RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOB EMBEDDEDNESS AND EMPLOYEES’ TURNOVER INTENTION: A STUDY ON PRIVATE AIRLINES IN INDIA Manoj Uniyal* , Sharmistha Banerjee**, Karnak Roy*** *Research Scholar, University of Calcutta and Senior Manager (Operations), Airports Authority of India. Email: manuni77@gmail.com **Professor Department of Business management, University of Calcutta, West Bengal, India. ***Project Consultant, ASPIRE, Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Abstract: Job embeddedness is recognized as important factor in turnover literature in retaining valuable talented employees and develop a sustainable edge of the organization. Job embeddedness is taking centre stage in analysing employees’ turnover intention because an individual’s decision to leave an organization is highly shaped by the work environment in which the employee is embedded, in addition to the job per se. Using a sample of 416 employees belonging to four renowned organizations of Indian Airlines Industry namely Indigo, Spice Jet, Go Air and Jet Airways, in this study, an attempt has been made to find out the relationship between job embeddedness and turnover intention of Non-technical employees in Airlines Industry in India. Through the results, an important relationship between these two variables can be seen substantiating available literature. However, this study disaggregates job embeddedness into its components Link, Fit and Sacrifice, to assess their impact on turnover intention, separately. In the results, it is revealed that the participants having lower job embeddedness tend to have a higher turnover intention and it is found that Link and Fit have been significant influencers on turnover intention. Keywords: Fit, Job Embeddedness, Link, Sacrifice, Turnover Intention Introduction With the Global economy alarmingly becoming knowledge driven, intellectual capital as a resource offers a competitive edge to organizations. Therefore, managers across industries are focused on retaining the best talents and reducing turnover of the employees. Individual’s decision to leave an organization is highly shaped by the work environment in which the employee is embedded ( Mitchell and Lee, 2001). Thus, job embeddedness takes centre stage in analysing employees’ turnover intention. Job embeddedness is a combination of social, psychological and fnancial forces that encourages an employee to stay and continue in a particular job. In simpler words, job embeddedness attempts to capture various attachments of an employee with his organization or community. Attrition is an alarming problem in Indian companies in general and the service sector in particular. In this study, we have analysed a sample of 416 employees working in four premier airlines companies namely— Indigo, Spice Jet, Go Air and Jet Airways—across India with an objective to assess the impact of job embeddedness on employees’ turnover intention in Indian airlines industry. Review of Literature During the last few decades, scholars from different disciplines have been trying to identify the causal factors behind employees’ turnover and bring forth various models, theories and vast empirical case studies on employee turnover. Most of the turnover models have established that job satisfaction plays a major role in the turnover process. Employees’ level of job satisfaction is often found to infuence important outcomes (like job performance, absenteeism and employee turnover). It is argued that once an employee is dissatisfed, which may be refected in his intention to quit, a sequence of events may occur such as reduced organizational commitment, stronger intention to quit, more job search, and result in a higher probability of employee turnover (Lee and Mitchell, 1994; Mobley, 1977). Studies also reported evidences like work overload, role ambiguity, role confict and job stress in determining turnover decisions (Ivancevich et al., 1983). Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management 7 (3) 2018, 9-14 http://publishingindia.com/jshrm/