Job embeddedness as a mediator of the relationship between work locus of control and emotional exhaustion

Employee well-being has been a focus of interest in social and organizational psychology research and maintains considerable implications for organizational overall performance and growth. Burnout and its core component, emotional exhaustion (EE), have been frequently used as a standard measure of employee well-being in research. Grounded in the assumptions of the Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, the purpose of the present study was to examine job embeddedness (JE) and its sub-dimensions of fit, links, and sacrifice, as mediators of the association between work locus of control (WLOC) and burnout, as measured by EE. The study included 161 multidisciplinary employees with a minimum of one-year tenure from diverse organizations. Data were collected at two-time points, with one month apart. The findings showed that JE fully mediated the association between WLOC and EE, explaining 22% of the variance in EE. Examining each of the JE sub-dimensions showed that fit and sacrifice, but not links, individually, served as full mediators of the association between WLOC and EE. The results attest to the important impact of JE on employees’ well-being and provide additional understanding of the processes by which WLOC leads to workplace well-being. The discussion includes both theoretical and practical implications.