Socialization tactics and job embeddedness

Socialization has been discussed in sociology, psychology, and management. The original definition is the process that interaction of individual and social environment that makes an individual become a role conform to social expectation (Camilleri & Malewska-Peyre, Reference Camilleri and Malewska-Peyre1997; Nasr, El Akremi, & Coyle-Shapiro, Reference Nasr, El Akremi and Coyle-Shapiro2019). This process means that modifications, which appear to be adaptive, are produced in the individuals’ relationship with others (Baumeister & Muraven, Reference Baumeister and Muraven1996). Individuals transition from being a prospective member to being a new member, and they must embrace the culture of the group. At this stage, the individual embraces the norms, values, and perspectives of the group, and the group, in turn, adapts itself to the new member. In this process, individuals recognize society, adapt to society, and form separate individuals with different psychological characteristics. The socialization happening in the organizations refers to the newcomers to be adaptive to the new environment and learn new roles in the enterprise, there will appear a series of multistage of the learning process (VanMaanen & Schein, Reference VanMaanen, Schein and Staw1979). Socialization is the process in which individuals receive information and adjust themselves to meet the expectations of the organization. Socialization can be explained as a process in which that newcomer from learning to take control of their work.

Enterprise leads newcomers through socialization so that they can quickly acquire the knowledge and skills needed for their job. (Ashforth, Sluss, & Saks, Reference Ashforth, Sluss and Saks2007). Many studies confirmed the impact of socialization on individuals, which confirmed that socialization affects employees’ attitudes, performance, and turnover for work (Jones, Reference Jones1986). Socialization has an essential influence on employee's behavior and attitude toward the job (Payne, Culbertson, Boswell, & Barger, Reference Payne, Culbertson, Boswell and Barger2008; Son, Reference Son2016). Allen and Shanock (Reference Allen and Shanock2013) divided socialization into three crucial subjects. The first topic is to discuss the importance of newcomers to adapt to new jobs, such as role attributes, task control, and self-efficacy. These were considered to be the major regulatory factors involved. The second theme is to discuss the importance of newcomers in adapting to a new organizational environment that concerns the perception of newcomers and their new environment, as well as their understanding of organizational culture and politics. The third subject is the adaptation of newcomers to colleagues in the enterprise. The degree of acceptance and interaction of experienced employees in the organization will also help to explain the impact of socialization. All these subjects connect to the socialization tactics to realize socialization.

Socialization tactics represent a process of leading or teaching newcomers and thereby helping them to acquire the knowledge and skills they need for the job and internalize the organization's culture and norms (Ashforth et al., Reference Ashforth, Sluss and Saks2007). An organization can help reduce the anxiety of newcomers through three dimensions of social tactics: content, socialization, and context (Jones, Reference Jones1986). Through the dimension of content, the organization can provide a more transparent and more specific learning activity. Through the dimension of socialization, the organization can offer more opportunities for interactions between members. Through the dimension of context, the organization can provide a more distinct collective learning experience. This review indicated that the three topics of socialization proposed by Allen and Shanock (Reference Allen and Shanock2013) are remarkably similar to the three dimensions of socialization proposed by Jones (Reference Jones1986). Socialization tactics can help newcomers translate their abilities and attitudes into appropriate behaviors for the job roles that the enterprise has defined and signal that the firm is concerned with their well-being and willing to invest in them. Inadequate socialization is one of the primary drivers of withdrawal among newcomers (Feldman, Reference Feldman1976).

Job embeddedness, which includes the subcategories of links, fit, and sacrifice, is one of the factors affecting employee retention (Holtom, Reference Holtom and Meyer2016; Mitchell et al., Reference Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski and Erez2001). First, socialization tactics enable newcomers to create more links, which enhances the sense of integration into the organization. More and stronger links are associated with a reduced likelihood of turnover decisions that may require severing or rearranging connections; this explains the relatively low turnover rates in companies with networks that closely integrate workers. If workers are more integrated, they form closer relationships with their colleagues and thus want to remain in the company. Workers in a work setting are connected to other individuals, groups, and the community. Stronger associations lead to more workers being incorporated into the business (Lee, Mitchell, Sablynski, Burton, & Holtom, Reference Lee, Mitchell, Sablynski, Burton and Holtom2004). Second, fit perceptions are crucial in embeddedness. Therefore, socialization tactics that improve newcomer fit perceptions can also lead to increased feelings of embeddedness. Socialization tactics also affect the perceptions of fit and can thus affect turnover rates (Cable & Parsons, Reference Cable and Parsons2001). Third, sacrifice refers to the perceived cost of the material or psychological benefits forfeited upon leaving an organization (Holtom, Mitchell, & Lee, Reference Holtom, Mitchell and Lee2006). The greater is the loss resulting from quitting, the lesser is the likeliness for the individuals to quit (Mitchell et al., Reference Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski and Erez2001). Because the main objective of socialization is to help individuals form connections and relationships within an organization and learn about their positions in the organizational network, the evaluation of job embeddedness can be particularly useful for understanding the influence of socialization tactics on turnover among newcomers (Allen, Reference Allen2006).

Socialization tactics help employees improve their sense of identification with the organization (Wang et al., Reference Wang, Hom and Allen2017). Therefore, socialization tactics can promote employees’ feelings of stability and willingness to be embedded in the organization. Socialization tactics represent a method of integrating newcomers into organizations, and embedding is a mechanism through which socialization tactics influence turnover (Holtom & Darabi, Reference Holtom, Darabi, M, I. L. and N2018). Moreover, socialization tactics allow newcomers to gain a better understanding of the organization, communicate more effectively with others, and form relationships within the organization (Mitchell et al., Reference Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski and Erez2001; Peltokorpi, Feng, Pustovit, & Allen, Reference Peltokorpi, Feng, Pustovit and Allen2017). Socialization tactics that provide newcomers with social support and relevant information are positively related to embedding (Allen, Reference Allen2006; Nisar, Ahmad, Aziz, & Younus, Reference Nisar, Ahmad, Aziz and Younus2019). Socialization tactics will promote employees' feelings of security and desire to join the organization. Socialization tactics are a way to incorporate outsiders into organizations, and embedding is a process by which socialization tactics affect turnover (Chelliah, Ling-Meng, Jaganathan, & Koay, Reference Chelliah, Ling-Meng, Jaganathan and Koay2019). These findings indicate that newcomers should be integrated into the organization as quickly as possible through socialization tactics and should establish a willingness to be embedded in the organization. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Job embeddedness and affective commitment

Polani (Reference Polani1944) proposed the concept of ‘Embeddedness,’ which advocates that individual economic activities are embedded in the whole society. This point of this view emphasizes that the financial motivations of individuals are not rational, but embedded in social relations, highlighting the interaction of individuals in the relationship network. Any purposeful act is deeply embedded in social relations and has a broader explanation of the word ‘embedded,’ even in the field of management (Granovetter, Reference Granovetter1985). Individual economic interests are not rational but rooted in social relationships, stressing the role of individuals within a network (Grabner-Kräuter & Bitter, Reference Grabner-Kräuter and Bitter2015). In the field of human resources management, job embeddedness, which can be described as a construct that reflects employee retention at the psychological, social, and financial level, represents all of the factors that keep employees from leaving an organization (Mitchell et al., Reference Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski and Erez2001). It is representative of a network that embeds employees tightly in the organization. When employees are more embedded, they are more connected to their colleagues and want to remain in the system. Employees are associated with people, groups, and society in a working or nonworking environment, and the deeper these connections are, the more employees are embedded in the organization (Lee et al., Reference Lee, Mitchell, Sablynski, Burton and Holtom2004). Sekiguchi, Burton, and Sablynski (Reference Sekiguchi, Burton and Sablynski2008) argued that job embeddedness could explain job stability or ‘why people stay’ in their organizations.

Mitchell et al. (Reference Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski and Erez2001) stated that job embeddedness is composed of links, fit, and sacrifice. The concept of the employee–organization link refers to the formal or informal relationship between an individual and an organization, including the relationships with other members of the organization. Embeddedness includes social and psychological links as well as interpersonal relationships with associates both in and outside of work (e.g., communication with partners or customers and friendships among colleagues). Therefore, a person with more network links also has a higher degree of embeddedness in an organization. The concept of fit between employees and organizations includes personal career goals, personal values, and specific job factors, such as job knowledge, needs, and skills. Therefore, when employees and organizations have a better fit, the employees are more embedded in the organization. The concept of sacrifice refers to the costs of leaving the organization, which is the loss of material (such as salary and welfare) or psychological (such as interpersonal relationships in the organization) assets.

Affective commitment as a uni-dimensional construct was defined as one's emotional attachment to its organization (Porter et al., Reference Porter, Steers, Mowday and Boulian1974). The commitment can be described as a performance, turnover, absence, and efficiency predictor of employees (Becker, Reference Becker1960). Affective commitment is characterized as ‘the relative strength to recognize and engage a person in a specific organization’ (Mowday et al., Reference Mowday, Porter and Steers1982). Affective commitment indicates that employees have an emotional connection, identity, and sense of participation in the organization that fosters their willingness to stay. In other words, affective commitment can be viewed as an employee's emotional identity in the organization (Allen & Meyer, Reference Allen and Meyer1990; Qian, Yuan, Niu, & Liu, Reference Qian, Yuan, Niu and Liu2019; Yang, Pu, & Guan, Reference Yang, Pu and Guan2019). Affective commitment leads employees to share the firm's values, gain an emotional attachment to the organization, and demonstrate a willingness to achieve organizational goals. Affective commitment is known as significant precedents for intended turnover and turnover behavior (Eisenberger et al., Reference Eisenberger, Shoss, Karagonlar, Gonzalez-Morales, Wickham and Buffardi2014). Similarly, literature links firm-specific human resources with increased affective commitment and reduced intention to quit (Coff & Raffiee, Reference Coff and Raffiee2015).

As noted, job embeddedness represents all the factors that keep employees in the organization and can create a close relationship between employees and the organization (Mitchell et al., Reference Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski and Erez2001). Job embeddedness emphasizes that it is not only job-related factors that could influence an individual's decision to stay with the organization but also is essentially the force that binds employees to their current jobs and organizations as a result of their relationships with people. Organizational commitment is also similar to job embeddedness, although there are significant variations between the two variables. Organizational commitment focuses on the feeling that fosters continuous citizenship in the organization and evaluates dimensions on-the-job. At the same time, job embedding incorporates on- and off-the-job factors with nonimpact dimensions (Lee et al., Reference Lee, Mitchell, Sablynski, Burton and Holtom2004). Job embeddedness aims, firstly, to widen the spectrum of variables to explain why workers tend to have nonaffective factors (structural ties to other people) and, secondly, to consider nonemployment factors such as health in the community as contributing factors for remaining in the organization.

Since the concept of job embeddedness was developed in the literature on retention and turnover, a strong connection to the intention to leave and voluntary turnover is expected to exist (Halbesleben & Wheeler, Reference Halbesleben and Wheeler2008). Jobs embeddedness and affective commitment are required to describe the turnover of a worker in a business. The study usually begins with a turnover by concentrating on work roles such as organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Job embeddedness is related to turnover and other local turnover models independently. Furthermore, affective commitment is distinct from job embeddedness as it is a psychological work mentality that recognizes why workers quit. Notably, turnover research moved away from forecasting why workers quit to understanding why workers stay and incorporating on-the-job factors in this decision to stay. An employee may remain voluntarily due to some untransferable personal interests. For example, these include a strong working relationship with his colleagues, unique acquired work skills, organizational participation, years of employment, and other benefits, which make it too costly for him or her to quit and pursue a job elsewhere. Job embeddedness and affective commitment have a significant positive correlation (Lyu and Zhu, Reference Lyu and Zhu2019; Ramesh & Gelfand, Reference Ramesh and Gelfand1975; Zhao et al., Reference Zhao, Sun, Cao, Li, Duan, Fan and Liu2013). Because employees with job embeddedness are satisfied with their organization, they may have more affective commitment to the organization. These findings suggest that newcomers generate an affective commitment to an organization when they develop job embeddedness. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Moderating effect of workplace spirituality

A big phenomenon in business in the modern century is the spirituality of workers at work, and many books are concentrating on workplace spirituality. More recently, scholars have started studying business spirituality. This growing body of organizational literature has provided many perspectives but was criticized for lack of rigor or critical thought (Milliman, Czaplewski, & Ferguson, Reference Milliman, Czaplewski and Ferguson2003). In this study, some of these limitations are addressed in the following ways. Although the associations between socialization tactics, job embeddedness, and turnover have been examined in several studies (Allen, Reference Allen2006; Griffin et al., Reference Griffin, Colella and Goparaju2000; Halvorsen et al., Reference Halvorsen, Treuren and Kulik2015; Holtom & Darabi, Reference Holtom, Darabi, M, I. L. and N2018; Wang et al., Reference Wang, Hom and Allen2017), the relationships between workplace spirituality, socialization tactics, job embeddedness, and affective commitment have seldom been investigated. Affective commitment is a significant predictor of intended turnover and turnover behaviors (Eisenberger et al., Reference Eisenberger, Shoss, Karagonlar, Gonzalez-Morales, Wickham and Buffardi2014; Vandenberghe & Tremblay, Reference Vandenberghe and Tremblay2008). Moreover, workplace spirituality has become a topic of discussion in the field of human resources (Duchon & Ashmos Plowman, Reference Duchon and Ashmos Plowman2005). Most studies on workplace spirituality have focused on organizational performance (Garcia-Zamor, Reference Garcia-Zamor2003; Krahnke, Giacalone, & Jurkiewicz, Reference Krahnke, Giacalone and Jurkiewicz2003; Mousa & Alas, Reference Mousa and Alas2016; Rego & Pina E Cunha, Reference Rego and Pina E Cunha2008). The present study fills a research gap by demonstrating that workplace spirituality moderates the relationships between socialization tactics, job embeddedness, and affective commitment.

Some studies have shown that workplace spirituality links with socialization tactics, job embeddedness, and affective engagement (Kim, Reference Kim2017; Milliman et al., Reference Milliman, Czaplewski and Ferguson2003; Trott & BS, Reference Trott and BS1996). Although socialization tactics, job embeddedness, and workplace spirituality enhance affective commitment, the literature has not established the interaction effect among these factors. We propose that workplace spirituality strengthens the relation between socialization tactics and job embeddedness. Furthermore, workplace spirituality also enhances the relationship between job embeddedness and affective commitment.

This research concerns the moderating effects of workplace spirituality on the relationship among socialization tactics, job embeddedness, and affective commitment. Workplace spirituality represents the inner growth of the members of an organization through meaningful work (Ashmos & Duchon, Reference Ashmos and Duchon2000). Employees with a strong sense of group and purposeful organizational goals were related to greater employee commitment and higher retention rates (Milliman, Ferguson, Trickett, & Condemi, Reference Milliman, Ferguson, Trickett and Condemi1999). A sense of community also leads to greater employee satisfaction with the organization (Brown, Reference Brown and Renesch1992). It is also a form of self-reflection that individuals apply to their work. Thus, employees can bring the positive energy of workplace spirituality into their work while positively influencing other members of the organization (Seaward, Reference Seaward1995). Trott and BS (Reference Trott and BS1996) proposed that spiritual well-being, including a sense of community and engagement with organizational values, is often linked positively to the psychosocial adaptation of a person.

Workplace spirituality encourages respect for people with different intrinsic values, innovation, a sense of belonging, and achievement (Adams & Csiernik, Reference Adams and Csiernik2002). It helps to reduce workplace stress, improve self-confidence, and prevent job burnout and can effectively improve work performance (Krahnke et al., Reference Krahnke, Giacalone and Jurkiewicz2003). Spirituality in the workplace is one way of tackling socialization tactics. Socialization tactics are certainly a method to direct or educate newcomers, allowing them to learn the skills and know-how they need for work to internalize the culture and values of the company (Ashforth et al., Reference Ashforth, Sluss and Saks2007). It represents the employee's confidence in what the company does and will give the employee. Socialization tactics allow workers to better associate themselves with the company (Wang et al., Reference Wang, Hom and Allen2017).

On the other hand, workplace spirituality also reflects a type of self-reflection that people apply to their work. The positive energy of the workplace spirituality can thus be brought into the workplace, while other members of the organization have a positive impact (Seaward, Reference Seaward1995). Trott and BS (Reference Trott and BS1996) indicated that a person's psychosocial adaptation is often linked positively with spiritual well-being, including a sense of community and adherence to corporate values. Meaningful work and sense of community linked significantly to affective organizational commitment (Mousa & Alas, Reference Mousa and Alas2016). Although independently developed, the two cognitive factors can be combined and provide feedback on each other. We form a social communication network to identify the consistency of the interaction between employees and organizations, where the formal or informal connection between a person and an institution is concerned, including the relationships with other members of the organization.

Therefore, in the process of socialization, newcomers with higher levels of workplace spirituality are more likely to accept the socialization tactics provided by the organization. Employees with workplace spirituality more readily accept the norms and standards of the organization and believe that the organization has ethical values, a conscience, and moral courage and cares about its employees (Ashmos & Duchon, Reference Ashmos and Duchon2000). For newcomers, it can induce a sense of responsibility and acceptance of the socialization tactics during the orientation period. Employees with stronger workplace spirituality are more likely to dedicate themselves to their work because of their interaction with the environment (Kirpal, Reference Kirpal2004) and consequently form a clear identification with their role and engage in more positive communication with colleagues. When employees are well treated and supported by their colleagues, the job embeddedness of employees increases quickly (Joiner & Bakalis, Reference Joiner and Bakalis2006).

Employees with a high acceptance of socialization tactics exhibit greater job embeddedness than those with a low acceptance of socialization tactics when they perceive higher workplace spirituality because they feel that they have a close relationship with the organization and actively interact with other employees. These findings indicate that workplace spirituality may positively moderate the relationship between socialization tactics and job embeddedness. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Workplace spirituality has a significant influence on affective organizational commitment. It promotes the achievement of positive results, such as integrity, innovation, trust, and dedication, as well as organizational efficiency and long-term success (Rego & Pina E Cunha, Reference Rego and Pina E Cunha2008). As noted above, spirituality in the workplace often represents a kind of personal reflection that people apply to their work. The positive influence of spirituality in the workforce can also be applied to the crew and other participants have a positive impact (Seaward, Reference Seaward1995). Trott and BS (Reference Trott and BS1996) suggested that the psychosocial adaptation of a person is also positively correlated with spiritual well-being, including group meaning and adherence to corporate values. On the other hand, affective commitment represents the employee's desire to maintain participation in the association and to work for the interests of the organization.

Although independently developed, workplace spirituality and affective commitment can be combined and provide feedback on each other. They form a social exchange circle to assess the nature of the relationship between employee and organization, where high workplace spirituality is considered to be an acceptable mutual response to high affective commitment. If the two variables are incompatible, the reciprocity principle is infringed, and cognitive dissonance arises (Dulac, Coyle-Shapiro, Henderson, & Wayne, Reference Dulac, Coyle-Shapiro, Henderson and Wayne2008). In these situations, stress levels of workers are likely to increase, and turnover intention can be used to mitigate dissonance (Chiu, Chien, Lin, & Yun Hsiao, Reference Chiu, Chien, Lin and Yun Hsiao2005).

Organizations with workplace spirituality have better work efficiency than others (Duchon & Ashmos Plowman, Reference Duchon and Ashmos Plowman2005). Research has indicated that workplace spirituality can help individuals to become more responsible for self-action and more motivated by their environment (Howard, Reference Howard2002). It provides employees with the impression that they are related to the workplace, which helps them to remain committed to their jobs (Rajappan, Nair, Priyadarshini M., & Sivakumar, Reference Rajappan, Nair, Priyadarshini M. and Sivakumar2017). Additionally, workplace spirituality is a positive trait that helps to enhance trust among colleagues and foster a sense of belonging to the organization (Karakas, Reference Karakas2010).

Employees consider themselves to have a close relationship with their organization when they perceive higher levels of workplace spirituality (Garcia-Zamor, Reference Garcia-Zamor2003). Therefore, employees with high job embeddedness have higher affective commitment than those with low job embeddedness. Workplace spirituality may thus positively strengthen the effect of job embeddedness on affective commitment. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Research framework

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of socialization tactics on the affective commitment of newcomers through job embeddedness. Furthermore, we explore the moderating effect of workplace spirituality on the relationships between socialization tactics (content, social, and context), job embeddedness, and affective commitment. The conceptual framework is depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Research framework.

Measurement and data collection

Table 1 presents the definitions of four constructs based on our research framework and a literature review. The measures of the research constructs were adopted from relevant literature and adapted to the research setting. A pretest was conducted on 54 participants to ensure the readability and absence of ambiguity of the questionnaire items. Cronbach's α values for dimensions on the pretest were >.7, except for socialization tactics (.62) and job embeddedness fit (.64). Ambiguous items were adjusted to improve reliability, and the final questionnaire was produced.

Table 1.

The operational definition of each variable

A 5-point Likert scale was used to measure each of the questionnaire items. The means of the items for each construct are listed in Table 2. The socialization tactics items were set as antecedent variables. Socialization tactics refer to the methods adopted to help newcomers adapt to the organization and reduce their uncertainty and anxiety. Following Jones (Reference Jones1986), this study employed nine items to measure socialization tactics, which can be divided into three dimensions (i.e., content, socialization, and context). For instance, one of the items was ‘There is a clear pattern in the way one role leads to another or one job assignment leads to another in this organisation.’ Job embeddedness was set as the mediator. Job embeddedness refers to a force that influences an employee's attachment to the organization and allows employees to interact closely with the organization. Following Mitchell et al. (Reference Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski and Erez2001), this study employed 13 items to measure job embeddedness, which could also be divided into three dimensions (i.e., fit, link, and sacrifice). For example, one of the items was ‘I regularly interact with many of my co-workers.’ With reference to other studies, composite measures of socialization tactics and job embeddedness were used (Gruman, Saks, & Zweig, Reference Gruman, Saks and Zweig2006; Mitchell et al., Reference Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski and Erez2001). Higher scores indicated greater institutionalized socialization or greater job embeddedness.

Table 2.

Measurement items and confirmatory factor analysis

Note: SFL = standardized factor loading. CR = composite reliability. AVE = average variance extracted.

Affective commitment, which refers to the degree to which identifying with an organization affects newcomers decision to stay, was set as a dependent variable. This study measured newcomers’ affective commitment by using four items devised for this construct (Allen & Meyer, Reference Allen and Meyer1990). In this study, workplace spirituality functioned as the moderator. To measure workplace spirituality, with reference to Ashmos and Duchon (Reference Ashmos and Duchon2000), this study employed 12 items, which could be divided into three dimensions (meaningful work, community, and inner life).

This research has adopted the convenience sampling to obtain the sample data. The anonymous questionnaires were issued to the sample over 20 years old of newcomers (working years below two years in the current company) via online surveys or hard copies. The questionnaire was posted on a famous internet web site in Taiwan. The constructs were not shown in the questionnaire to avoid priming effects, and the items were not presented in order. A total of 237 valid questionnaires were received. Descriptive statistics analyses including mean and standard deviation of variables are listed in Table 3.

Table 3.

Descriptive statistic and zero-order correlations

Note: *p ＜ .05; **p ＜ .01; ***p ＜ .001, () reports the square root of average variance extracted (AVE).

Sampling structure

Most of the respondents were female, which accounts for 67.6% of the sample. Most newcomers, 76.3% of the sample, were aged between 20 and 25. Most of the survey participants (64.7%) graduated from university or college. Furthermore, 41.5% of participants had <6 months of work experience within the company, and 58.5% of participants had 6 months to 2 years of work experience within the company. Most newcomers’ (45.2%) number of brothers and sisters is 1, and 66% of participants have contact co-workers after going off work.

Measurement model

A two-step procedure was adopted (Anderson and Gerbing, Reference Anderson and Gerbing1988). Confirmatory factor analysis was first employed to assess the construct validity, and a structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses. All Cronbach's α values exceed the threshold value of .7 recommended by (Nunnally, Reference Nunnally1978), as shown in Table 2. We use the average variance extracted (AVE) to measure convergent validity. Fornell and Larcker (Reference Fornell and Larcker1981) suggested that the AVE should be >.5 to indicate that the construct has good reliability and convergent validity. The AVE values of the exogenous variables of this study, shown in Table 2, are in the range of .53–.70, demonstrating that all constructs have good convergent validity.

According to the results presented in Table 3, the values of the AVE square root for all constructs were greater than the correlation coefficient between the two respective constructs, revealing an acceptable discriminant validity for the measurement model (Fornell & Larcker, Reference Fornell and Larcker1981). Therefore, the measurement model in this study had acceptable discriminant validity, and no problems with multicollinearity were detected (Grewal, Cote, & Baumgartner, Reference Grewal, Cote and Baumgartner2004).

In addition, the results of the measurement model indicate an appropriate model fit (χ²/df = 2.34, Goodness of fit index (GFI) = .941, Normed fit index (NFI) = .96, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = .97, Root Mean Square Error Approximation (RMSEA) = .075; Hair, Black, Babin, & Anderson, Reference Hair, Black, Babin and Anderson2010).

Structural equation modeling (SEM)

Confirmatory factor analysis verifies the satisfactory performance of the measurement scales of this study. The measures of overall fit primarily satisfy conventional standards (Bagozzi & Yi, Reference Bagozzi and Yi1988; Chin & Todd, Reference Chin and Todd1995; Hair et al., Reference Hair, Black, Babin and Anderson2010), which suggests that the model of this study fits the data well (χ²/df = 2.19, GFI = .93, NFI = .94, CFI = .96, RMSEA = .071; Hair et al., Reference Hair, Black, Babin and Anderson2010).

Figure 1 illustrates the relationships between the constructs in the tested model. First, socialization tactics had a significant positive relationship with job embeddedness, supporting Hypothesis 1 (γ = .94, t = 12.60), and job embeddedness had a significant positive relationship with affective commitment, supporting Hypothesis 2 (β = .86, t = 10.44).

The moderating effect of workplace spirituality proposed in Hypothesis 3 was analysed using a multigroup comparison approach. The mean score of workplace spirituality was used to divide the sample into high and low groups (low group = low workplace spirituality; high group = high workplace spirituality). SEM was used to estimate the path coefficients for each group (Sarstedt, Henseler, & Ringle, Reference Sarstedt, Henseler and Ringle2011), and the differences between the coefficients’ paths were analysed. Significant differences were interpreted as moderating effects. A chi-square (χ²) difference test of high and low workplace spirituality was performed to examine the moderating effect of workplace spirituality, and the results are presented in Table 4. A significant difference was observed in the relationship between socialization tactics and job embeddedness in the low and high workplace spirituality groups (χ²(1) = 7.14, p < .05). The results further indicated that socialization tactics had a stronger effect on job embeddedness when employees had higher workplace spirituality, which supports Hypothesis 3 (γ_High = .91 vs. γ_Low = .76).

Table 4.

Moderating effect

Note: *p ＜ .05; **p ＜ .01; ***p ＜ .001.

A multigroup comparison approach was adopted to investigate Hypothesis 4. A significant difference was observed in the relationship between job embeddedness and affective commitment in the low and high workplace spirituality groups (χ²(1) = 3.91, p < .05). Moreover, the results indicated that socialization tactics had a stronger effect on job embeddedness when employees had higher workplace spirituality, which supports Hypothesis 4 (γ_High = .89 vs. γ_Low = .66).