Perceived job insecurity and workplace friendship

Abstract

Job insecurity is an organisational means for facing and managing rapid changes in external and internal environments of the day. It motivates an employee’s effort/performance, but negatively influences employee attitudes/ perceptions at work. This study is intended to unravel the paradox concerning employees’ motivator by job insecurity and their friendship at work, a motivator for team effort/performance. Three competing hypotheses are proposed (specifically, inverted-U-shaped, positive and negative relationships between perceived job insecurity and workplace friendship). Data were collected from 269 full-time employees with a variety of occupational backgrounds. Results indicated that perceived job insecurity facilitated workplace friendship. Also, an explanation of perceived job insecurity by the job’s standard operation procedures gained empirical support. Our findings provide significant implications for organisations’ change management by means of job insecurity and teamwork in today’s changing environments. Human resource approaches for organisations emphasising job security are also proposed.