Community embeddedness and work outcomes: The mediating role of organizational embeddedness

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between community embeddedness and work outcomes (e.g. job motivation, networking behavior, and organizational identification) and the mediating role that organizational embeddedness plays in those relationships. We draw upon conservation of resources theory to explain this mediating effect. Data were collected from 338 employees from multiple organizations at three points in time over a ten-month period; this design allowed us to use latent growth modeling to examine the relationships among changes in the independent, mediating, and outcome variables over time. Results from latent growth modeling analyses generally supported the proposed model. Although community embeddedness has been somewhat marginalized in recent empirical research on organizational embeddedness, this article highlights that it is indeed relevant in predicting job attitudes and job behaviors.