Abstract:
Organizations able to retain their human resources have an advantage
over their competitors. Employee turnover adversely affects the stability of the
workforce and carries the cost of having to hire and train new personnel. Employee
retention is, therefore, a priority for senior management. This study explores the
mediating impact of employee fit in terms of organizational job embeddedness on
the relationship between job characteristics and employees’ intention to quit. Based
on a sample of 375 employees working in a private commercial bank in Pakistan,
we find that job identity, job significance and task variety have a significant
negative effect on intention to quit. Job variety has the greatest impact on turnover
intention. Organizational job embeddedness fit mediates the relationship between
two of three job characteristics – job identity and significance – and turnover
intention, but not the latter’s relationship with perceived task variety. Thus,
organizational job embeddedness fit mediates the relationship between overall job
characteristics and turnover intention
