Do Personality Variables Predict Job Embeddedness and Proclivity to Be Absent from Work?

Abstract

The current knowledge base lacks evidence about situational- and surface-level personality variables and their impacts on job embeddedness and proclivity to be absent from work. With this recognition, drawing from the hierarchical personality model and fit theory as well as job embeddedness theory, our paper explores the influences of job resourcefulness (JR) and customer orientation (CO) on job embeddedness and propensity to be absent from work. We tapped time-lagged data gathered from hotel customer-contact employees in the United Arab Emirates to assess the aforementioned linkages via structural equation modeling. CO is a complete mediator between JR and job embeddedness, while job embeddedness completely mediates the linkage between CO and absence intentions. Specifically, hotel employees who can work under a resource-depleted environment are high on CO and therefore display job embeddedness at elevated levels. In addition, customer-oriented hotel employees have higher job embeddedness and therefore exhibit lower absence intentions.