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

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12235
• Author: Long Zhang,Chuanhao Fan,Yulin Deng,Chak Fu Lam,Lingyun Wang,Enhua Hu
• Date: 01 July 2019
• Published date: 01 July 2019

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Exploring the interpersonal determinants of job

embeddedness and voluntary turnover: A

conservation of resources perspective

Long Zhang

1

|Chuanhao Fan

2

|Yulin Deng

2

|Chak Fu Lam

3

|

Enhua Hu

1

|Lingyun Wang

1

1

College of Economics and Management,

Nanjing University of Aeronautics and

Astronautics, Nanjing, China

2

Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing,

China

3

College of Business, City University of Hong

Kong, Hong Kong

Correspondence

Long Zhang, College of Economics and

Management, Nanjing University of

Aeronautics and Astronautics, 29 Jiangjun

Road, Nanjing 211106, China.

Email: lzhang@nuaa.edu.cn

Funding information

Human Resource Development Research Base

of Jiangsu Province, Grant/Award Number:

2017ZSJD002; Fundamental Research Funds

for the Central Universities, Grant/Award

Number: NJ2018027; National Natural Sci-

ence Foundation of China, Grant/Award

Numbers: 71832006 and 71832007

Abstract

This paper draws on a conservation of resources perspec-

tive 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 com-

pany obtained through a three‐wave survey support our

model. Our findings illuminate the resource consequences

of interpersonal interactions on job embeddedness and vol-

untary turnover, and we offer practical implications for

employee retention.

KEYWORDS

job embeddedness, leader–member exchange, ostracism, voluntary

turnover

1|INTRODUCTION

Over the past two decades, job embeddedness—“the combined forces that keep a person from leaving his or her

job”(Yao, Lee, Mitchell, Burton, & Sablynski, 2004, p. 159)—has attracted considerable interest as a proximal

Received: 12 September 2017 Revised: 15 February 2019 Accepted: 22 February 2019

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12235

Hum Resour Manag J. 2019;29:413–432. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltdwileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj 413

antecedent to voluntary turnover. Researchers have related job embeddedness to turnover intentions and behaviour

(Jiang, Liu, McKay, Lee, & Mitchell, 2012), and studies have shown that its predictive power goes above and

beyond job satisfaction and job alternatives (Crossley, Bennett, Jex, & Burnfield, 2007; Sender, Rutishauser, &

Staffelbach, 2018).

Given the usefulness of job embeddedness in retaining employees, researchers have made considerable efforts

to explore its antecedents, including organisational factors (e.g., benefit programmes and human resource

management practices) and personal characteristics (e.g., extraversion and enhanced and newly acquired skills;

Ghosh & Gurunathan, 2015). Although social relations in the workplace have been recognised as a driving

force for job embeddedness (Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski, & Erez, 2001), they have received relatively little

empirical attention (Lee, Burch, & Mitchell, 2014). Existing work has shown that low levels of co‐worker job

embeddedness lead to high levels of co‐worker job search behaviour, which in turn lead to employee turnover

(Felps et al., 2009), and supervisor job embeddedness relates positively to employees' own job embeddedness

(Ng & Feldman, 2013). Following those studies, we examine whether and how supervisors and co‐workers individ-

ually and jointly affect employees' job embeddedness. Specifically, given the negative influence of co‐workers

(Felps et al., 2009) and the positive influence of supervisors (Ng & Feldman, 2013), we focus on workplace

ostracism (Williams, 2007), which represents mistreatment from co‐workers that pushes an employee to leave a

job, and on leader–member exchange (LMX; Scandura & Graen, 1984), which represents an employee's positive

relationship with his or her manager that pulls the employee to stay with an organisation. Examining the

joint influence of workplace ostracism and LMX on voluntary turnover is important, because interactions with

one person cannot occur in the absence of the social context that is the function of the other people around

(Schneider, 1987).

To achieve our objectives, we employ the conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001) as an

overarching framework. According to the COR theory, individuals are primarily concerned with protecting

and creating resources. When people perceive that they have sufficient resources to meet the demands placed

on them, they are unlikely to experience stress. When people perceive that they have insufficient resources, how-

ever, they are likely to act to protect or create new resources to help them manage their stress. Drawing from

this insight, we posit that social relations, such as workplace ostracism and LMX, are types of resources that

provide or create resources, that job embeddedness represents one's resource status (Mitchell et al., 2001), and

that voluntary turnover is an outcome of resource status. Based on this conceptualisation, we theorise that

workplace ostracism depletes resources in the form of job embeddedness, whereas LMX augments those

resources, and that those effects subsequently impact voluntary turnover. Moreover, we argue that the

two types of interpersonal relations interact to influence voluntary turnover via job embeddedness.

We seek to contribute to the literature in three ways. First, we provide a novel explanation of voluntary

turnover from the perspective of the COR theory. By conceptualising voluntary turnover as an outcome of

resource depletion, while positioning job embeddedness, workplace ostracism, and LMX as resource‐related

constructs, we use the COR tenets to develop a coherent understanding of how social relations affect voluntary

turnover. Second, this study enhances our understanding of the role of job embeddedness in voluntary turnover in

the workplace. The primary insight is that job embeddedness accrues from employee investment in various

resources, such as interpersonal relationships. As a result, job embeddedness may act as an explanatory

mechanism in predicting the effect of social relations on voluntary turnover. Furthermore, job embeddedness

represents a broad constellation of influences—not merely psychological ones—on employee retention. To our

knowledge, past research (e.g., Robinson, O'Reilly, & Wang, 2013; Zhang, Lam, & Deng, 2017) has primarily

focused on the psychological mechanisms through which interpersonal factors account for voluntary

turnover. Finally, by examining the interaction of workplace ostracism and LMX, we reveal for whom

workplace ostracism is associated with more voluntary turnover. Understanding this issue helps advance our

knowledge of when a particular factor exerts a stronger or weaker impact on turnover (Hom, Lee, Shaw, &

Hausknecht, 2017).

414 ZHANG ET AL.