Essay: The Impact of Globalization on Employee Turnover Intention



INTRO:

Globalization

Globalization has lead to rapid market expansion due to the ease of access for additional competition and business opportunities available irrespective of geographical constraints. Bhatnagar and Sharma (2005) have stated the general trend in the Indian industry post liberalization of the Indian economy is to focus on strategic HRM practices. The change from regulated environment to free market environment has direct implications for strategic HRM practices in India (Rao, 1999). The impact of globalization in the labor sector is huge; organizations have been forced to increase their efforts in keeping up with the fluctuating market through aggressive management approaches resulting in various outcomes such as revenue growth, additional operational, other miscellaneous expenses and a potential spike in turnover intention due to the added pressure on the employees to perform. The competitive approach by corporations could negatively impact the workforce resulting in employee stress, lower performance levels and eventual burnout. It should be noted that Globalization has also enhanced the mobility of the workforce; employees have the opportunity of expecting more from their employers than they previously did (Burke and Cooper, 2009). Due to the overwhelming competition in todays market and the constant issue of the turnover intention across industries, companies need to look beyond the traditional business models that is structured purely at increasing profitability, cost cutting etc and start initiating a modern management approach that consists a blend of the traditional model with the added element of investing in human capital (Bakker and Schaufeli, 2008). These interests include the attraction, development and retention of talents (Boninelli and Meyer, 2004). In a business aspect, Labor turnover plays a crucial role in the overall management of an establishment in terms of wages, achieving company objectives and smooth flow of the management (Malone, 2004). From an organizational perspective, employee turnover creates various direct and indirect costs. Direct costs relate to recruitment, selection, training, adjustment time, potential product and/or service quality issues and the cost of agency works/part time employees (Morrell, Loan-Clarke and Wilkinson 2004a) Issues regarding turnover could cause difficulty for the management to handle the work forces because the employees with better skills and abilities leave the company as they have higher chances of getting recruited by companies which would result in retaining employees who would find it harder to get a job due to their lower level of potential. (Tanova & Holtom, 2008).  In order to avoid such issues, it would require companies to make sure that their employees are happy working for their current company and by doing so, organizations can also expect their employees to show initiative at work, take responsibility for their own development, strive for high quality and performance, be energetic and dedicated to what they do (Singh and Srivatsava, 2015. Research suggests that Organizations with enhanced levels of empowerment have demonstrated improvements in various economic performance areas, global competition, the constantly changing business environment and the ability to craftily handle pressure to improve efficiency and performance. When employees experience empowerment they also demonstrate higher levels of engagement (Greco et al., 2006) (Mender and stander,2011). There have been plenty of research related to turnover intention, why people leave company, what causes stress within the workforce and how this eventually affects the overall productivity of the company. According to the standard employee resignation process, HR professionals use exit interviews as a method to ascertain why individuals have left an organization, however, presumably it can be more vital to identify the organizational characteristics that make people stay with their present company than to consistently identify the organizational characteristics that make them leave (George, 2014; Maertz and Campion, 1998).  Comparatively there has been significantly lesser research on how to motivate employees, what are the factors that might influence them to stay in an organization; the purpose of this research is analyze certain factors that might help employees and the organization to have a mutual positive relationship between each other leading to an overall positive impact for both parties. The current upcoming trend in organizational psychology is the study of positive organizational behavior. Topics like job engagement, job embeddedness, organizational support and autonomy have been receiving increasing attention. Researchers have now started analyzing why people stay in companies, what motivates an employee to perform in the most effective way for their organization and how positive motivational management techniques can avoid the overall risk of stress stemming amongst individuals in a work setup. Studies have suggested that Job Embeddedness plays an important role in predicting turnover. The theory suggests that the turnover decision is not only affected by the employees perception about the work load or about the actual opportunities in the labor market, it is also influenced by a number of interrelated connections both on and off the job (Cem Tanova & Brooks C. Holtom, 2008). The links that are analyzed in this study for Job Embeddeness are an employees’ Perceived Organizational Support, Supervisor Support and Job Autonomy. The research also in tends to check whether Job engagement plays a mediating role between the proposed variables. There has been no studies regarding the link between the mentioned variables but it should be noted that all the factors analyzed in the studies are part of the positive organizational behavior branch, which is in line with several studies related to turnover intention. According to research, positive organizational behavior fosters engaged employees and this is the key to ensuring high performance and overall wellness for both the organization and its employees, whilst increasing the commitment of employees, thereby lowering risk of losing talent. ((Mender and Stander, 2011)).

Literature review

• Perceived Organizational Support:

Organizational support is defined as the employees’ perception about the degree to which the organizations’ concern about their well-being and appreciates their contribution (Singh and Srivatsava, 2015).

Perceived organizational support would be measured in terms of the firms responses to potential occurrences such as an employees future illness, lapses made by the staff and the companies responsibility to remunerate its work force with a fair salary and make the employees jobs meaningful and interesting (Eisenberg et al.,1986). According to Singh and Srivatsava,(2015) Employees who experience favorable treatment from the firm such as higher levels of perceived organizational support would treat the organizational objective as a personal responsibility to contribute to. The study

By Wayne et al. provides preliminary evidence that managerial

Level employees, as well as employees with lower job profiles,

Reciprocate Perceived Organizational Support with extra-role behaviors that benefit the organization by providing assistance to others in the company in order to perform better at their jobs. By helping other employees carry out their jobs more effectively, employees’ efforts aid the organization, as well as other employees, leading to greater productivity.  Employees tend to quit their organizations due to high work demands, Bakker and Schaufeli (2008) have suggested that factors such as autonomy, supervisor support, and social support helps employees manage to overcome stressful work demands. There has been no previous research regarding the link between Organizational support and employee engagement, irrespective of the fact that Perceived Organizational Support has been found to be associated to a number of favorable outcomes such as job Satisfaction, organizational commitment, performance (Eisenberger et al., 2002). The current research intends to analyze whether the impact of perceived organizational support on an employees willingness to stay is mediated through employee engagement. Jawarski and Kohli, (1991) have stated that factors such as fair treatment by the supervisor, feedback on performance and trust in the manager/supervisor influences organizations loyalty and employee engagement. Supervisors are personified as a representative of the company and the result will be more engagement as reciprocity.  Mitchel et al., (2001) suggested that companies should analyze and understand their employees’ lives both on and off the job if they want to retain them in the long term.

Perceived supervisor support:

• Perceived Supervisory Support is defined as the degree to which employees form impressions that their supervisors care about their well-being, value their contributions and are generally supportive (Eisenberg et al., 2002). According to Jose and Mampilly, (2015) the relationship between the supervisor and subordinates is an important facet of Indian organizations because of the hierarchical structure present in the Indian society. With regard to the link between engagement and perceived supervisor support, Singh and Srivatsava (2016) have stated employee engagement and organizational loyalty aspects like fair treatment by their managers, feedback on performance and trust in the manager are highly influential.  (Muhammad and Hamdy, 2005) have provided results regarding an employee’s tendency to leave their organization reduce when they are provided support from their superior. In certain nations that have a collectivistic culture, employees may prefer to identify themselves as a part of a highly integrated hierarchy of organizational authority. Such references could increase the staffs’ perception that the supervisor personifies the organizations character, concluding in a greater Perceived Supervisory Support-Perceived Organizational Support relationship in comparison to individualistic cultures (Eisenberg et al., 2002). The Perceived Organizational Support as an outcome from Supervisory Support would enhance an employees felt necessity to help the company achieves its objectives; strengthen affective organizational commitment, with an overall declining trend in turnover intentions and other withdrawal behaviors. (Eisenberger, Armeli, Rexwinkel, Lynch, & Rhoades, 2001; Eisenberger et al., 1986; Rhoades et al., 2001; Shore & Shore, 1995), the same was reiterated by Eisenberg and Rhoades (2002), Study 3 found evidence consistent with Perceived Organizational Supports negative mediating affect on PSS-voluntary turnover relationship. Employees who believed that the supervisors valued their contribution and cared about their well-being should increase POS, which in turn was related to decreased turnover. Both quantitative and qualitative data have highlighted the significance of the supervisor or the manager and his or her influence over the engagement level of employees and their satisfaction with the company (Harter et al., 2002). There has been Insufficient consideration given as to why perceived supervisor support and perceived organizational support have been linked with employee withdrawal behavior (Eisenberg et al., 2002). The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the above-mentioned variables can have an inverse affect on an organizations turnover intention with positive outcomes such as Job Embeddedness. According to Tymon et al. (2011) research in the USA have also consistently shown a link between perception of manager support and employee retention and the same appears to be evident for professionals in India

Autonomy:  Contemporary organizational behavior research has broadened this concept to define job autonomy as the extent to which a job allows freedom, independence, and discretion to schedule work, make decisions, and choose the methods used to perform tasks (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2006). According to Hackman and Oldham (1976), job autonomy paves way to the critical psychological state of “Experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work”, this results in key organizational outcomes such as enhanced work effectiveness and high internal work motivation. The potential benefits and cost of autonomy are numerous. An example of a benefit would be in a situation where an individual who considers productivity as a desirable outcome would perceive that autonomy could provide the opportunity of exhibiting productive actions. The empowering factor of autonomy which is highlighted through increased roles and responsibilities may be embraced by employees with high levels of intrinsic motivation who see more meaning in their work and are more self driven and autonomous which results in increased work effort (Dysvik and Kuvaas, 2011). If perceived job autonomy implies that employees feel trusted, they may become prosocially motivated and reciprocate by working optimally to enhance their job performance (Batson, 1987). According to Pitts et al., (2011) autonomy is linked to empowerment and employee who feel empowered are less likely to leave their organization. Andrews and Wans (2009) have also stated the positive influence autonomy has on turnover intentions. With relevance to job autonomy and job embeddedness, George (2014) has stated that professional employees tend to stay in their current company when they are provided with a certain degree of autonomy, with flexibility provided in workload decisions, the payment structure is transparent and fair and where there is some opportunity for the workforce to craft their jobs with a suitable work-life balance. A survey of 306 IT professional have provided results suggesting that learning motivation and work exhaustion was decreased by implementing job autonomy in the presence of learning demand which in turn resulted in decreased levels of turnover intention (Shih et al., 2001).

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• Engagement:

Engagement independently from job resources and positive organizational outcomes—such as commitment—as a positive, fulfilling, affective-motivational state of work-related well-being that is the antipode of job burnout (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter,2001). According to Singh and Srivatsava (2015), engaged employees are willing to invest their optimum potential and are willing to do extra work. The employees work with a lot of passion and have a deep connection to the firm. Employee engagement is a vital factor in influencing the success or failure of the tenure of an employee in an organization. The Characteristics of engagement are expressed through positive physical, cognitive and emotional actions during tasks (Jose and Mampilly, 2015). Organizational objectives such as turnover, profitability, productivity and retention are positively influenced by work engagement (Harter et al., 2002). Engagement has been linked to a number of key outcomes at an individual and organizational level. It positively influences job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior and is negatively related to intentions to quit (Saks, 2006).  Bakker and Shaufeli (2004), have also stated the positive impact employee engagement has on organizational commitment and turnover intention. With increasing relevance of Employee Engagement researchers are now focusing on what exactly drives engagement and how it can be enhanced (Jose and Mampilly, 2015). The link between the independent variables- Perceived organizational support, supervisor support, autonomy and job embeddedness with engagement, as the mediating factor has not yet been measured. There is a gap of empirical studies regarding Employee Engagement. Little academic and empirical research has been conducted overall and a large portion of it comes from the business management community (Saks, 2006). With reference to the link between job embeddedness and engagement, Mitchel et al.,(2001) have suggested that comparatively job engagement predicts voluntary turnover and intention to quit  more than job satisfaction and organizational commitment. With regard to the potential mediating effect of engagement between organizational/supervisor support and embeddedness, Mchugh (2001) have suggested that positive organizational behavior fosters engaged employees and this is vital determinant to enhancing the prospect of higher performance and overall positive effect for the organization and its employees, whilst increasing organizational commitment among the staff, hence reducing the potential negative effect of losing talent. In relation to the first hypothesis between the positive variables and engagement, Research on value congruence (Chatman, 1989; Kristof, 1996) has suggested that when an organization expects a set of behaviors from employees that are closely tied (Congruent) with how employees prefer to see themselves (Ideal self image), the staff are likely to fully invest their physical, psychological and emotional effort into their stated duties that is their structured job design, thus becoming more engaged on the job. Engaged employees are usually more trusted by their employer and therefore portray more positive attitudes and intentions towards the organization (Saks, 2006). Harter et al., (2002) conducted a meta-analysis on work engagement by examining 7,939 business units in 36 companies and found that work engagement has a significant and positive relations to key outcomes such as customer satisfaction, worker productivity, profit, employee retention, and employee safety. Similarly Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) suggested that engaged employees have a sense of greater attachment to their company and decrease tendency to quit the organization. Engagement can be utilized as a means to decrease turnover intention in an organization (Baskin, 2007). Bhatnagar (2007) have also supported the suggestion regarding the positive link between employee engagement and retention of talent.

• Job embeddedness:

• Embeddedness can be described as a mix of various factors that innately forces an individual to become “stuck” in different aspects of ones life such as one’s job or social circle. Consequently, job embeddedness, as its name suggests, was developed with the

Intention of explaining how different factors play a role in why people choose to stay in

their jobs (Mitchell et al., 2001). The purpose of this research is to understand the factors that influence an individual to stay in the organization, According to Kusulvan et al., (2010) job embeddedness is an essential determinant to why people stay. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are important variables for predicting employee performance and turnover intentions/turnover. Retaining employees, especially high skill workers are important. Tymon et al., (2011) stated how retaining the best high skill workers is of great management benefit to companies as it eliminates the recruiting, selection and miscellaneous expenses of their replacement cost, maintains continuity in their area of expertise and creates a culture in which merit can be rewarded. According to the job demands resource model (Bakker and demerouti, 2007) social relationships in a work context such as the relationship between the employee and their manager, colleagues, management are identified as job resources because they are factors of a job that are valued and motivational factor for employees. Conversation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) state that employees tend to obtain, retain and protect resources that they personally value. This can be interpreted as employees may be inclined to value, protect and maintain social resources such as the relationships with their colleagues, personal resources like valued benefits and perks one may have attained such as seniority and status within a job. Baskin (2007) state that engaged employees tend to stay in their organizations, similarly employees who are not engaged are more likely to quit their tenure at their organization. To date, this particular relationship has not received empirical investigation and understanding this relationship may provide unique insight into the specific dynamics between job embeddedness, work engagement and the positive work characteristics mentioned in this research. According to George (2014) positive characteristics such as management style, supervisor support, positive work environment, flexibility, friendly and caring colleagues, opportunity of career growth and promotion prospects are highly influential features for employee retention. Employees  form relationships with their colleagues and supervisors that influences attachment (Graen, Liden & Hoel, 1982).

 By examining studies regarding organizational job embeddedness, analysis consistently provides a positive prediction on turnover intentions, actual turnover and overall general work attitudes   (Lee et al., 2004; Mitchell et al., 2001). In order to strengthen the fit between an employee and the organization, the management need to recruit and select employees in a detailed process. Transparency of information need to be communicated to the candidates prior to the appointment, employers need to support their employees in order to achieve their career objectives. To strengthen the fit between the individual and the community, the employer can provide information about community events or amenities. Employers could also consider locating plants or offices near housing sectors that offer affordable dwellings for employees (Cem Tanova & Brooks C. Holtom, 2008). Our results indicate the appropriateness of studying retention and performance as tandem job behaviors and viewing job embeddedness as a meaningful mechanism through which to understand this linkage (Lee et al., 2004). Employee retention is influenced due to a number of link or attachements they have to other people, projects or organizations. We could interpret these links as factors that adds to the complexity of wanting to leave. In addition, links appear to add “weight” to the status quo. People tent to be more apprehensive about breaking or changing these links TERENCE R. I$TCHELL AND THOMAS W. LEE

Proposed hypothesis:

• Hypothesis 1: Employee Engagement mediates the relationship between Perceived Organizational support and Job Embeddedness: Studies have shown that when employees perceive a good fit between their career objectives, values and skills  with the company they are working for, the likelihood of staying in the organization is greater [(Chetty, 2015; Mitchell & Lee, 2001).]. If organization take these factors into consideration it could be perceived as a supportive action from the company leading to higher levels of organizational support ). Pamela JJ Chetty1, Melinde Coetzee1 and Nadia Ferreira2. Since engagement is commonly linked with organizational support and job embeddedness [REFERENCE], the study aims to analyze whether it could play a mediating role between the two variables.

• Hypothesis 2: Employee Engagement mediates the relationship between Perceived Supervisor Support and Job Embeddedness: There have been several studies regarding how organizational support and supervisor support measures job engagement  (Harter et al., 2002). There have research on how supervisor reduces turnover intentions (e.g., Houkes,

Janssen, de Jonge, & Nijhuis, 2001; Kuvaas & Dysvik, 2010). The purpose of this hypothesis is to analyze the effect supervisor as on engagement and job embeddedness as a separate construct without the influence of organizational support, which has been an overlapping factor while analyzing supervisor support in several studies.

• Hypothesis 3: Employee Engagement mediates the relationship between Job Autonomy and Job Embeddedness:

Perceived job autonomy has been recognized as the core aspect of work design, leading to a range of positive outcomes. However, researchers have consistently questioned its predictive role for various outcomes (Johns, 2010. With regard to the growing requirement for more complex research on the predictive role of perceived job autonomy on employee outcomes  (Anders Dysvik & BÃ¥rd Kuvaas, 2013). The aim of this research is to investigate whether there is a positive relationship between job autonomy with an employee’s willingness to be retained in an organization and if this is affected by certain influences (Job Engagement).

Method

The participants consisted of only Indian employees.  All Individuals involved in the project were all above the age of 20, the majority of the subjects were from the IT sector 9.9%.  The sample population had individuals working across various industries. In total, there were 234 respondents with 50% of the sample completing the survey; the sample consisted of 80.9% male and 18.4% women. The questionnaire was distributed to employees in an operational level to a managerial level, out of which 54.6% held a senior level post.

Measures

Chapter 4.0 METHODOLOGY

4.1 Conceptual Framework

The proposed framework in Figure 1, illustrates the identified gaps in the literature. The framework is a casual model depicting the flow of influence of online shopping motivation on choice goals, further influence of choice goals on the urge felt to buy impulsively and ultimately the online impulse purchase behavior. This model will be used for assisting the explanation of consumers’ motivation to shop online, the choice goals they seek to attain and how these encourage impulse buying.

4.2 Type of Investigation

Quantitative research methodology will be adopted in this study as this method is suitable for testing theories by examining the relation between the variables (Zikmund, 2000). There are a variety of research options that could be used, Sauders et al., (2009) have provided three main categories with relevance to their purpose namely exploratory, descriptive and causal research/hypothesis testing. The appropriate approach is based on the level of information that exists in the field of research (Sekaran and Bougie, 2010) and the literature in similar areas of study (Sauders et al., 2009). Using a similar approach to other studies increases the accuracy and reliability of results (Bryman and Bell, 2011). The research topic requires a causal research type of investigation in order to identify the relationship between factors and their flow of action (Zikmund, 2000).  Stated that causal research

Examines each cause variable and examines the cause and examines the impact these factors have on the end outcome. Since, the objective of the study is to understand the cause and effect relationship of organizational support, supervisor support and job autonomy on an employees willingness to stay (Job Embeddedness) this would be appropriate approach.

4.4 Measures and Measurement

Measurement of variables is an important element of the research design (Sekaran and Bougie, 2010). Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005) add that the quality of results is highly dependent on the measurements used to gather data. The established measures will allow for hypothesis testing to answer the research questions.

4.4.1 Constructs

There are 5 constructs measured in this study namely Perceived Organizational Support, Work design Questionnaire, Utrecht work engagement scale-9, Global Job Embeddedness Scale, Perceived Supervisor Support scale The proposed measures of these constructs are listed in Appendix 1.

4.4.2 Scales

Engagement- Utrecht Work Engagement Scale UWES-9; Schaufeli, Bakker and Salanova, 2006) The 9 item self report scale was used to analyze work engagement. The scale is characterized by 3 dimesionsions: Vigour (e.g: “At my job, I feel strong and vigorous”), Dedication  (“I am enthusiastic about my

job”), Absorption (“I am immersed in my work”) Items were rated in a seven-point frequency scale ranging from 1=Never to 7=Always. The chronbach’s alpha of this scale was .900.

Perceived Organizational Support: The shorter 8 item Survey of Perceieved organization support scale was used to analyze POS (Eisenberg et al.,1986). In order to control for an agreement response bias the scale have two items that were negatively scored (e.g: “My organization shows very little concern for me”, “If given the opportunity, my organization would take advantage of me”).The items were rated in a seven point Likert scale from 1=Strongly disagree to 7=Strongly agree. The Cronbachs alpha for Organisational support signified high reliability at .828.

Autonomy: The job autonomy scale was assessed by nine items validated by Morgeson and Humphrey (2006). The scale was measured in a 5 item likert scale ranging from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree. The Cronbachs alpha for this scale was .929, which signifies high reliability.

Job Embeddedness: The Global Measurement of Job Embeddedness scale (Crossley et al., 2007) was used to measure the Dependent variable Job Embeddedness. The scale consisted of 8 items with the range of options according to the 5 point Likert scale (1-Strongly disagree to 5-Strongly agree). The reliability of the scale stated that the Cronbachs alpha is at .778.

Perceived Supervisor Support: Following the procedure used by Kotke and Shafrinski (1988) and Rhoades et al., (2011) Four items from the Survey of perceived organizational support was used replacing the term organization for supervisor their adaption was used based on their adaptive form and High reliability with Cronbachs alpha at .838

4.5 Data Collection method

This study utilizes a survey technique, where a self-administered questionnaire (Bryman and Bell, 2011) is prepared and sent out to the participants. A closed structured questionnaire has been implemented. Questionnaires are extensively used in quantitative data collection (Kent, 2007). This strategy was picked as previous research that analyzed constructs that are related to this study’s conceptual model have used this survey technique, confirming its reliability and validity

 (Bryman and Bell, 2011). It should also be noted that implementing a closed structured questionnaire mutually benefits the participant and the researcher, it is simple to process and complete, increases the comparability of responses and lowers the probability of variances in the answers (Bryman and Bell, 2011).

4.5.1 Questionnaire administration

The questionnaire is web-based and will be administered and distributed using Qualtrics.  In compliance with the ethical guidelines set by BPS, an introductory page was made available with information regarding the purpose of the research, the approximate duration taken to complete the survey, the option to withdraw from completing or omitting certain questions in the survey,

Contact details are enlisted if they wish to clarify any queries and reassurance about the confidentiality of their responses in the questionnaire. The participants were asked to provide a memorable name in order for them to be identified should they wish to withdraw their results upon completion of the survey. Individuals were required to acknowledge the informed consent by clicking on the tick option before starting with the survey, instructions regarding the correct procedure of filling in the questionnaire were also provided in this section. Upon completion of the survey, participants were presented with a debrief page which thanked them for filling in the survey, an additional description of the research project and reiterate the anonymity and confidentiality of the survey with the right to withdraw at any given time.

4.6 Sampling Design

4.6.1 Research Population

The participants consisted of only Indian employees.  All Individuals involved in the project were all above the age of 20; the majority of the subjects were from the IT sector 9.9%.  The sample population had individuals working across various industries. In total, there were 234 respondents with 50% of the sample completing the survey; the sample consisted of 80.9% male and 19.1% women. The questionnaire was distributed to employees in an operational level to a managerial level, out of which 54.6% held a senior level post.

4.6.2 Sampling Method

Non-probability sampling approach will be taken up due to the limited time available to conduct the study. Convenience and snowball sampling technique will be applied. Bryman and Bell (2011) argue that though this technique is very useful and extensively used it does not give a correct representation of the population and findings cannot be generalized. However, in the case of this study since there is no specifications limiting the population this technique can be used. Use of convenience and snowball sampling reduces the time of data collection when the study is time-restricted (Bryman and Bell, 2011) as respondents can be reached conveniently and they further help to find other respondents.

4.6.3 Sampling Size

Determining an appropriate sample size for research depends on factors such as absolute and relative sample size, limited time, cost and resources (Bryman and Bell, 2011).  Kent (2007) stated that sometimes sample sizes are established on rule-of-thumb, based on previous research and experience of the researcher or the client. However, despite the method of determining the size, the sample size must correspond to the statistical analysis that will be performed in the research (Bryman and Bell, 2011). McGoldrick et al., (2001) suggests that a sample should have a minimum of 100 respondents for every a research study. The total sample size of the study is 250, giving room for anticipated non-responses. This study will use SPSS software to analyze the data.

Procedure:

The online survey was constructed on Qualtrics and was made available to the respondents via an email link. In compliance with the ethical guidelines set by BPS, an introductory page was made available with information regarding the purpose of the research, the approximate duration taken to complete the survey, the option to withdraw from completing or omitting certain questions in the survey,

Contact details are enlisted if they wish to clarify any queries and reassurance about the confidentiality of their responses in the questionnaire. The participants were asked to provide a memorable name in order for them to be identified should they wish to withdraw their results upon completion of the survey. Individuals were required to acknowledge the informed consent by clicking on the tick option before starting with the survey, instructions regarding the correct procedure of filling in the questionnaire were also provided in this section. Upon completion of the survey, participants were presented with a debrief page which thanked them for filling in the survey, an additional description of the research project and reiterate the anonymity and confidentiality of the survey with the right to withdraw at any given time.

Results:

Prior to the analysis, the data was screened and cleaned; the negatively phrased items were reverse scored. The data were checked for missing data and maually deleted until there were no missing cases.  Totalling the scores of the relevant items then created the composite score for the five variables. The normality was assessed through skewness and kurtosis analysis. Descriptive statisics of skewness revealed that all the variables were negatively skewed, however Z scores were calculated and placed in a descending order to identify whether the variables were outside the acceptable limit of (-1.96 to 1.96) (Field, 2013 p.139), the results suggests that the measured items were well within the limit of normal distribution. Univariate outliers were identified for three scales (Autonomy, Perceived organizational support and Perceived Supervisor support), but the outliers were within the critical value of -3.29 and 3.29, hence no action was taken for the figures (Field, 2013 p.153).  

The residual scattereplots were analyzed to recheck for normality, linearity and homoscedasticity of all the variables. Casewise diagnositcs reported unusual cases in the three independent variables (Perceived organisational support, autonomy and supervisor support), however the cases did not have an influence on the resutlts as the value for Cooks distance were below values of the threshold limit of 1 (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2013). Furthermore there were no evidence of multicollinearity as VIF values were well below 10 and the tolerance statistics were significantly above 0.1 (Pallant, 2001).

Bivariate correlations were performed for the three independent variables (Perceived organizational support, supervisor support and autonomy) with the dependent variable (Job Embeddedness) and the mediating variable (Engagement) simultaneously. A small correlation was found between Organizational Support and Job Embeddedness (r=.273, p<.001), Organizational support and Engagement (r=.445, p<.001), Perceived supervisor support had a small correlation with Job Embeddedness (r=.273, p<.005), a medium sized correlation between Supervisor support and Job Engagement (r=.452, p<.001), a moderate positive correlation between Job Embeddedness and autonomy (r=.338, p<.001), worker autonomy and job embeddedness also had a moderate positive correlation (r=.452, p<.001). The dependent variable (Job Embeddedness) and the mediating variable (Engagement) has a strong positive correlation (r=.638, p<.001).

Mediation model: The Andrew Hayes process model was used to analyze the mediating effect of the concerned variables

Meditational effect of Engagement between Perceived Supervisory Support and Job Embeddedness: The output indicates that Perceived supervisor support significantly predicts Job Engagement, b=.6692, t=5.53, p<.001. The R square value explains a 20% variance in Job Engagement.  Job engagement significantly predicts the dependent variable Job Embeddedness,  b=.5407, t=7.87, p<.001. However the direct effect of perceived supervisor support and Job Embeddedness was rejected, b=-.0240, t=-.2361, p≠.005. The overall variance for the model was 41%. This suggests that Supervisor support does not have a direct effect on Job Embeddedness unless mediated by Engagement. In order to confirm the indirect effect of the mentioned variables, the bootstrap analysis was checked.  There was a significant indirect effect of Perceived Supervisory Support and Job Embeddedness through Job Engagement, b=.3619, Bca CI [0.1861, 0.5320].

Mediational effect of Engagement between Perceived Organizational Support and Job Embeddedness: The Output suggests that Perceived organizational Support positively predicts the Mediating variable Job engagement, b=.4267, t=5.7841, p<.001 with a variance level of  23%. Organisational support positively predicts the dependent variable Job Embeddedness at 5% level of significance, b=.1331, t=2.1917 , p=.03. Job Engagement also predicts Job Embeddedness b=.4612, t=6.7360, p<001. The role of engagement having an indirect influence on the variables was confirmed by the bootstrap method b=.1968, Bca CI [.1067, .3088].

Mediational Effect of Engagement between Job Autonomy and Job Embeddedness: The analysis states that Job Autonomy positively predicts the mediating variable Job Engagement, b=.4141 ,t=.3369, p<.001 with R-sq=.2042 indicating a 20.42% variance. The results suggest that Job autonomy does not predict Job Embeddedness directly , b=.0476, t=.7582, p=.4499. Engagement however predicts Job Embeddedness, b= .5099, t=7.4384 ,p<001 with an overall variance of 41.07%. Similar to Supervisor support, this means that Engagement plays a vital role between the independent and dependent variable, with no relation between the two factors without the indirect influence of the mediating variable.  The mediational role was proven by analysing the bootstrap method, b=.2112, Bca CI [.1350, .3335].

Discussion

The study aims to understand whether managerial factors like Organizational support, Supervisor support and Job Autonomy influences an employee to stay in a company and have an overall positive experience in the organization. The research also aims to analyze the effect of mediation on the relationship between the positive job characteristics and Job Embeddedness. Three meditational analyses were performed to attain the mediating effect of Employee Engagement on the relationship between Perceived Organizational Support and Job Embeddedness; Perceived Supervisor support and Job Embeddedness; Job Autonomy and Job Embeddedness.

The initial step taken during the analysis was to check whether there was a positive correlation between the Predictor variables, Job Engagement and Job Embeddedness. The analysis suggested that all the variables were all correlated to each other. However, the strength of the correlations varied.

 Results indicated a significantly positive relationship between Employee Engagement and Job Embeddedness; Employee Engagement and Perceived Organizational support; a small correlation between Perceived Supervisor Support and Job Embeddedness. The remaining variables had a moderate positive correlation between each other.  In order to test the hypothesis of the research the Andrew Hayes Process model was used to analyze the meditational effect, the model provides a simple regression and the bootstrap method analysis.