The relationships between job embeddedness, work engagement, burnout and turnover intention within the South African context
Abstract
For organisations in the 21st century it is important to maintain a competitive advantage within their industry. Therefore, organisations must be focused on continually perform optimally and remain effective by retaining their talented and devoted employees. In order to keep such employees from having intentions to leave their organisation, strong links and relationships should be sought with their co-workers and/or their community. Furthermore, organisations should provide employees with the necessary support to cope with their work demand. Such assistance will help prevent employees from experiencing symptoms of burnout such as emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishments. Along with employees’ links within their organisation/community it is vital that they experience personal fit with their organisation’s culture and values, which contribute to the sacrifices employees are willing to make if they intend to leave their organisation. Therefore, organisations should implement strategies that keep skilled and devoted employees embedded and engaged within their work environment (on-the-job embeddedness) and community (off-the-job embeddedness), thereby enhancing the organisation’s performance and effective functioning within the industry. The general aim of this study was to determine the relationships between job embeddedness, work engagement, burnout and turnover intention within the South African context. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was adopted, thereafter convenience sampling was used to collect data within the logistics industry. The selected sample comprised participants who varied in terms of characteristics regarding age, gender, educational background and ethnicity. To test the formulated research hypotheses, structural equation modelling was performed including a measurement and structural model used that consists of latent variables.
According to the results of this study, work engagement has a significant positive relationship with both on-the-job embeddedness and off-the-job embeddedness, but only an indirect relationship with turnover intention through on-the-job embeddedness. Burnout, on the other hand, indicated a direct positive relationship with turnover intention and a non-significant relationship with both on-the-job embeddedness and off-the-job embeddedness. Additionally, on-the-job embeddedness was found to have a significant negative relationship with turnover intention, and off-the-job embeddedness a non-significant relationship with turnover intention.
Based on the findings explicated above, the researcher rounds off the study by drawing conclusions, pointing out the limitations of this study and making recommendations for future practice and research in this field.