Job embeddedness

Question 1

Authors/articles from OSEM

Answer 1

Mitchell et al., 2001. Why people stay: Using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. Acad. Mgmt. J., 44, 1102-1121. (O Sem and SNA)

Lee et al., 2004. The effects of job embeddedness on organizational citizenship, job performance, volitional absences, and voluntary turnover. AMJ, 47, 711-722.

Crossley et al., 2007. Development of a global measure of job embeddedness and integration into a traditional model of voluntary turnover. JAP, 92, 1031-1042.

Felps et al., 2009. Turnover contagion: How coworkers’ job embeddedness and job search behaviors influence quitting.

Extra:
Meta Analysis:
Jiang et al. (2012) Meta-analysis on Job Embeddedness & Turnover

Question 2

Definition

Answer 2

• The combined forces that keep a person from leaving his or her job
• Two types: on the job and off the job. Both made up of links, fit, and sacrifice

Question 3

Components of embeddedness

Answer 3

1. Links – formal or informal ties within institutions or others. Strands of the web. More links more embedded.
2. Fit – perceived compatibility with org and environment. Higher fit should relate to greater feeling of being tied to org and therefore less turnover. [This seems to touch on the attrition part of ASA]
3. Sacrifice – perceived cost of leaving (psychological or material). May include less obvious sacrifices like job stability, community.

Question 4

How is diff. than commitment and PO fit?

Answer 4

• Does not contain affective component of job sat & org commitment – similar but diff
• Fit: Embeddedness is broader and encompassing than PO fit – asks about coworkers, groups (not incl in PO fit) with no mention of needs.
• Bottom line: Conceptually unique: Less affective, broader and assesses both org and community factors.

Question 5

So how do we improve these 3 things?

Answer 5

Lee et al., 2004 suggest….
•Links can be increased through teams and long-term projects
• Increase sacrifice by connecting job and organizational rewards to longevity
• Increase fit can by matching employees’ KSAs and attitudes with a job’s requirements.
• Increase off-the-job embeddedness w/ information about the community and by providing social support for local activities and events

Question 6

Composite or global measure?

Answer 6

Crossley et al., 2007
o Composite measure of job embeddedness is made when you add equally weighted facets (assume that the whole = sum of parts)
 May be inadequate for estimating summary eval which can be theoretically limiting. Also practical limitations.
o Global measure assesses overall impressions of attachment by asking general questions (assumes whole is greater than parts
 allows the entire construct to be assessed with relatively few questions

•Global measure predicted unique variance in intentions to search (β = −.16), intentions to quit (β = −.22), and voluntary turnover (β = −.31), even after controlling for empirical overlap in the composite measure of embeddedness and other core variables commonly used to explain turnover
o Findings suggest that both composite and global measures of embeddedness predict meaningful variance in turnover. Suggest they be used together or that context be considered if using just one:
 The global measure is of greater utility when one is testing models of turnover using latent variables or when survey length is a concern.

Question 7

Jiang et al. (2012) meta-analysis

Answer 7

On-the-job and off-the-job embeddedness negatively related to TO and TO intentions

Females and public employees < turnover when embedded in job.

In collectivistic cultures, those embedded in community/family < turnover

Question 8

Felps et al. (2009)

Answer 8

• Turnover contagion – coworkers search for job alternatives/actual quitting can spread via social contagion, to affect another employee’s quitting behavior.
o Based in people’s tendency to compare self to others
o Coworkers may increase the salience and perceived viability of leaving for a focal employee
o They thought that there is high risk/uncertainty w/ quitting so employees look to others when evaluating whether or not to seek alternatives

–>Aggregated job embeddedness was related to turnover
o Exceeds the prediction of coworkers’ job sat and coworkers’ org commitment
o Duplicated result qualitatively by looking at coworkers’ job search - may act as a critical mechanism in the turnover contagion process