IMPACT OF CHARACTER STRENGTH AND SELF-COMPASSION ON JOB EMBEDDEDNESS

Abstract

Due to the increasing turnover rates worldwide, organisations are looking for answers to why employees leave; more importantly, why do employees stay in the organisation? Job embeddedness very well explains the factors responsible for employee retention. Still, there is a lack of literature explaining which psychological factors can make employees embedded in their jobs. The probable antecedents of job embeddedness were looked for in the existing literature. Character strength and Self-compassion were consequently recognised and examined as the predictors of job embeddedness. Considering this, the current research aims to explore the impact of character strength and self-compassion on the job embeddedness of Indian employees. To be precise, this study investigates how the presence of character strength and self-compassion enhances the employees’ job embeddedness. We examine how the dimensions of character strength (wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence) and self-compassion (self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness, and over-identification) predict the employees’ job embeddedness (community fit, organisation fit, community-related sacrifice, and organisation-related sacrifice). Furthermore, the research proposed and tested a mediation model between character strength and job embeddedness through self-compassion. The study also looks for the divergence in character strength, self-compassion, and job embeddedness according to the demographic traits (gender, age, organisation type, and job position) of employees. For analysing the relations, data was collected from 450 employees working at junior, middle and senior level positions in Indian public and private sector organisations. A convenient, non-random sampling technique was used to collect the data. Responses were collected from Google forms sent through E-mail, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp. After data cleaning and coding, preliminary tests were performed, followed by confirmatory factor analysis, model fit, reliability and validity tests of the measures used in the study. Numerous statistical approaches, including correlation analysis, t-test, ANOVA, and the Hayes PROCESS macro, were used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results indicate there are significant differences in age for dimensions of character strength and job embeddedness; in organisation type for the dimensions of self-compassion; in job position for the dimensions of character strength, self-compassion, and job embeddedness; partially significant differences in organisation type for the dimensions of character strength and iv job embeddedness; in age for the dimensions of self-compassion. The rest of the demographic differences are insignificant. Further, the findings suggest that various dimensions of character strength and self-compassion are predictors of job embeddedness. Also, on performing mediation analysis, it has been found that self-compassion mediates between character strength and job embeddedness. In contrast, character strength does not mediate between self-compassion and job embeddedness. Thus, the present study suggests that the relationship is only unidirectional. The findings contribute to the literature in various ways. Firstly, self-compassion and character strength are identified as significant predictors of job embeddedness. The study contributes to social identity, self-categorisation, and value congruence theories. This research addresses the dearth of literature on the association between character strengths, self-compassion, and job embeddedness, thus filling the existing literature gap and contributing to the current body of literature. Most importantly, this study tested and validated the scales for the Indian context. The study has various practical implications for practitioners. The employee recruitment and selection process can be modified to select individuals who rate higher on character strengths and self-compassion. Since employees with old age and those at higher positions in organisations are mostly found to report higher character strengths, self-compassion, and job embeddedness, various initiatives such as mentoring, coaching, and leadership development programs can be initiated in organisations. Also, HR managers could collaborate with industrial/organisational psychologists for a systematic and streamlined approach to interpreting assessment and supporting it with formal counselling. Further, the study advises the development of culturally sensitive and context-specific interventions aimed at improving character strengths, self-compassion, and job embeddedness in the Indian context. Lastly, the study also points out some limitations and provides directions for future research.