Getting stuck and sick by motherhood discrimination: Conservation of resource theory perspective of interactive effects of on‐the‐job and off‐the‐job embeddedness

Working mothers continue to experience motherhood discrimination in the workplace. This paper draws on conservation of resources theory to examine how on‐the‐job and off‐the‐job embeddedness—work and community‐related web of forces that keep employees from leaving organizations—moderate the first‐stage relationship between motherhood discrimination and turnover intentions, which in turn is associated with the indirect effects of discrimination on two outcomes: (1) voluntary turnover and (2) poor physical health. The results of time‐lagged survey data from 719 working mothers in Japan suggest that turnover intentions mediate the positive relationships between motherhood discrimination and both voluntary turnover and poor physical health. Moreover, high on‐the‐job embeddedness weakens the relationship between motherhood discrimination and turnover intentions, reducing its indirect effects on voluntary turnover and poor physical health. In contrast, off‐the‐job embeddedness strengthens the relationship between discrimination and turnover intentions, amplifying its indirect effects on voluntary turnover. This paper contributes to the literature by providing a conservation of resource theory‐based rationale and findings that on‐ and off‐the‐job embeddedness operate as distinct resource pools that differentially influence employees' responses to adverse workplace conditions.