Investigating the mediating role of job embeddedness: evidence of Iranian context
| Pages | 614-630 |
| Published date | 01 April 2019 |
| Date | 01 April 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2017-0348 |
| Author | Fariborz Rahimnia,Ghasem Eslami,Saeid Nosrati |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Investigating the mediating role of
job embeddedness: evidence of
Iranian context
Fariborz Rahimnia, Ghasem Eslami and Saeid Nosrati
Department of Management,
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, The Islamic Republic of Iran
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of job embeddedness in the
relationshipbetween perceivedjob security and perceivedjob flexibility and its impacton creative performance.
Design/methodology/approach –The statistical population of this study consisted of all employees at
the Electricity Company of Mashhad, and a sample comprising 300 participants was finalized. In order to
analyze the data, different statistical analysis methods were used, including Pearson’s correlation analysis
and structural equation modeling.
Findings –The findings indicated that perceived job security has a positive impact on job embeddedness,
while it has no significant impact on the employees’creative performance. On the other hand, perceived job
flexibility has a positive effect on both job embeddedness and creative performance. Moreover, the mediating
role of job embeddedness was approved.
Originality/value –Since creative performance in this changeable environment becomes essential,
identifying mechanisms which can embed employees to their company would bring about several positive
consequences. Furthermore, little is known about the antecedents and potential consequences of job
embeddedness, especially in developing countries.
Keywords Quantitative, Job embeddedness, Creative performance, Perceived job flexibility,
Perceived job security
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In the current competitive business environment, the main features of which are sequential
changes and continuous innovations, organizations will have to understand the strategic
role of their human resources and hire highly skilled, knowledge-oriented, competent and
capable employees (Kumpikaite, 2008). Moreover, turnover intention of employees is
considered as a costly and challenging issue for the organizations in the manufacturing
industries (Rathi et al., 2013). Hence, the presence of empowered and creative employees in
the organization can eliminate many of the problems caused by environmental changes
(Karatepe, 2016). Therefore, the retention of talented employees is vital, since they can
improve the overall organizational performance through their creative ideas and provide
unprecedented solutions for responding to the changing problems of the customers.
In addition to this, for employers, the retention of valuable employees is important because
they are the organization’s most valuable assets (Karatepe, 2013).
In this regard, one of the most recent issues in the human resources management
literature is job embeddedness. Job embeddedness theory is defined as “a broad
constellation of influences on employee retention”(Mitchell et al., 2001, p. 1104). This theory
not only exists inside the workplace, but also outside the working environment. It functions
as a web that involves individuals performing different organizational activities and
increases their extra-role behaviors such as creative performance (Zhang et al., 2012;
Karatepe, 2016). In other words, job embeddedness represents a wide variety of internal and
external stimuli which encourage people to stay in the organization and show their best
performance (Murphy et al., 2013). According to previous studies in the field of job
embeddedness, job characteristics such as perceived job security and perceived job
Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 3, 2019
pp. 614-630
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-11-2017-0348
Received 17 November 2017
Revised 6 March 2018
30 April 2018
21 May 2018
Accepted 23 August 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
614
PR
48,3
flexibility increase the motivation of employees to become more embedded in their jobs and
demonstrate extra-role activities such as creative performance and innovative behavior
(Karatepe, 2013; Chen, 2017). Such practices have become widespread within organizations
and are often part of a central strategy to attract, motivate and retain key talented
employees (Allen et al., 2013). Based on the notions of social exchange theory, providing
convenient job characteristics (e.g. job security and flexibility) by the organization
established a reciprocal atmosphere in which employees repay a favorable work
environment by higher retention and better job performance (Chen, 2017; Wang et al., 2016).
In the existing literature, it has been claimed that higher perceived job security and
perceived job flexibility would lead to an increase in job embeddedness, enhancing the
employees’creative performance in the organization and reducing their tendency to search
for a second job outside the organization (Richman et al., 2008; Murphy et al., 2013; Karatepe,
2016). Therefore, regarding the continued attention on perceived job security and flexibility
initiatives within both the private sector and public sector, a more precise understanding of
the relationship between job embeddedness and work performance (creative performance)
that are considered to play a mediating role is needed (Harris et al., 2011).
Northeast electricity industry is one of the oldest and largest regional electricity
industries, which is located in Iran. According to the results obtained in the national
assessments by the Ministry of Energy, this regional industry is considered as superior
grade than other regional electricity industries. In addition, this industry is known as the
pole of automation and renewable energy and some innovative activities. Furthermore,
following an initial investigation of the policies and procedures at the industry, the
researchers found that this case emphasizes on creative performance as an attempt to turn
into an innovative organization. Therefore, this study has the potential to contribute to the
existing literature in several ways. First, it may extend the conceptual framework and
respond to recent calls for more research on the potential antecedents of job embeddedness
(e.g. perceived job security, career opportunities and performance outcomes) in order to
enhance the current understanding of job embeddedness as a mediating mechanism
(Karatepe, 2016). Second, this study contributes to the emerging literature on “retention”in
the organization by focusing on the job characteristics (perceived job security and perceived
job flexibility), a factor contributing to service sector workers’intention to stay (Holtom and
Inderrieden, 2006). Third, it extends the understanding of the retention and turnover issues
to other cultures outside developed countries (Gelfand et al., 2007). Fourth, in Iran, which is a
developing nation with cultural dimensions and economic conditions that differ from
western countries, there is sparse internationally accessible management and human
resources literature (Farivar et al., 2016) and, to our knowledge, there are few studies in the
English language academic literature focusing on investigating the mediating role of job
embeddedness in the relationship between perceived job security and perceived job
autonomy and its impact on creative performance among employees in Iran. Hence, in order
to contribute to academic and practitioner knowledge on Iranian labor market issues, this
study investigates the mediating role of job embeddedness in the relationship between
perceived job security and perceived job flexibility and its impact on creative performance.
2. Literature review and hypothesis development
2.1 Job embeddedness theory
The main conceptualization of job embeddedness included two dimensions, organization
and community embeddedness, with each dimension further classifi ed into three
independent components: fit, links and sacrifice. According to Karatepe (2016), links are
defined as the formal and informal relationships between a person with other institutions
and individuals. It has been confirmed that individuals who have more intra-organizational
and inter-organizational links would become more embedded in their jobs and will have less
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Mediating
role of job
embeddedness
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