The moderating effects of demographic characteristics and certain psychological factors on the job embeddedness – turnover relationship among Thai health-care employees

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the roles of demographic characteristics (i.e. generations and organizational tenure) and psychological factors (i.e. leader-member exchange and self-efficacy) as moderators of the relationship between job embeddedness and turnover intention, and the mediating effect of turnover intention between job embeddedness and actual turnover. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 422 health-care workers through a questionnaire survey and analyzed by means of a confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression. Findings The results reveal that less embedded employees who perceive a lower level of leader–member exchange quality are more likely to indicate an intention to leave. The negative relationship between job embeddedness and turnover intention is stronger among less embedded employees with high self-efficacy. The finding also indicates that turnover intention plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between job embeddedness and actual turnover. Research limitations/implications The current research took place within two health-care organizations. Replicating the study in a variety of industries, professions or cultures would be useful for the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications Organizations may improve their retention of employees by nurturing the leader–member exchange relationship to enhance a social web that bonds them together. Managers may need to pay attention to making a greater effort to embed individuals in their jobs, so that they are better able to cope successfully with challenges and organize the workday to accommodate them. Originality/value This study examines the moderating roles of individual characteristics and psychological factors on the relationship between job embeddedness and turnover intention, which has not been extensively investigated in the literature.

Job Embeddedness: a Strategy to Reduce Voluntary Turnover Intention

“…The result can be concluded that there is a negative correlation between job embeddedness and voluntary turnover. This is consistent with the study stated that there was a negative and significant relationship between job embeddedness and voluntary turnover (Afsar et al, 2018;Dechawatanapaisal, 2018;Coetzer et al, 2019). Karatepe and Ngeche (2012) studied about job embeddedness, turnover intention and job performance.…”

“…Job embeddedness is one of the strategies that has been proven to be able to influence voluntary turnover. Dechawatanapaisal (2018) states that there is a negative relationship between job embeddedness and turnover intention.…”

Factors Affecting Staff Turnover of Young Academics: Job Embeddedness and Creative Work Performance in Higher Academic Institutions

“…On the other hand, if the community networks are strong then the perceived costs of leaving the current job would increase (Holtom et al, 2019). There are some evidences showing that if the perception of leaving the community is difficult then it is more difficult to quit a current job (Dechawatanapaisal, 2018b). Therefore, this study strongly argued that community-embeddedness is linked with the VTOI among young teachers.…”

“…Similarly, organizational-and community-embeddedness affect the decisions related to VTOI in academics (Dechawatanapaisal, 2018b). Recently, a study conducted in the Iranian education sector revealed that organizational practices sometimes have an adverse effect on turnover if teachers perceive organizational support is low.…”

“…Recently some studies have investigated the role of JE toward turnover and performance in the services sector, particularly in the health sector (Chang et al, 2018). Limited studies have been conducted concerning the importance of JE for academic institutions (Mitchell et al, 2001;Dechawatanapaisal, 2018b;Rahimnia et al, 2019). Currently, a substantial proportion of the variability in performance and turnover in higher academic institutions remains unexplained (Shahid, 2018).…”