A Motivational Perspective on Job Insecurity: Relationships Between Job Insecurity, Intrinsic Motivation, and Performance and Behavioral Outcomes.

Yuhyung Shin,Tae Won Moon,Soomi Lee,Won-Moo Hur

doi:10.3390/ijerph16101812

Abstract

As a result of the global economic recession over the past decade, employees have been exposed to constant threats of job insecurity. Despite having conducted extensive research on job insecurity, scholars have paid little attention to the motivational processes underlying employees’ reactions to job insecurity. The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between job insecurity, intrinsic motivation, and performance and behavioral outcomes. Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), we propose a mediated relationship in which job insecurity decreases intrinsic motivation, which, in turn, undermines job performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and change-oriented OCB. To test our propositions, we collected survey-based data from 152 R&D professionals employed in a South Korean manufacturing company. As predicted, job insecurity was negatively related to intrinsic motivation, which, in turn, had a positive relationship with all three outcomes. Furthermore, job insecurity exerted significant indirect effects on job performance, OCB, and change-oriented OCB through intrinsic motivation. These findings affirm SDT, which posits that motivation, as a key intermediary process, affects employees’ reactions to job stressors.

Highlights

Over the past few decades, challenges in the business realm have resulted in organizational and structural changes, such as mergers, acquisitions, and downsizings [1,2,3]
On the basis of the inconsistent findings on the relationship between job insecurity and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), Lam et al [1] proposed and detected that job insecurity has a curvilinear effect on OCB. These mixed findings call for further investigations. In response to this call, our study aims to examine the relationship between job insecurity and the three types of performance and behavioral outcomes
To fill this research gap, we present self-determination theory (SDT) as an explanatory framework for the relationship between job insecurity and performance and behavioral outcomes, and we propose intrinsic motivation as a crucial mediator that transmits the negative effect of job insecurity to job performance, OCB, and change-oriented OCB [34]

Summary

Introduction

Over the past few decades, challenges in the business realm have resulted in organizational and structural changes, such as mergers, acquisitions, and downsizings [1,2,3] These changes, coupled with the recent global economic crisis, have led to increased unemployment and caused employees to feel insecure about their jobs [4,5]. Even if the global economy bounces back, job insecurity is expected to remain a continuing threat to employees whose jobs are being replaced by automation, robots, and artificial intelligence [7] In line with this trend, there is extensive research on the effects of job insecurity on employee and organizational outcomes. This line of research has revealed that employees’ perceptions of job insecurity have negative ramifications on their job and health-related outcomes [8,9,10]

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