In recent years, organizations have had to continually innovate in order to survive in a competitive marketplace. New research (Ng & Feldman, 2010) suggests that job embeddedness could be a potential strategy to bolster innovative behaviors by employees. Job embeddedness attempts to explain how employee fit (organization-employee match), links (personal relationships at work), and sacrifice (loss of rewards and benefits if turnover) keep employees with their current organizations even when other opportunities are available.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
Research consistently shows that highly embedded employees are increasingly motivated to perform well in their jobs because they feel committed and invested in the success of the organization. But are highly embedded employees also more likely to engage in innovative-related behaviors and is this consistent across all employees In short, the answer is yes. Highly embedded employees are more apt to engage in innovation-related behaviors. However, while they are not more likely to generate innovative ideas, they are more inclined to spread the innovative ideas throughout the organization and actually implement the ideas. However, the current article also suggests that this trend is not consistent across all employees. In fact, those highly embedded employees in their mid-career to late-career stages are significantly more likely to spread and implement innovative ideas than those who are early in their careers.
THE BOTTOM LINE FOR ORGANIZATIONS
These results suggest that if an organization is currently generating an abundance of innovative ideas but is looking to spread and implement more of these ideas, then increasing job-embeddedness might be a strategy. However, it is important to emphasize that this strategy will be most effective for those who are in the more advanced stages of their careers; it may actually decrease motivation for those just starting out in their careers.
Ng, T.W.H., & Feldman, D.C. (2010). The impact of job embeddedness on innovation-related behaviors. Human Resource Management, 49(6), 1067-1087