Embeddedness across contexts: A two‐country study on the additive and buffering effects of job embeddedness on employee turnover

Despite the growing body of literature on the effects of job embeddedness on turnover, there are few studies on how job embeddedness operates in different countries. This study, based on the Conservation of Resources theory, addresses this research gap by investigating both the additive and the buffering effects of on‐the‐job and off‐the‐job embeddedness using employee data from China (n = 373) and Switzerland (n = 268). Results showed that on‐the‐job embeddedness reduced the likelihood of turnover more strongly in Switzerland than in China (additive effect). Additionally, in China, the unsolicited job offer–turnover relationship was stronger when employees had lower levels of off‐the‐job embeddedness (buffering effect). This research contributes to the understanding of the relative role of on‐the‐job and off‐the‐job embeddedness for turnover in different countries.     

When expatriates explore other options: Retaining talent through greater job embeddedness and repatriation adjustment

This paper introduces the concept of job embeddedness to research on international assignments to help explain how the processes of expatriation and repatriation might lead to such outcomes as strengthened personorganization fit or career exploration. It develops a model with a related set of theoretical propositions, based on a comprehensive literature review covering international assignments, adult development and career theories, job embeddedness, and career exploration. The paper also presents implications for future research, as well as practical implications for assignment practices and career interventions for organizations trying to retain their valued repatriate talents and, thus, secure a greater return on their investments in talent development. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Using job embeddedness factors to explain voluntary turnover in four European countries

The aging of the European workforce coupled with existing deficits of skilled workers in vital sectors (e.g., information and communication technology) make the attraction and retention of skilled workers a critical strategic human resource management issue. The large-scale, multi-country study reported in this article investigates the causes of voluntary turnover. The study is based on a large European dataset that contains information about a wide variety of variables that have been shown to influence voluntary turnover. The results indicate that the traditional turnover model, where ease of movement and desirability of movement are regarded as important predictors of turnover, receives support. Importantly, the study also shows that a new theory of employee retention – job embeddedness – explains a significant amount of variance above and beyond the role of demographic and traditional variables. In sum, the evidence suggests that the turnover decision is not only about the individual's attitudes towards work or about the actual opportunities in the labour market, but also job embeddedness.     

Exploring the interpersonal determinants of job embeddedness and voluntary turnover: A conservation of resources perspective

This paper draws on a conservation of resources perspective to understand employee voluntary turnover. We conceptualise voluntary turnover as an outcome of resource loss, and we view job embeddedness as an indication of resource levels. On the basis of this conceptualisation, we propose that workplace ostracism and leader–member exchange (LMX) affect voluntary turnover via job embeddedness. We also propose an interaction effect of workplace ostracism and LMX: Workplace ostracism increases voluntary turnover by depleting job embeddedness only when people experience high‐quality LMX. Data from 352 employees in a Chinese software company obtained through a three‐wave survey support our model. Our findings illuminate the resource consequences of interpersonal interactions on job embeddedness and voluntary turnover, and we offer practical implications for employee retention.     

Examining the impacts of community and organization embeddedness on self-initiated expatriates: the moderating role of expatriate-dominated private sector

With a newly developed dimension of the job embeddedness construct and the aim to better understand turnover, this study investigates the relationships of job embeddedness with shocks and turnover intention for an important emerging group in the worldwide workforce – self-initiated expatriates (SEs). We consider three embedding factors: individuals' community embeddedness towards their home country (home country community embeddedness – HomeCCE – newly developed), embeddedness towards the organization in which they are employed in the host country (host country organization embeddedness – HostCOE) and embeddedness towards the host country community (host country community embeddedness – HostCCE). Structural equation modelling is applied to a sample of SEs from 10 three-star to five-star hotels in the Macau SAR of China. This research shows that HostCOE plays a mediating role between a SEs' HomeCCE and turnover intention and willingness to accept unsolicited job offers; and these mediated relationships are moderated by the variables: expatriate-dominated private sector and the SEs' HostCCE. These findings shed light on factors that affect the retention of SEs and have implications for management and future research.     

Returning to the workforce after retiring: a job demands,job control,social support perspective on job satisfaction

Despite growing interest in the aging of the workforce, few investigations have explored a key aspect of diversity among older workers: whether or not they consider themselves retired. Using a sample of workers ages 50 and older from the National Study of the Changing Workforce (2008), we apply career development theory and the job demand–control(–support) framework to investigate potential differences between working retirees (i.e. employed older adults 50+ who consider themselves retired) and working non-retirees (i.e. employed older adults 50+ who do not consider themselves retired) in terms of their job characteristics (i.e. demands, control, support) and how these job characteristics are related to job satisfaction. We find that working retirees report lower job demands and higher social support, and that there is limited evidence for the buffering hypothesis. Implications for researchers and employers are discussed.     

The interactive effects of organizational and leadership career management support on job satisfaction and turnover intention

In the organizational career management literature, scholars have focused on career management policies, with little attention given to practices that can vary within organizations. And despite its recognized importance, research on the role of leaders in the career management process is also scant. In this study, we investigate the effects of career management practices (OCPs) and leadership career support (LCS) on employee attitudes. Grounded on coping theory, we propose that career support received from line managers can be particularly consequential when OCPs are lacking. We analyze the moderating effects of LCS on the relationship between OCPs and both job satisfaction and turnover intention in a sample of employees from a large Brazilian organization, applying multiple regression analyses. Results showed that OCPs and LCS are positively related to job satisfaction and that OCPs are negatively related to turnover intention. In addition, we confirmed that LCS moderates the relationship between OCPs and both job satisfaction and turnover intention. Finally, we observed that the relationship between OCPs and turnover intention is mediated by job satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Employee involvement and participation: developing the concept of institutional embeddedness using WERS2004

It is widely accepted that employee involvement and participation (EIP) is a key component of the high commitment bundle of HRM, but that it can take a range of forms in practice. Much of the analysis to date has either treated different forms of EIP as a single construct or has measured EIP by virtue of its presence or absence alone. Drawing on earlier work based on the data from WERS1998 examining the link between various forms of EIP and employee outcomes such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment, the authors re-apply and extend these ideas to data from WERS2004. In particular they develop the concept of institutional embeddedness, in order argue that both the depth and breadth of EIP have important associations with commitment though not with satisfaction.

This association held for workplaces employing 25 or more workers, and here it was apparent that the more that employees are involved at workplace level – through a wider number of EIP practices that are held more frequently and include opportunities for workers to have their say – the more likely it is that investments in EIP will reap the reward of organisational commitment. For smaller establishments, given that they tend to operate with relatively few formal schemes, it is likely that managers in these workplaces find alternative ways in which to engage the workforce, and that informal EIP offer similar levels of embeddedness in these situations. A clear implication to be drawn from the findings is that, in a context of lower levels of formality within organisations (large and small), line managers are more than ever the key link between HR policy and the embodiment of actual practice at the workplace.     

Fits,misfits and interactions: learning at work,job satisfaction and job‐related well‐being

The resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm has focused attention on the importance of aligning employees' needs with the requirements of the jobs they do. This article focuses on how these needs and requirements interact in terms of learning. It does so in two ways. First, it develops new survey instruments to capture the learning demands of jobs and the learning dispositions of workers and uses them for the first time in a survey of 2,810 employees. Second, it examines how these person and job characteristics correlate with specific aspects of job satisfaction and job‐related well‐being. The results show that although learning alignment is associated with high levels of satisfaction and well‐being, not all learning misalignments are associated with the reverse.     

试论企业员工的职业生涯管理

文章从加强对员工职业生涯的规划工作、加强对员工的培训和跟踪辅导工作以及为员工提供晋升、转换平台等方面进行论述,对企业如何在管理制度和培养考核方面对员工进行管理提出了合理的建议。     

Employee embeddedness as a moderator of the relationship between work and family conflict and leaving intention

Abstract

This paper examines whether on-the-job embeddedness moderates the impact of work and family conflict on leaving intention. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, the paper investigates the buffering effect of the three on-the-job embeddedness components (fit, links and sacrifice). Contrary to predictions, in this sample of white-collar manufacturing employees on-the-job fit embeddedness had no effect on the relationship between work and family conflict and leaving intention. As predicted, on-the-job link embeddedness weakened the effect and on-the-job sacrifice embeddedness strengthened the effect of work and life conflict on leaving intention. The results suggest that organisations can reduce turnover intention during times of work and life conflict by developing employee on-the-job link embeddedness.     

Social embeddedness and job performance of tenured and non‐tenured professionals

This study examines how different employment relationships in academic settings, ie tenured versus non‐tenured appointments, are associated with different types of job performance efforts. The social embeddedness model contends that employees' efforts to perform well depend on embeddedness in the social environment. Adopting this perspective, we ask what types of embeddedness are likely to improve job performance efforts, namely compliance and contextual performance, under the condition of different employment relationships. Regression analyses on the responses of both tenured and non‐tenured faculty members show that employees' efforts to perform well can be explained by social embeddedness. Temporal embeddedness appears to be important in explaining the job performance efforts of tenured faculty members, while, in contrast, network embeddedness seems important in explaining the efforts of nontenured faculty members; and institutional embeddedness explained the efforts of both groups of faculty members.     

Environmental management capabilities for a “circular eco‐innovation”

At a micro level, eco‐innovation marks a transition towards a circular economy (CE), and standardised routines and controls are being implemented by businesses to introduce eco‐innovative processes and thus a circular business model. Eco‐innovation applied to a circular model implies changes to companies' environmental management and accounting practices used to manage natural resources. In this context, this study analyses and measures formal and informal environmental management systems, such as certification standards and other management and environmental accounting procedures used in eco‐innovation and the CE within the dynamic capabilities theoretical framework. The study also investigates the cause‐and‐effect relationship between firms' “circular eco‐innovation” and environmental capabilities using partial least squares structural equation modelling and tests it using a sample of Spanish companies. This study offers new knowledge about the interposition of business eco‐innovation and CE‐related activities introduced by firms from the dynamic capabilities perspective.     

The culturally contingent meaning of entrepreneurship: mixed embeddedness and co-ethnic ties

This study employs phenomenography to investigate the role of embeddedness in business venturing of migrant and ethnic entrepreneurs. By focusing on two culturally distinct groups, operating in the same micro-economic context, we show the ways in which embeddedness impacts the perceptions and subsequent enactment of business venturing. Our findings demonstrate that, despite physical proximity and similar socio-economic context, the investigated communities predominantly employ their co-ethnic norms, assumptions and frames of reference to makes sense of and act upon entrepreneurial opportunities. These findings expand the mixed embeddedness literature by exploring how co-ethnic sensemaking frames persist within culturally distinct communities, despite years of co-existence within the same socio-economic context. Moreover, our study reveals how co-ethnic structures can successfully substitute institutional arrangements traditionally provided by the host-country environment. By reflecting upon the practice of entrepreneuring and entrepreneurial sensemaking, our findings point towards the importance of language and interpretative methods for theory development.     

The differential effects of job design on knowledge workers and manual workers: A quasi‐experimental field study in China

When Taylorism was discarded long ago, job enrichment emerged as a good alternative. Recent research, however, has pointed out the ineffectiveness of job enrichment. This study suggests that both approaches could be effective and looks at job nature as the moderator that can affect how the two approaches are applied. The authors' longitudinal quasi‐experimental field study in China found a significant interaction between worker type (knowledge workers [KWs] versus manual workers [MWs]) and job characteristics on employee outcomes. After enrichment, KWs experienced higher satisfaction and task performance, whereas for MWs, satisfaction and performance declined. This pattern of results suggests that both job enrichment and Taylorism are applicable depending on the job nature. In addition to contributing to job design theory, the present study also explored the unique attributes of KWs and provides practical suggestions as to how human resource managers can better motivate KWs. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

工作嵌入在中国情境下的适用性探讨

工作嵌入理论引入了非工作影响因素,从留职的视角预测员工的离职意愿,为离职管理研究提供了一个全新的视角。在中国的情境下,结合我国国情、社会特征和文化特点,研究工作嵌入的联系、牺牲和匹配维度,就工作嵌入理论的适用性进行探讨,对于揭示员工离职的真正原因,提高员工对组织的依附性,改善组织的职业生涯管理都具有积极的借鉴意义。     

Career plateauing reactions: the moderating role of job scope,role ambiguity and participation among Canadian managers

The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating effect and the interactive effect of job scope, role ambiguity and participation in decision-making on relationships between career plateauing and outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of 3,065 Canadian managers shows that these job characteristics can contribute to limiting the negative consequences associated with career plateauing. Moreover, in accordance with the theory of work–situation fit, some double moderating effects are found. The attitudes and behaviours of plateaued managers are significantly more positive when their job is richer and offers an opportunity to participate in decision-making. However, contrary to evidence in the literature, results show that reactions to career plateauing are more positive for managers who perceive that their job is richer and their role more ambiguous. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Individual and contextual antecedents of older managerial employees' willingness to accept intra-organizational job changes

This study examines the respective influence of individual characteristics and contextual factors on employees' willingness to accept major internal job changes – i.e. domestic relocation, international assignment and change of discipline – in their late careers. Data were obtained from a two-wave longitudinal survey of 584 management-level employees from different private-sector organizations located in France. Three separate hierarchical regression equations were run to test the relationships of interest in this study, one for each of the three internal mobility opportunities. The set of attitudinal variables was found to explain a significant proportion of the variance in the willingness to change discipline, but its influence was weak or null respectively in explaining willingness to accept an international posting or domestic relocation. Off-the-job embeddedness and spouse's unwillingness to move were confirmed as strong deterrents to relocation. As for the individual characteristics, openness to experience was identified as a major determinant of all the types of mobility included in this study. The results suggest that a much more dynamic role could be envisaged for late-career managers, at least for respondents corresponding to certain individual and contextual variables.     

Thriving of employees with disabilities: The roles of job self‐efficacy,inclusion, and team‐learning climate

With the growing global emphasis on welfare‐to‐work policies, an increasing number of people with disabilities (PWD) have entered the workforce. However, studies on PWD have focused primarily on company practices to accommodate PWD, with a limited understanding of factors affecting psychological integration of PWD into the workplace. This scarcity in research makes it difficult for managers to utilize the full work potential of PWD. To fill this research gap, the current study focuses on the job self‐efficacy of PWD and investigates how employee disability interacts with inclusion and team‐learning climate to affect job self‐efficacy, and in turn thriving at work. Using a sample of 485 employees in 114 teams, surveys found job self‐efficacy was a key intervening mechanism linking employee disability to thriving at work. These results suggest high workplace inclusion can buffer potential negative effects of disability at the individual level, strengthened further by a high team‐learning climate. The data supported a three‐way cross‐level interaction effect of disability, inclusion, and team‐learning climate on the thriving of employees with disabilities, through job self‐efficacy. Our results demonstrate the importance of inclusion and team‐learning climate to foster employee thriving in a diverse workforce.     

Competency rallying for technical innovation—The case of the Virtuelle Fabrik

Technology improves at an ever-increasing rate, but the speed at which firms can adapt their strategies and competencies to develop technological innovations and exploit market opportunities remains limited. While networks provide an option to increase agility through collaborative access to relevant external competencies, we know little about systematically managing such networks. This paper identifies a collaborative network process that we label competency rallying. We describe the set of inter-organizational routines involved in competency rallying in a case study of the interactions among the partners of the Virtuelle Fabrik, a case of an organized regional network in the manufacturing industry in Switzerland. We describe competency rallying as the (1) identification and development of competencies, (2) identification and facing of market opportunities, (3) marshalling of competencies, and (4) short-term cooperative effort for technological innovation and commercialization. The paper contributes a model that furthers the understanding of the organizational character of networks based on specific, learned network capabilities and which allows prediction of the likelihood of success of practical collaboration projects in networked organizations.