Turnover is an important cost, performance, and morale challenge for any organization. In every case the organization should be considering factors to increase employee retention. Other job opportu nities, change in personal status, education, and work satisfaction all contribute to the rate of turn over for an organization. In a moderate-sized or ganization, such as one with a few hundred em ployees, turnover of 5 to 10 percent can be positive for the organization as new members often bring other perspectives, higher energy levels and re- cently acquired education. However, any turnover must be balanced against a number of factors. One is the degree to which existing members can pick up the slack when an experienced member is lost, their availability to train and socialize the new member, and the psychological impact of seeing another leave the organization. When members perceive high levels of turnover then these burdens increase and both performance and morale may suffer. In some organizations the cost of turnover simply to recruit, select, and train the new em ployee will run more than $50,000 per employee. To the extent that the position requires several months before the new employee comes up to speed then an additional cost is incurred as existing employees must undertake reparative efforts. while ned job load is created for the new employee a to learn the tasks. New employees pull down heavily on supervi sory and training staff. High rates of turnover deter service improvement and absorb resources that might be applied to task improvement To understand and control the level of turnover it is important to have a working theory of vari ables that may account for turnover. One might suspect that pay, working conditions, educati gender job satisfaction, and general organizational morale might all contribute. To see if these vari ables do account for turnover and to provide some insight into how organizational leadership is in- in understanding and controlling turnover. the authors tum to data from a standard organiza- tsal assessment and data recently gathered from a moderately sized human service organization in a Midwestem state. The tool used to assess organ- izational members' attitudes on these variables is Excellence. the survey of organizational Excellence.