TURNING AROUND THE EFFECTS OF TURNOVER: MILITARY LESSONS LEARNED FROM OIF CHARLES Y. MURNIEKS United States Air Force Academy HQ USAFA/DFM 2354 Fairchild Drive Suite 6H-130 USAF Academy, CO 80840 SCOT T. ALLEN United States Air Force Academy CLAUDIA J. FERRANTE United States Air Force Academy INTRODUCTION High turnover among military personnel is expected in war zones. The U.S. military frequently rotates people in and out of combat because of the dangers involved, as well as the forced separation from family and friends that such service requires. This creates a natural tension though, as the U.S. military must continue effective organizational operations amidst exceptionally high turnover rates. Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) represents one theatre of conflict where we can study this tension, and learn how the U.S. military works to mitigate the effects of turnover in an effort to sustain organizational effectiveness. In this article, we examine how the U.S. military has dealt with the massive turnover of its personnel in infrastructure reconstruction project teams. It is our hope that other organizations might learn from the tactics employed by the U.S. military to mitigate the deleterious effects that can emanate from high rates of personnel turnover. The phenomenon of “turnover” has received much attention in the management literature, with over one hundred different empirical and conceptual papers published (Cotton & Tuttle, 1986). Although some turnover is considered functional (Dalton & Todor, 1979; 1982; Dalton, Todor & Krackhardt, 1982), most research highlights the myriad of negative aspects such as the cost to hire and train replacements or the disruption to operations and productivity (Mowday, 1984; Staw, 1980; Steel et al., 2002). With respect to project teams and how they conduct their work, elevated turnover has been linked empirically to poor performance (Parker & Skitmore, 2005; Van der Vegt et al. 2010). In an attempt to help organizations deal with the negative aspects associated with turnover, scholars have spent a great deal of effort studying the antecedents leading to turnover. This general approach rests upon the logic that if the antecedents can be uncovered, perhaps strategies can be fashioned to reduce turnover. This approach also inherently assumes that turnover is a variable that can be manipulated. In this paper, we approach the problem of turnover from a slightly different angle. We assume that turnover is a fixed variable, and as such, one that certain organizations must accept and cannot mitigate (Dalton, Krackhardt, & Porter, 1981; Mowday, 1984). We then ask, is it possible to reduce the unwanted effects of turnover on the organization, without reducing the actual churn of individuals?