Embedding Employees Early On: The Importance of Workplace Respect

This study examines workplace respect as an important condition that promotes increases in perceived organizational embeddedness (POE). I especially focus on young, educated employees’ perceptions of organizational embeddedness, as these employees strongly desire being respected and valued. Guided by social exchange theory, I propose that increases in perceived respect promote increases in gratitude toward the organization, which in turn promote increases in POE over time. Increases in POE are in turn related to lower turnover. Data collected from a young, college‐graduate sample (average age = 25) at five points over an 18‐month period demonstrated that (a) within‐person increases in perceived respect were associated with within‐person increases in gratitude over 12 months, (b) within‐person increases in gratitude were associated with within‐person increases in POE over 12 months, and (c) employees who reported greater increases in POE over 12 months were less likely to leave their organizations 6 months afterward. In summary, this study illustrates that even workers in the early stages of their careers can feel increasingly embedded in their organizations when they feel increasingly respected by their colleagues.