Organizational Embeddedness and Insomnia: Examining Multiple Moderators

Abstract

Previous studies have documented many positive outcomes of organizational embeddedness (OE), although recent studies also show that it can have negative effects on employees, especially in their personal lives. Identifying the boundary conditions for the occurrence of positive and negative effects of OE is important to clarify its motivational pathways. This study first replicated the positive relationship between OE, work-family conflict, and insomnia identified in previous studies. Next, it examined four moderators that served to alter this mediation relationship. Matched data collected from 226 dual-earner couples in China supported the predicted two- and three-way interaction effects and the moderated mediation effects. That is, OE was related to greater work-family conflict when individualism was high (a two-way interaction effect) and when individualism was high while traditionality was low (a three-way interaction effect). In addition, work-family conflict was related to greater insomnia when the spouse’s OE was high (a two-way interaction effect) and when spousal OE was high while employee community embeddedness was low (a three-way interaction effect). Thus, the current study suggests that both individual differences and other forms of embeddedness jointly determine whether OE negatively affects employees’ personal lives.