The Nature of Job Embeddeness Machine Operators in Garment Manufacturing Organizations in Katunayake Export Processing Zone in Lanka.

Abstract

Turnover among the sewing machine operators in Sri Lanka is higher than the other industry employees. Job Embeddedness is the way how employees attached and embed with their job. Job Embeddedness includes six dimensions with on and off job link, fit, sacrifice which measure an employee’s intention to stay. Hence it is important to identify the nature of Job Embeddedness among the sewing machine operators to retain them in the industry. The main objective of the current study was to examine the nature of Job Embeddedness because still, the concept of Job Embeddedness is novel to Sri Lanka. The study was conducted based on the quantitative research methodology. Used survey strategy and convenience sampling technique to collect data from 272 sewing machine operators in garment manufacturing organizations in Katunayaka Export Processing Zone Moreover, the independent sample t-test, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the gathered data. The findings of the study revealed that machine operators are highly embedded with the on-the-job fit compare to the other dimensions. Furthermore, it indicates that there is a variation of age, gender, marital status, and skill level of the employees and that variations are significant. Hence, those findings are helpful for the management to make strategies to retain their employees in the garment industry. Future researchers should study this concept relevant to another industry in Sri Lanka and use more demographic factors to identify the variations.