Securing jobs with individual trait and organisational support?

Abstract

PurposeIn view of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on organisations and employees, this study aims to investigate a reverse relationship between role conflict, burnout and job insecurity, and proposed emotional intelligence (EI) and organisational support as individual and organisational factors, respectively, that may moderate this chain relationship. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this paper proposes that organisational support as an organisational factor and EI as an individual ability may aid in minimising the perception of the depletion of resources and play a moderating role in conflict–burnout–job insecurity relationships.Design/methodology/approachThis study was undertaken in Australia with a focus on those who were employed and worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was conducted online using the Qualtrics platform as it offers user-friendly features for respondents. In total, 723 usable responses were generated for data analysis. Structural equation modelling was performed to test the hypotheses of this study.FindingsThe results show that role conflict was significantly related to burnout, which in turn led to job insecurity. EI and organisational support reduced the impact of burnout on job insecurity.Originality/valueTheoretically, this research deepens an understanding of COR and role theory and contributes to mental health research and organisational studies. COR depicts individuals’ reservation of resources for desired or expected outcomes. This study approached from a depletion of resources perspective and revealed the consequences for both individuals and organisations. This study also expands role theory and includes job and family-derived roles to deepen the role conflict during the pandemic. Whilst most research taps into the job performance and behaviour domain to understand the impact of role conflict, this study proposed a novel concept of a mediation relationship between role conflict, burnout and job insecurity in line with the status quo of the pandemic. Consequently, this study contributes to job attitude research by approaching the antecedents from a combination of organisational, individual and situational factors because role conflict is reflected as a clash of job demands, family obligations and responsibilities, and the pandemic situation.