Three components
Terence Mitchell and colleagues described three components, each of which applies both at work and in the community around it.
- Links: formal and informal connections with people and institutions.
- Fit: how well the job and community match a person's values and plans.
- Sacrifice: what a person would give up by leaving.
What it adds
Traditional models of turnover focus on satisfaction and commitment. Embeddedness research suggests that people may stay because of a mortgage, a colleague or a child's school, even when they are not especially happy. Meta-analysis indicates it predicts turnover beyond those traditional attitudes, though the effect is moderate.
Limits
Researchers have debated how best to measure embeddedness, including whether to use the original composite or a global measure. Staying is not always a good thing either. People can be embedded in jobs that do not suit them, and leaving can be difficult for reasons that have little to do with their work.
Further reading
- Mitchell, T. R., Holtom, B. C., Lee, T. W., Sablynski, C. J., & Erez, M. (2001). Why people stay: Using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 1102-1121.
- Crossley, C. D., Bennett, R. J., Jex, S. M., & Burnfield, J. L. (2007). Development of a global measure of job embeddedness and integration into a traditional model of voluntary turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1031-1042.
- Jiang, K., Liu, D., McKay, P. F., Lee, T. W., & Mitchell, T. R. (2012). When and how is job embeddedness predictive of turnover? A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97, 1077-1096.