Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Is the Past Prologue?: A Test of Ghiselli’s Hobo Syndrome

1995; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 21; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/014920639502100203

1557-1211

Timothy A. Judge, Shinichiro Watanabe,

Personality Traits and Psychology

Ghiselli (1974) observed that some workers possess internal impulses to migrate from one job to another irrespective of better alternatives or other apparently rational motives. Ghiselli labeled this tendency the “hobo syndrome.” The present study tested the validity of the hobo syndrome using a national longitudinal sample of young workers. Results of event history analyses indicated support for the hypothesis that turnover depends on the number of times an individual has left his or her job in the past. The meaning and implications of the results in light of recent dispositional research are discussed.