Experiencing More Job insecurity Than Co-Workers: How Does It Impact on Extra-Role Behavior

Abstract

The current study aims to investigate how “relative job insecurity” (referring to the extent to which employees experience job insecurity compared to their group members) impacts employees' extra-role behavior beyond their personal actual job insecurity. By integrating the frog-pond model and Job Demands-Resources theory, we argue that relative job insecurity could seriously affect employees’ organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). In a field study conducted in a Chinese enterprise (Study 1), we found that relative job insecurity was negatively related to employees’ OCB after controlling for personal actual job insecurity. We replicated the finding with a scenario experiment and extended to find that the moderation role of job mobility (Study 2). In Study 3, we replicated the previous findings in a time-lagged survey conducted in another Chinese company, and further found that the moderating effect of job mobility was mediated by emotional exhaustion. In sum, the current study enriches job insecurity research literature by taking the relative perspective, and also provides evidence clarifying the previous inconsistent findings on the relationship between job insecurity and OCBI. Moreover, the present findings provide practical implications for both employees and employers on how to deal with the threat of relative job insecurity.