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How Do Employees Invest Abundant Resources? The Mediating Role of Work Effort in the Job‐Embeddedness/Job‐Performance Relationship
Author(s) -
Wheeler Anthony R.,
Harris Kenneth J.,
Sablynski Chris J.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.01023.x
Subject(s) - job embeddedness , embeddedness , job performance , sample (material) , conservation of resources theory , work (physics) , resource (disambiguation) , job characteristic theory , job attitude , job analysis , business , psychology , human resource management , resource dependence theory , job design , job satisfaction , marketing , knowledge management , social psychology , management , economics , sociology , computer science , mechanical engineering , computer network , chemistry , chromatography , anthropology , engineering
The present study extends conservation of resources ( COR ) theory by examining how employees invest abundant resources. Building on the notion of resource caravans, we conceptualized job embeddedness as a state of resource abundance that employees invest into work effort, which mediates the job‐embeddedness/job‐performance relationship. Using mediated usefulness analyses on data obtained from a sample of 1,989 employees working across 6 locations within a hospital system, we found work effort fully mediated the organizational job‐embeddedness/job‐performance relationship, while also finding that community job embeddedness directly predicted job performance. We interpret these results as evidence that employees are differentially motivated to invest resources into effort and performance. Implications for COR theory and management practice are discussed.