TY - JOUR
T1 - Why and when job insecurity hinders employees' taking charge behavior: The role of flexibility and work-based self-esteem
AU - Lyu, Yijing
AU - Wu, Chia-Huei
AU - Kwan, Ho Kwong
AU - Lee, Cynthia
AU - Deng, Hong
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Job insecurity is negatively associated with employees’ extra-role behavior. Studies of this negative impact often use a social exchange or stress–strain perspective to explain how job insecurity impairs employees’ extra-role behavior. This study offers an alternative account. Based on a conservation of resources perspective, the authors propose that job insecurity denotes a threat of loss of resources, which will motivate individuals to focus on how to protect what they have and reduce further loss. Such conservation of resources will limit one’s flexibility, or the ability to consider alternatives and change a course of action in response to environmental changes, and thus undermine employees’ extra-role behavior for pursuing constructive changes at work (i.e., taking charge). The authors also propose that the impact of job insecurity on flexibility can be more detrimental to employees higher in work-based self-esteem (i.e., domain-specific self-esteem) due to the experience of self-concept dissonance. The results, obtained from 188 employees in 19 teams of a manufacturing company, supported the hypotheses, while mechanisms suggested by a social exchange perspective (i.e., felt obligation to organizations) and a stress–strain perspective (i.e., vigor) were taken into account. This investigation extends understanding of how and why job insecurity influences employees’ work behavior, as well as who is most vulnerable to job insecurity.
AB - Job insecurity is negatively associated with employees’ extra-role behavior. Studies of this negative impact often use a social exchange or stress–strain perspective to explain how job insecurity impairs employees’ extra-role behavior. This study offers an alternative account. Based on a conservation of resources perspective, the authors propose that job insecurity denotes a threat of loss of resources, which will motivate individuals to focus on how to protect what they have and reduce further loss. Such conservation of resources will limit one’s flexibility, or the ability to consider alternatives and change a course of action in response to environmental changes, and thus undermine employees’ extra-role behavior for pursuing constructive changes at work (i.e., taking charge). The authors also propose that the impact of job insecurity on flexibility can be more detrimental to employees higher in work-based self-esteem (i.e., domain-specific self-esteem) due to the experience of self-concept dissonance. The results, obtained from 188 employees in 19 teams of a manufacturing company, supported the hypotheses, while mechanisms suggested by a social exchange perspective (i.e., felt obligation to organizations) and a stress–strain perspective (i.e., vigor) were taken into account. This investigation extends understanding of how and why job insecurity influences employees’ work behavior, as well as who is most vulnerable to job insecurity.
KW - Conservation of resources theory
KW - flexibility
KW - job insecurity
KW - proactivity
KW - self-esteem
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=ceibs_wosapi&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:000813818100001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS
U2 - 10.1177/0143831X221100852
DO - 10.1177/0143831X221100852
M3 - Journal
SN - 0143-831X
JO - Economic and Industrial Democracy
JF - Economic and Industrial Democracy
ER -