to the selection of marriage partner among young adults. These factors have been found to equally determine marital satisfaction and marital stability. This study focuses on married couples in Nigeria and factors that determined how they transcended from their dating period to marriage.

A total of 19 married couples participated in this study, which involved the use of focus group discussions to elicit data from them. Snowball sampling technique was used to obtain respondents who had similar characteristics.

The respondents were aged between 38 and 50 years, had courted for at least 7 years before marriage, and marriage was not less than 10 years. Data was analyzed using content analysis. Themes bordered on factors determining choice of partner, how they met, length of their dating, and courtship periods. Physical attractiveness, as a determining factor, was clearly evident among participants. Participants agreed that communication was vital to marriage stability.

The study brought to light that in spite of strong traditional values, Nigerians displayed romantic characteristics similar to Western societies such as the United States and the United Kingdom. The study was limited because of the method adopted for selecting participants. Also, some variables such as ethnic background and educational background were not included in the study. The study recommends future studies which may be longitudinal, involving couples’ personality traits, families of origin, and so on, in order to yield more salient issues.

Research on relational maintenance of long-distance or cross-residential romantic relationships is limited. Moreover, relatively little is known about relational maintenance among non-marital intimate partners in later life, many of whom prefer to live-apart-together (LAT) rather than cohabit. This research paper examines how older adults from the United States maintain their romantic relationships across residences. The authors conducted a grounded theory study drawing on interviews collected from 22 older adults in LAT relationships. The data revealed that older LAT partners engage in a process of safeguarding autonomy to maintain their partnerships and relationship satisfaction. Two broad strategies were identified: upholding separateness and reshaping expectations. While safeguarding autonomy was paramount, participants also emphasized the importance of having a flexible mindset about the physical copresence of their relationships. The findings have implications for practice, suggesting that creating an interdependent couple-identity may undermine, or at least have little bearing on, the relationship stability of older LAT couples. Future research is needed to determine how LAT experiences among racially/ethnically or socioeconomically diverse samples might differ.

This study aims to investigate the direct and indirect effects of leadership style and gender roles on managing familial conflict (MFC), as well as how such conflict resolution affects divorce decisions and overall marital satisfaction (SF) in Qatar.

A 20-item questionnaire, corresponding to 20 indicators for six latent variables, was administered to 550 married couples in Qatar. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett's test of sphericity were calculated. The path analysis was measured using structural equation modeling.

Matrimonial strategies adopted by spouses positively affected familial conflict resolution, and successfully MFC both positively affected marital SF and reduced the inclination to seek a divorce. However, men were not found to be visionary leaders in familial relationships regarding conflict resolution. Leadership gender stereotyping did not positively influence the perception of women's competency (WC). The WC did not positively affect the managing of familial conflict.

This study provides strategic insights regarding how MFC in Qatar influences marital SF. Understanding the determinants of divorce decisions and marital SF furthers understanding of how married couples can sustain healthy relationships.

This study empirically correlates three fields of family research: gender role; conflict resolution and marital SF. It explains how divorce issues have escalated in Qatar and explores the influence on modern social life of sexism, patriarchal roots and Oriental androcentrism. Many factors must be considered when examining matrimonial strategies (MSs), especially if there is debate over the ideal number of children. Strategizing models can curtail conflict that might lead to divorce.

The objective of this study was to determine whether an association between coparenting trajectories and parental commitment exists five years after the birth of focal children. Situated in commitment theory, the study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to estimate latent growth curve models to test the relationship between coparenting trajectories and commitment theory. Results show that the coparenting trajectory decreased over the four-year period, but reports remained high. Mothers who report high levels of coparenting also report being committed to the biological father, albeit commitment is low. This finding shows that parents may be dedicated to their children and constrained by the parental dyad. These findings support the hypothesis that children are constraining the parental dyad. Further, coparenting among unmarried, cohabiting parents influence parental relationships over time–substantiating the argument that a “new package deal” exists.

Social implications – If parents feel constrained to each other due to shared children, policies directed at coparenting, rather than marriage incentives and promotion, could help parents learn to negotiate their parental duties with each other to ensure that both parents are vested in their children’s lives.

The prevalence and stability of marriage has declined in the United States as the economic lives of men and women have converged. Family change has not been uniform, however, and the widening gaps in marital status, relationship stability, and childbearing between socioeconomic groups raise concerns about child well-being in poor families and future inequality. This paper uses data from a recent cohort of young adults – Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health – to investigate whether disparities in cognitive ability and non-cognitive skills contribute to this gap. Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions of differences in key family outcomes across education groups show that, though individual non-cognitive traits are significantly associated with union status, relationship instability, and single motherhood, they collectively make no significant contribution to the explanation of educational gaps for almost all of these outcomes. Measured skills can explain as much as 25 percent of differences in these outcomes by family background (measured by mother’s education), but this effect disappears when own education is added to the model. Both cognitive and non-cognitive skills are strongly predictive of educational attainment but, conditional on education, explain very little of the socioeconomic gaps in family outcomes for young adults.

A growing body of research suggests that conflict can be beneficial for groups and organizations (e.g., De Dren & Van De Vliert, 1997). This paper articulates the argument that to be in conflict is to be emotionally activated (Jones, 2000) and utilizes Galtung's (1996) triadic theory of conflict transformation to locate entry points for conflict generation. Application of these ideas is presented through exemplars that demonstrate the utility of addressing emotions directly in the management of organizational conflicts.