The Impact of Job Embeddedness on Employee’s Performance—The Regulation Study of Relational Embeddedness ()
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of mobile Internet technology, emerging intelligent technologies bring new opportunities and challenges to enterprise development. The role of information systems in the daily operations of enterprises is playing an increasingly important role. The number of enterprises implementing information systems has been increasing year by year, and the investment in information systems by enterprises has also been increasing year by year. However, although most companies have realized the importance of implementing information systems and have implemented information systems in their enterprises, the failure rate of information systems implementation is high [1] .
Today, the world operates faster and more complexly than before, creating a huge dependency between employees and organizations [2] . In this process, employees are not only involved in their work, but also influenced by their colleagues. The internal information of the organization is crucial to the work of the employees [3] . The change of workflow and working environment brought by the implementation of information system to some extent changed the working attitude of employees. The technological changes introduced by the introduction of the new system will also stimulate employees to establish various contact networks in a short period of time.
Reviewing existing literatures, we find that scholars study the relationship between employee’s work behavior and work performance after the implementation of information system from various perspectives. However, there are few researches on work performance focusing on employee’s work embedding and social network. The implementation of information systems has changed the content and business processes of employees [1] [3] and has created an impact on existing social networks among employees. This relationship among employees can affect employees’ system acceptance, learning, etc. But few scholars study how the relationship between employees changes and how they affect their job embedding and job performance after the information system is implemented. Through reviewing the existing literatures, this study attempts to study work embedding and relationship embedding theory in the same framework to explore the impact of job embedding on employee job performance, as well as the relationship between the two to regulate the role of open embedded within the work, the relationship between embedded, job performance of the black box.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Job Embeddedness
Job embeddedness is the closeness of the network of relationships formed by all work-related situations within and outside the organization and from non-subjective and non-work-based factors, providing a fresh perspective on our understanding of organizational behavior [4] . The concept of job embeddedness was first proposed by American psychologist Mitchell in 2001 and introduced into employee active resignation research. A study by Mitchell (2001) found that job embeddedness is more predictive of employee turnover than traditional attitude variables. As scholars work on in-depth job embeddedness [4] , Lee (2004) finds that the concept of job embeddedness can be used to predict the performance of employees and find that the embeddedness of employees has a significant impact on employee performance [5] . According to Holtom (2006), surveys of Fortune 100 employees also suggest that employees with high levels of job involvement are often associated with high levels of social capital stock [6] [7] . Halbesleben and Wheeler (2008), based on long-term surveys of 573 employees in different industries, found that there was a link between job embeddedness change and fluctuations in employee performance. Burtom and Sablynski (2010) argue that employees with high levels of job engagement can proactively improve job performance [8] , especially by reducing organizational redundancies, declining salary expectations, and poor performance of the company by improving organizational citizenship and overall performance. Wang Duanxu (2010) studied job embedding as an intermediate variable of incentives and job performance [9] , and considered that material returns, personal growth and individual respect can translate into substantive performance for enterprises when they are highly embedded in the work of science and technology personnel Enhance. Research by Li Yongzhou et al. (2014) shows that job embeddedness has a positive effect on the innovation performance of R & D personnel in high-tech enterprises [10] . Although job embeddedness was originally applied in the field of resignation, more and more scholars find that the embedding of work into the prediction of employee work results is also higher than other traditional variables with the in-depth study of job embeddedness [5] .
Job embeddedness in the work as a dividing line is divided into two sub-elements of the middle level: embedded within the work and outside. Embeddedness in work refers to the degree of embedding of the individual and the organization in which the work is performed, and the degree of embeddedness in the work refers to the embedding degree of the individual and the life community. However, Chinese people’s rural ideas and characteristics of pursuing stability are more obvious, it is determined that the migration of Chinese employees is weak [11] . The embedded applications of communities in work embedding are not suitable under the Chinese situation [11] . Therefore, in this paper, we only study organizational embedding, that is, embedded within the work. Therefore, this study considers only three related dimensions embedded in the work, namely: job link, job fit, job sacrifices.
Job link refers to the various formal and informal links that employees make with their work or other people, such as with colleagues, teams, jobs, etc. The more connections, the more workers stay in work or organization, the closer they are to work [12] . A large number of empirical studies show that the connection with working partners can enhance the sense of attachment of employees, promote employee retention, reduce employee turnover and increase employee performance [13] . After the enterprise implements the information system, the staff’s connection with the work will affect the employees’ acceptance and adaptation to the information system. Job fit refers to the compatibility and comfort of the employee with the organization or the environment in which it is perceived at work, the level of employee-perceived personal interests and values that match the organization, and the compatibility of the individual with the organization’s settings. Similar to the sense of belonging, the higher the staff’s match with the work, the stronger the sense of attachment to the organization, and the more the employees can face the difficulties. The more they can cope with changes in the work performed by the information system. Job sacrifices are the physical and mental benefits of loss perceived by employees as they leave the organization [12] . Employees experience the pressure of implementing information systems on their own [14] and technical pressures [15] as organizations implement changes in their workflows and business processes, and employees experience negative individual behaviors, And employees will reduce or discontinue behavior if their negative individual behavior and low performance (such as separation, negligence and absenteeism) result in significant material and psychological damage to their employees.
2.2. Relationship Embeddedness
Workplace changes and environmental uncertainties resulting from the implementation of information systems increase the flow of information among employees, especially in the early stages of information system implementation [1] . A series of changes that employees bring to work and behavior after they implement an information system can promote the flow of information between employees and employees communicate with other people in the social network about various problems encountered in their work. The network for information exchange is the consultative network [16] . Employee’s job embeddedness in the relationship between performance and work, and not only plays a role, but to be affected and constrained by various factors. Embeddedness describes the interaction that occurs between an individual or organization and other institutions, organizations, or people in the environment. By embedding in different relational situations, individual or organization can obtain diversified output, which can promote or hinder its own development. Granovetter (1992) divides embedding into two dimensions; structural embeddedness and associative embeddednes [17] , and states that embeddednes ties have a direct effect on the behavior of individuals or organizations, whereas the effect of structural embedding is indirect. This paper refers to the relationship between embeddedness, mainly refers to the introduction of information systems in the enterprise employees formed between them in various networks, such as consulting networks and other interaction and contact, including the interaction and contact between employees and employees, staff and leadership.
At present, most researches on relational embedding mainly focus on using it as an antecedent variable or intermediary variable, while there are relatively few studies on the regulation of relational embeddedness [18] . Ren Shengang et al. (2011) analyzed the different effects of network embedded variables on innovation performance and the mediating role among them. Feng Zengtian and Hao Bin (2014) think that the higher the modularization of relational embedding is, the more significant the regulation of product innovation [19] . Therefore, studying the regulatory effect of relational embedding on job embeddedness and job performance will broaden the research scope of relational embedding and open up new fields for future research.
2.3. Job Performance
The job performance of employees is not only an important criterion that reflects the results of business operations, but also an important standard for the inspector’s work results. As research on job performance progresses, different scholars have proposed different job performance models. Borman & Motowidlo (1993) proposed a two-factor model of performance structure that divides job performance into task performance and contextual performance based on the reasons why the behavior event accomplishes the goal of promoting or impeding the accomplishment of organizational goals. Among them, the task performance refers to the employee behavior and the organization’s mandate, to improve the organizational efficiency has a direct impact, it is mainly affected by experience, ability and job-related knowledge and other factors; relationship performance refers to staff spontaneous behavior, Regardless of specific tasks, the relationship between performance and organizational efficiency is also very important, such as voluntarily assuming the work is not within their own responsibility to help colleagues, with the spirit of cooperation.
The task performance and contextual performance are distinguished in three aspects: 1) whether they are prescribed or determined by themselves; 2) the impact on OCB behavior and pro-social organization behavior; 3) whether the performance behavior is related to the task proficiency. Task performance and contextual performance are both linked and differentiated: task performance directly or indirectly service specific tasks, emphasizing the proficiency of task execution, and contextual performance is the task of organizing, social and psychological environment to provide services, emphasizing the initiative And motivation; task performance behavior varies with different tasks and tasks, however, for all work, the relationship between performance and behavior can be very similar; task performance comes from the work of a skilled, and therefore the knowledge of employees , Skills and abilities are closely related, while the contextual performance comes from the voluntary and initiative, which is closely related to the personality characteristics of employees; task performance activities are clearly designated, it is part of their work, the staff to complete it They can get the corresponding remuneration, while the contextual performance is not part of their own work (Chen Zhixia, 2006). Therefore, we can see that task performance and contextual performance as two dimensions of job performance, which can well reflect the job performance.
This study investigates employee’s job performance from the perspective of job embeddedness and social network. Job embeddedness tends to work tasks, which is more related to task performance. Social network tends to be more interpersonal and more relevant to contextual performance. However, the specific relationship between the four needs further study.
3. Research Models and Hypothesis
The main research content of this paper is the mechanism of employees’ relationship embeddedness on job embeddedness and performance of employee’s work. The embeddedness of job is divided into three dimensions: job link, job fit and job sacrifice. Job performance is divided into two tasks: task performance and contextual performance Dimensions, respectively, the impact of job embeddedness on job performance, and the effect of relationship embedding on job-embedded and employee task performance and contextual performance. Accordingly, the theoretical model is proposed in this study (see Figure 1).
After the implementation of the information system, the enterprise brings great changes to the work environment of the employees, and the working methods and business processes also change. The staffs feel that the matching degree between themselves and the organization or the work has changed. In the early stages of system implementation, employees encounter various problems, employees can only use the common features of information systems, and problems unfamiliar with the realization of information systems, which can affect employees’ job link and job fit, and thus will affect the staff’s mission performance. Job sacrifice refers to the loss of material or psychological costs that individuals perceive as a result of their leaving the organization. A series of changes brought about by the enterprise’s implementation of an information system can lead to employee turnover intention, and such intention of leaving affects the employee’s task Performance. Therefore, we put forward the hypothesis:
H1a: Employee’s job link has a positive impact on the employee’s task performance.
H1b: Employee’s job fit has a positive impact on employee’s task performance.
H1c: Employee’s job sacrifice has a positive effect on employee’s task
performance.
After implementing information systems, employees need to master more, different from past knowledge, to better use the system, learn new skills, and adapt to new workflows [20] . After the information system is implemented, the business provides some support to the employee, but the employee’s support from the business is limited and inflexible [21] . When employees encounter problems and cannot get support from the organization, they will inevitably Ask your coworkers for help. Information system implementation makes the organization change, the staff in a very uncertain environment, when the work of staff embedding degree will affect the staff to do some non-job work, such as providing assistance to colleagues to adapt to the environment certainty, which affects the employee’s contextual performance. At this time, there is more communication among employees, more information flow, more staff embedded in the workforce, the more employees share information among employees’ networks, answer questions [22] , the job embeddedness degree of employees Changes can affect the employee’s relationship performance. Therefore, we put forward the hypothesis:
H2a: The employee’s job link has a positive effect on employee’s contextual performance.
H2b: Employee’s job fit has a positive effect on employee’s contextual performance.
H2c: Employee’s job sacrifice has a positive effect on the employee’s contextual performance.
At the first stage of the information system implementation, employees could gain knowledge or skills they did not know through the consulting network and help solve their own problems or problems [23] . The consulting network between employees can help employees keep abreast of system implementation Get the information you need, and solve all kinds of problems in your work due to the implementation of information systems [24] . When the relationship between team members is more embedded, the more they can promote the exchange and cooperation between each other, enhance the interaction and connection between each other, make the exchange of knowledge happen frequently in frequent contacts, and then promote the work within the staff The degree of embedding becomes higher, which in turn affects the staff’s mission performance. Relative to a narrow network of relationships, the network embedded in the low degree of staff, a high degree of embedded staff task performance will be higher than the embedded level is not high staff. In general, in most cases, the three dimensions of relational embeddedness positively promote the transformational relationship between job-embeddedness and task performance when team members are not interfered and restricted by other external and internal factors.
Therefore, we put forward the hypothesis:
H3a: Employee’s relational embeddedness plays a positive role in regulating the relationship between employee’s job link and task performance; that is, the higher the employee’s relationship embeddedness, the stronger the positive influence of employee’s job link on task performance;
H3b: employee’s relationship embeddedness plays a positive role in regulating the relationship between employee’s job fit and task performance; that is, the higher the employee’s relationship embeddedness, the stronger the positive effect of employee’s job fit on task performance;
H3c: Employee’s Relationship Embeddedness palys a positive in regulating the relationship between job sacrifice and task performance; that is, the higher the employee’s relationship embeddedness, the stronger the positive effect of employee’s job sacrifice on task performance.
After the implementation of information systems, the most significant change brought about by employees is the workflow and working methods, which will directly affect the performance of employees’ tasks. However, since the implementation of the new system has brought about tremendous changes to the working environment of employees, new system changes will inevitably lead to employees exchanging new workflows and software usage information, forming a series of networks in the circulation of these information, and employees in the network The strength of relationship embedding not only affects the quality and speed of employees ‘access to information, but also affects the employees’ interpersonal relationships in the consulting network. The information published and obtained by employees in the consulting network will affect the employee relationship performance. Therefore, we put forward the hypothesis:
H4a: Employee’s relational embeddedness plays a positive role in regulating the relationship between employee’s job link and contextual performance; that is, the higher the employee’s relationship embeddedness, the stronger the positive influence of the employee’s job link and contextual performance;
H4b: Employee’s relationship embeddedness plays a positive role in regulating the relationship between employee’s job fit and contextual performance; that is, the higher the employee’s relationship embeddedness, the stronger the positive influence of the employee’s job fit and contextual performance;
H4c: Employee’s Relationship embeddedness plays a positive role in regulating the relationship between employee’s job sacrifice and contextual performance; that is, the higher the employee’s relationship embeddedness, the stronger the positive influence of the employee’s job sacrifice and contextual performance.
4. Research Methods
This study selected a company in Shunde, Guangdong field research, the company is a large manufacturing enterprises in China’s Pearl River Delta, the enterprise in order to adapt to the background of the Internet era, the introduction of a new information system―U9. After a preliminary assessment, the company basically in line with the research context of this article.
The measurement items for all variables in this study were selected from the mature scales in the classical literature. These scales have been verified to have good reliability and validity in many previous studies. In this study, we made the appropriate changes based on the actual research situation. According to the researches of Mitchell et al. (2007) and Lee (2004), the scale of Wang Li and Shi Jintao (2006) was selected according to the national conditions of China and the corresponding revisions were made according to the specific circumstances of this study. The table draws on Uzzi’s (1997) study [25] . Work performance scales were selected from studies by Borman & Motowidlo (1993). All items in this study were measured using a five-point Likert scale (“1” = “very disagree”, “3” = “neutral”, “5” = “strongly agree”).
Prior to formally collecting data, we conducted a pre-research of case employees, using a combination of questionnaires and interviews. Pre-research invited a total of 35 staff to participate, and the recovery of the data for the following: First, the first correlation of the scale item input analysis to test whether there are inappropriate items; Second, based on the data on the survey questionnaire Finally, based on the feedback from employees collected in the interview, the semantic fuzzy items in the previous questionnaire were adjusted.
The results of the analysis (Table 1) show that the Cronbach’s alpha of the variables is between 0.82 and 0.95, which is greater than the suggested value of 0.707 for the Cronbach’s coefficient of all variables, indicating that the Reliability was tested (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994).
This study focuses on investigating the impact of embedding on employee job performance after the implementation of an enterprise information system and the regulatory role of employee embeddedness in the various networks formed by the system implementation. In order to obtain a more comprehensive sample, the survey includes direct users of the manufacturing system including various departments such as the manufacturing department and the finance department. The survey lasted three weeks, a total of 300 questionnaires were withdrawn, excluding 22 non-conforming questionnaires and 278 valid questionnaires.
Of the 278 employees surveyed this time, 146 were males and 132 were females,
Table 1. Reliability analysis of pre-research samples.
accounting for 52.5% and 47.5% respectively. Demographic information for valid samples is given in Table 2.
The age distribution of the sample population is mainly young people between the ages of 21 - 35, and the total number of people in this range is about 75%. Among them, 21 - 25 years old accounted for 32.4% of the total survey population, 26 - 30 years old accounted for 30.6% of the total, and 31 - 35 years old workers accounted for 19.1% of the total. The education level of the surveyed persons belongs to the medium and high level, with the highest number of bachelor’s degree employees, accounting for 48.2% of the total research population, followed by the employees with college degree, accounting for 27.0%.
The data analysis shows that the Cronbach α and CR values of all the latent variables are greater than 0.7, and the latent load factors are also greater than 0.7, indicating that the measurement scale used in the study has good internal consistency and the latent variable measurement Indicators have good reliability. The AVE values of all the latent variables are greater than 0.5, indicating that the variables have better convergence validity, and the correlation coefficient of each factor is greater than its correlation coefficient with other factors; and the factor loadings of all the variables are greater than those of other variables load, indicating that the partial least squares equation model of the measurement model has good discriminant validity. Table 3 shows that the measurement model has good reliability and validity.
In summary, this study argues that each potential variable has a certain validity of the validity of the convergence validity, through the validity test. Therefore, the validity of the variables in this study was tested.
5. Regression Analysis
This study retains the gender, age, educational level, nature of work, job level as the control variable, three dimensions embedded in the work as the independent variable, the relationship embedded as a regulatory variable, job performance task performance and the relationship between performance as a dependent variable, The method of linear regression tests the relationship between the various
Table 3. Square root of AVE and each factor correlation coefficient.
dimensions embedded in the work and the work performance and the regulatory effect embedded in the two.
Before the linear regression, we embed the dimensions of the work and embed the relationship into the center to avoid the multicollinearity of the model, and then use the product of the two as the interactive item to do the regression analysis. The first level enters the control variables: gender, age, education level, educational level, nature of work, job level; the second level into the work embedded in each dimension, the third into the relationship embedded, the fourth into the work of embedded and relational embedded Interactive item.
1) Main effect analysis
a) The impact of job embeddednes on task performance.
Regression analysis of job link, the regression model shows that the regression coefficient of the main effect of the measured work-link on task performance is 0.43, p < 0.001, and the regression coefficient of the main effect of job fit on task performance is 0.55, p < 0.001. The regression coefficient of the main effect of job sacrifice on task performance was 0.44, p < 0.001, all passed the significance test. Therefore, the hypothesis of H1a, H1b and H1c pass, the staff’s work connection, job matching and work sacrifice have a positive impact on the employee’s task performance.
b) The impact of job embeddedness on contextual performance.
Regression analysis of job fit, As can be seen from the regression model, the regression coefficient of the main effect of the measured job link on contextual performance is 0.47, p < 0.001, the regression coefficient of the main effect of the job fit on contextual performance is 0.52, p < 0.001, The regression coefficient of the main effect of the measured job sacrifice on contextual performance is 0.46 and p < 0.001, both of which passed the significance test. Therefore, the hypothesis of H2a, H2b and H2c are passed, the employee’s job link, job fit and job sacrifice has a positive effect on employee’s contextual performance.
2) Regulation effect analysis
a) The relational embeddedness analyzes the regulatory function of the relationship between job embeddedness and task performance.
Hierarchical regression analysis of work connection. The relationship is embedded in the analysis of the relationship between job attachment and task performance, and the job entry, the relationship insertion, and the interaction between job attachment and relationship insertion are introduced into the regression equation. According to the hierarchical regression analysis of adjustment effects, the main effects of job linkages and relationship embeddings on mission performance are analyzed respectively. Then the impact of interaction items of job link and relationship embeddedness on task performance is analyzed. The regression model shows that job links and the relational embeddedness regression coefficient of 0.14, p < 0.01, through the significance test, therefore, assuming that H3a support, that is, the employee relationship embedded between the work of the staff and the task performance of a positive adjustment, the relationship between employees The higher the degree of embedding, the stronger the influence of the employee’s job link on task performance.
The regression model shows that the regression coefficient of job fit and relationship embeddedness interaction is −0.13, p > 0.05, and does not pass the significance test. Therefore, suppose that H3b does not support the work matching and task, there is no positive regulation between performance. Research shows that the impact of employee job matching on job performance is independent of employee engagement in the network. In other words, if an employee is matched to his or her job, no matter how high or low the employee is embedded in the network, his or her performance will not be affected.
The regression model shows that the regression coefficient of the interaction term of job sacrifice and relational embedding is 0.14, p < 0.01, and passes the significance test. Therefore, suppose that H3c support, that is, employee relationship embedding between employee sacrifice and task performance. There is a positive regulatory role, the higher the degree of employee engagement, the sacrifice of employees on the task performance of the stronger.
b) The relational embeddedness analyzes the regulatory function of the relationship between job embeddedness and contextual performance.
Hierarchical regression analysis of work connection. The relationship is embedded in the analysis of the relationship between work connection and relationship performance. The relationship between work connection and relationship, as well as the interaction between job link and relationship embeddedness, are introduced into the regression equation. According to the hierarchical regression analysis of adjustment effects, we first analyze the main effects of job link and relationship embeddedness on relationship performance, and then analyze the impact of job links and relationship embeddedness interaction items on relationship performance. From the regression model, we can see that job link and the relational embeddedness regression coefficient was 0.15, p < 0.001, by significance test. Therefore, the hypothesis of H4a support, that is, employee relationship embedding has a positive effect on employee’s work connection and relationship performance, employee’s relationship The higher the degree of embedding, the stronger the impact of the employee’s work connection on contextual performance.
The regression model shows that the regression coefficient of job fit and relationship embeddedness interaction is 0.10, p < 0.01, and pass the significance test. Therefore, the hypothesis of H4b is support, that is, employee relationship embedding, has a significant effect on job matching and relationship performance among employees There is a positive regulatory role, the higher the degree of employee relational embeddedness, the greater impact of employee job fit on contextual performance.
The regression model shows that the regression coefficient of interaction terms of job sacrifice and relationship embeddedness is 0.14, p < 0.05, and passes the significance test. Therefore, the hypothesis of H4c is support, that is, employee relationship embedding between employee sacrifice and relationship performance There is a positive regulatory role, the higher the degree of employee relational embeddedness, the greater impact of employee job sacrifice on contextual performance.
6. Conclusions
After the implementation of enterprise information technology, this research is researching the situation, embedding and embedding relations as the theoretical basis to study the relationship between job embedding and job performance. Specifically speaking, from the three dimensions embedded in the work, this paper studies the impact of these three dimensions on the two dimensions of job performance, namely task performance and relationship performance, respectively, and explores the regulatory role of the relationship embedded in them. The study made a total of 12 hypotheses, which 11 were supported.
Although studies have shown that the embedded work within the work performance of employees has an impact. However, few researches have been conducted in the context of information system implementation to study the impact of job embedding on employee job performance. And, interesting enterprises implement information technology, employees’ work contents and business processes are changed, and employee information exchange (Skyes, 2014), the degree to which employees are embedded in these networks can affect the interdependency between work and employee performance, Although there is a growing number of studies on social networks, there is little literature on the role of relational embedding in mediation. Therefore, this study attempts to introduce social network theory to study the impact mechanism of relationship embeddedness on employee job performance.
The research has the following findings:
First, to the employees whose the enterprise after the implementation of the information system, the higher the employee’s job embeddedness, the stronger their ability to cope with environmental changes and the better the task performance. Job embeddedness has a positive impact on employee performance.
Second, the higher of job embeddedness, the stronger the ability to face an uncertain environment and the better the relationship performance. Job embeddedness has a positive effect on the employee’s relationship performance.
Third, the relationship between job embeddedness and job performance in relational embedded adjustment works, but the adjustment effects on the three dimensions embedded in specific job are different. This study found that the relational embeddedness plays a positive role in the adjustment of employee’s work connection, job sacrifice and task performance. However, the effect of relationship embeddedness on the adjustment between job matching and task performance is not obvious, indicating that the employee relationship embedding level, does not affect the relationship between job matching and job performance.
Fourth, the relationship between employee and job will affect the job performance of employees, the relationship between employee and employee will also affect the work performance of employees, and the relationship between people and people will adjust the relationship between people and work on job performance impact.
Finally, due to the objective conditions, this study has some limitations. First, there is not enough review of the literature about job embeddedness and relational embeddedness in the work. Second, the research refers to the selection of a business, which has its limitations. In the future, we can study the influence of intra-job embedding and job extra-embedding on employee job performance, or discuss the effect of three dimensions of relationship embedding on job embedding and job performance.