Defining the problem in a department to be "high employee turnover" instead of digging deeper to find out that employees are finding better paying, more rewarding jobs at other firms is an example of which common mistake in defining the problem?

Focusing on symptoms instead of causes

Explanation:

Sociology studies several aspects of problem solving methodologies, and one of the most common issues arising when you are trying to solve a problem is that people tend to focus on the symptoms or effects of the problem, instead of looking into what causes them.

When we complain that not having enough money is a problem, it is not a real problem, it is the effect or symptom of a real problem which might be not working hard enough, or having too many unnecessary expenses. The thing with problems is that the effects are easy to distinguish, but what causes a problem is sometimes hard to understand.

In this case, high employee churn or turnover is a symptom that many managers will not like to address because they are afraid of being the problem themselves. If the manager was performing correctly, this shouldn't be happening or at least in a lower level.

Focusing on symptoms instead of causes

Explanation:

The reason is that when we will not focus on the causes of the problems then it is more likely that we are going to see it in the future again. In this scenario, the company doesn't knows that their employees are exploiting the opportunities in the market with jobs that have higher salaries which is the main cause of the high turnover. So control the high turnover, the company must increase the salaries of the existing employees to retain them otherwise it is more likely that the company will keep facing this high turnover issue.