Job Embeddedness A literature review Essay Example

account of turnover, lateness, absence, and low output is nearly 17 percent of pre tax annual income (Holtom & Inderrieden, 2006). “Turnover touches every aspect of organizations because people touch every aspect of these organizations” (Finnegan & Finnegan, 2009). Hence understanding the reasons behind employee turnover is imperative for organizations to pursue effective retention strategies.

The theory of job embeddedness serves to explain the various contexts that contribute to employee retention and commitment within organizations. Unfolding Theory The theory of job embeddedness evaluates internal and external factors that include an individual’s “(a) links to other people, teams and groups, (b) perception of their fit with their job, organization and community, (c) what they say they would have to sacrifice if they left their job” (Mitchell et al. , 2001). The concept hence reflects a broad range of factors that have a direct impact on employee retention.

Various internal and external influences direct an individual’s behavior and attitudes within the organization and this is visible in the way the “social, financial and psychological web” links to organizational turnover (Mitchell et al. , 2001). “The work by Lee, Mitchell and colleagues has demonstrated that many people leave their jobs, not just of negative effect (e. g. , job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment), but because of variety of precipitating events” (Holtom & Inderrieden, 2006).

Such events often reflect psychological pressures or shock of events that induce the employees to quit their jobs. It is not necessary that shocking events are negative. They can be positive events such as better job offers, further education prospects or moving to new territories. An individual’s personal values, goals

and objectives may not align with the organizational goals and strategies leading to conflict of interests and “image violation” (Holtom & Inderrieden, 2006). This forms a part of the negative events that compel employees to search for job alternatives.

Many research works have proposed to explain the various factors that influence an individual’s decision to quit the job or remain with the same company for a long period of time. The unfolding model that relates to shock events as the primary factor inducing employees to quit their jobs has been effective in explaining the employee turnover causes through a different perspective. Traditional models of employee turnover identified some key factors impacting the decisions of employees. These include job satisfaction, employee attitudes and financial remuneration.

However, financial remuneration is not of much significance for employees who are driven by their internal values, personal goals and objectives that is essential for job satisfaction. Similarly, job dissatisfaction may exist within employees but the decision to quit is mostly attributed to shock events facing the employees. Focus and dimensions of job embeddedness Conventional theories and theoretical frameworks had undertaken extensive research in the areas of employee attitudes and behaviors in determining the levels of attrition within organizations.

Most of these studies emphasized the significance of job satisfaction and organizational commitment in assessing the organizational employee turnover. Jack J. Phillips and Lisa Edwards (2008) in their book Managing Talent Retention observe that quite a lot of research studies have focused on the relationship between job satisfaction and employee turnover followed closely by organizational commitment. Other factors include availability of job alternatives. Recent research studies have focused on

the concept of job embeddedness studied by Mitchell, Holtom, and Lee (2001).

Job embeddedness focuses on such intricate aspects of community and individual lives that fit with organizational goals and strategies. The commitment levels of employees are strongly linked to the nature of fit between individuals, the community and immediate surroundings (Mitchell et al. , 2001). “The critical aspects of job embeddedness are the extent to which the job is similar to or fits with the other aspects in their life space, the extent to which the person has links to other people or activities, and the ease with which links can be broken – what they would give up if left” (Holtom & Inderrieden, 2006).

Voluntary turnover of employees is closely linked to the employee needs, objectives, job perceptions and job opportunities in the market. The study of these factors is significant in deciding the nature of employee retention strategies within organizations. This might provide the organizations with an indication of why employees leave their jobs but in reality the link and relationship between these variables form a complex web that drives employee turnover rates. The job embeddedness construct provides three distinct dimensions of studying and analyzing the reasons behind employee turnover.

These involve – links, fit and sacrifice that encompasses a broad spectrum of events and parameters both on and off the job. The next few sections provide an insight into how these dimensions contribute towards employee commitment and employee turnover within organizations. Links Links refer to the “discernible connections people have both on and off the job” (Griffeth et al. , 2004, p156). These connections include institutions, people, and

environment within and outside the organization. The impact of these links or connections is felt in the way they influence the decisions, attitude, and actions of the employees.

Various research studies have analyzed the relationship between the pressures that these entities have on individual to remain in a job or leave the job. The social, psychological and financial links form a significant connection between the individual and his job commitment. A study by Abelson (1987) observed that employees, who were older in age, were married and had children or more dependents were more likely to stay in their jobs than leave (Mitchell et al. , 2001). Another research study by Cohen (1995) concluded that individual hobbies and church related activities tend to increase employee commitment.

Job embeddedness, in the global business environment is influenced to a large extent by the demographic composition of the workforce. The growing diversity of the workforce within organizations have significant implications on the way employees perceive job hopping and commitment towards the organizations they work for. Various studies and research work in this context have established that certain communities are more stable workers than some others. The female workforce has been found to be more stable in their jobs in comparison to their male counterparts.

Employees inclined towards religious beliefs are found to be more stable in their jobs than others who are more opportunistic or ambitious in nature (Mitchell et al. , 2001). Fit Fit is defined as an employee’s “perceived compatibility with the organization and with his or her environment” (Griffeth et al. , 2004, p156). This dimension explores the existing alignment between the employees

and other aspects of their lives. One of the vital factors influencing employee commitment is the extent to which his immediate community and personal values, career plans and goals relate to organizational work culture and work environment.

The best fit between these elements translate to increased employee commitment and low employee turnover for the organization. The compatibility with the organization’s strategic human resource management approach and individual goals and objectives are important determinants in deciding the extent of job satisfaction and employee commitment. “The better the fit, the more likely people will feel professionally and personally tied to their job and not want to seek a job that request them to move” (Griffeth et al. , 2004, p156). Sacrifice

Sacrifice relates to the “perceived cost for material or psychological benefits that may be forfeited by leaving a job” (Mitchell et al. , 2001). This reflects the extent of loss or perceived loss that the employees might face when they leave their jobs such as loss of additional perks and benefits, loss of opportunity to move up the career ladder, or loss of contacts with colleagues. The extent of sacrifice that the employee will make on leaving the job will determine his decision to quit. If the losses are big in comparison to benefits gained from leaving the job, the employee will not take the decision to quit the job.

The practical costs of switching to new jobs relate to additional benefits prospective benefits that he could have earned while remaining on the job. The new job might have certain distinctive advantages that might or might not outweigh these perks and benefits. In

such circumstances the employee will think twice before taking any decision. Relocation within organizations may cause problems associated with community sacrifice since the employee along with his family has to adjust to new environment and conditions.

“Community sacrifice may contain conveniences that come along with the particular community one lives in (e. . , an easy commute, good day care)” (Griffeth et al. , 2004). Using these three dimensions the combination matrix provides six different aspects of studying the extent of job embeddedness within employees – these involve links-community, fit community, sacrifice-community, links-organization, fit-organization, and sacrifice-organization (Mitchell et al. , 2001). Community influences included such elements as age, number of children, personality traits, perceptions about work, and perceptions about mating opportunities (Giosan, 2003).

A survey study on the predictors of job embeddedness by Cezar Giosan (2003) revealed that links-community was predicted by employee age and numbers of children while the fit-community and sacrifice-community was predicted by the perceived mating opportunities within the community. Links-organization was predicted by age, fit-organization was predicted by employee conscience, supervisory support, perceived opportunities, and job alternatives available in the market. Sacrifice-organization was predicted by the perceived supervisory support, perceived skills transferability and perceived opportunities (Giosan, 2003).