Firing Aversion Bleg

Just a guess, but try "endowment effect employer"

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=firing+avoid+employee&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C44

firing avoid employee

Seems fruitful... To me at least.

It's probably more a subject for schools of business management and I don't know what quantity or quality of research they do. There is a sub-category of HR tasks called "employee management" that encompasses skills for hiring and firing. Or you could just contact the company George Clooney worked for in Up in the Air. They clearly made money from firing aversion.

When I saw the headline for your post I misunderstood what you were talking about, and was about to refer you to S. L. A. Marshall's classic study Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command (as well as the later works which dispute it).

"Good cause norm" (vs. At-will doctrine)

Try "employee dismissal psychology motivation" on Google scholar. Better yet, email the business or econ librarian at GMU and tell them what you are looking for.

More ideas for where to look and what to look for:

MANAGERIAL USE OF DISMISSAL: ORGANIZATIONAL-LEVEL DETERMINANTS
BRIAN S. KLAAS1,*, GREGORY G. DELL'OMO2Article first published online: 7 DEC 2006

DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1997.tb01489.x

The determinants of organizations' usage of employee dismissal: Evidence from AustraliaBS Klaas, M Brown… - Journal of Labor Research, 1998 - Springer

Cultural influences on employee termination decisions::: Firing the good, average or the old?[PDF] from seminolestate.eduM Segalla, G Jacobs-Belschak… - European Management Journal, 2001 - Elsevier

[PDF] Dissin'the Deadwood or Coddling the Incompetents? State Employee Dismissal and the Case for At-Will Employment Richard C. Elling and[PDF] from wayne.eduL Thompson - cus.wayne.edu

Perspectives on Dismissal as a Management Prerogative in Social Service OrganizationsRF Rivas - Administration in Social Work, 1984 - Taylor & Francis

Perspectives on Dismissal as a Management Prerogative in Social Service OrganizationsRF Rivas - Administration in Social Work, 1984 - Taylor & Francis

When tough times make tough bosses: Managerial distancing as a function of layoff blameR Folger… - Academy of Management Journal, 1998 - JSTOR

Communication during employee dismissals: Social exchange principles and group influences on employee exit

The winding road from employee to complainant: Situational and psychological determinants of wrongful-termination claimsEA Lind, J Greenberg, KS Scott… - Administrative Science …, 2000 - asq.sagepub.com