The global HRM and HRD practitioners of today must be prepared to address the profound implications associated with attrition. Attrition may have many different attributes—however, the reasons for attrition are not easily discovered within an organization until it is often too late to adequately address the problem. This article examines the construct of attrition within the global organization of today; and attempts to offer some insight that may alleviate future problems with this very elusive construct.

Before any conversation related to attrition can begin, one must think about the construct as an entity that has many implications for any organization. When one speaks legitimately about this construct it may be very easy to speak of it apart from the people who are the actual citizens of an organization. In essence if one considers the people of an organization the construct of attrition cannot be described as being separate from those people. HR practitioners must first realize that without the people (who are the citizens of any organization) there would be no attrition. Attrition can be conceptualized in many forms; the two prominent forms of attrition for the constraints of this endeavor are attrition due to employees leaving an organization; and employees retiring from an organization. Although attrition may also describe trends in sales and marketing; this endeavor will focus upon the former reason for attrition as well as some of the underlying issues associated with people leaving an organization.

When one discusses the construct of attrition from the perspective of employees leaving an organization, one should make an attempt to ascertain why the employees are leaving; and at what level of the organization they are vacating. It is a paramount consideration for the HRM and HRD practitioners to work closely together to think about the specific particulars associated with why people are vacating their positions. Many organizations employ HR practitioner to conduct exit reviews of individuals who have elected to leave the organization—however, this practice may not reveal reliable information about one's decision to leave an organization.

Attrition as an HR Challenge, Human resource mangement, HRM, Huamn resource development, HRD, Mischel, International human resource managemetn, IHRM, Organizational behaviors, Organizational strategies, Human resource process, Corporate culture, Human resource strategic planning process, Human resource policy.