Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 489
Fit can become a quiet filter
The framework explains how organizations can become increasingly shaped by the kinds of people they attract, select, retain, promote, and lose rather than by socialization alone
Premise
Culture can look self-sustaining because organizations repeatedly populate themselves with people who fit what is already there. The Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Framework reverses part of the usual organizational logic: people are not randomly exposed to a culture after entry. Some are attracted, some are chosen, and some leave, creating a recursive sorting process that can make the organization more homogeneous on relevant attributes.
That makes workforce flow part of organizational architecture. Employer branding, referral networks, selection criteria, sponsorship, promotion, and exit can manufacture the population leaders later describe as “the kind of people who thrive here.” The executive question is therefore not only how culture shapes people, but what the organization is systematically selecting for—and what it may be selecting out.
What the model is: Attraction-Selection-Attrition Framework in Knowledge →
Continue in the series
- The essential model
- Why this matters
- Risks and limits
- Executive takeaway
- Key questions
- Selected sources
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainOrganization & Structure
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.