Brooks C. Holtom · Ph.D.
Research · Est. 2001● McDonough · Georgetown
Research · Est. 2001

How organizations acquire, develop, and retain human and social capital

Two decades of peer-reviewed research on retention, embeddedness, social networks, and the design of high-performance organizations, translated for practitioners.

§ 01 · Areas of Inquiry

Three streams · One underlying question:
what makes people commit?

R / 01

Job embeddedness & voluntary turnover

Co-author of the foundational Why people stay paper introducing the fit / links / sacrifice framework that has become a standard predictor of voluntary turnover in management research and practice.

14 papers2001 to present
R / 02

Social capital & networks at work

How information flows, trust forms, and conflict resolves inside culturally diverse teams. Published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and the International Journal of Conflict Management.

11 papers2007 to present
R / 03

Retention strategy & the AI era

Executive-facing translations of the research, for boards, HR leaders, and the leaders of the AI era. Published in Harvard Business Review, taught at Northwestern Mutual, Aurora Health Care, Briggs & Stratton.

HBR · Org Dynamics2018 to present
§ 02 · Selected Publications

Peer-reviewed work, ordered chronologically

001
Why people stay: Using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover· AMJ finalist
Academy of Mgmt Journal
2001
PDF ↗
002
How to keep your best employees: Developing an effective retention policy· AME finalist
Academy of Mgmt Executive
2004
PDF ↗
003
Increasing human and social capital by applying job embeddedness theory
Organizational Dynamics
2006
PDF ↗
004
Turnover and retention research: A glance at the past, a closer review of the present, a venture into the future
Academy of Mgmt Annals
2008
PDF ↗
005
The relative roles of engagement and embeddedness in predicting job performance and intention to leave
Journal of Applied Psych
2012
PDF ↗
006
Job embeddedness, employee commitment, and related constructs in a culturally diverse environment
Intl J. of Conflict Mgmt
2014
PDF ↗
007
A review of job embeddedness: Conceptual, measurement issues, and directions for future research
Human Resource Mgmt Review
2017
PDF ↗
008
5 tips for managing successful remote teams
Harvard Business Review
2020
READ ↗
009
Stem the great resignation with stay interviews
Harvard Business Review
2022
READ ↗
010
Leadership in the AI era: Twelve lessons on identity, EQ, communication, and AI-augmented coaching
AI Officer Institute · Textbook
2026
READ ↗
§ 03 · In the Conversation

Selected commentary and coverage

Harvard Business Review

Stem the Great Resignation with stay interviews

Article2022
Wall Street Journal

Why employees actually quit, and what their managers miss

Quoted2023
Bloomberg

The retention math behind the AI productivity boom

Quoted2024
§ 04 · Appointments

Career
& consulting

2005 to present
Professor of Management
McDonough School of Business · Georgetown University
2003 to 2005
Faculty
Owen Graduate School of Management · Vanderbilt
2001 to 2003
Faculty · Teaching Excellence Award
College of Business Administration · Marquette University
Selected
Consulting & executive education
Citibank · Nordstrom · U.S. Air Force · TN Dept. of Correction · Northwestern Mutual · Briggs & Stratton · Aurora Health Care

Citing the work?
Want the source?

Drafts, datasets, and pre-prints are available on request for academic and practitioner use. Reach out, happy to share.

brooks.holtom@georgetown.edu →
OfficeHariri 484 · McDonough