The Effect of Job Security on Deviant Behaviors in Diverse Employment Workplaces: From the Social Identity Perspective.

Chuanyan Qin,Xiaolang Liu,Shanshi Liu,Wenzhu Lu,Kunjin Wu

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147374

Abstract

Organizational scholars concur that job security can attach employees to a workplace and improve their job quality. The relationship between job security and employees’ deviant behaviors in the workplace, such as counterproductive work behavior (CWB), lacks insights into how or why this occurs, especially in a diversified employment context. To address these limitations, we developed a theoretical model of job security impact on employees’ CWB from the perspective of social identity. Analysis of employees (N = 208) and their supervisors in a China state-owned company were used to test the hypothesis. Results confirmed the negative relationship between job security and CWB; organizational identification partly mediates the relationship between job security and CWB. Moderated mediation analyses further indicate that the indirect effect of job security on CWB via organizational identification are stronger for temporary employees than for permanent employees. This article contributes to the understanding of job security’s impact on employees’ deviant behavior, practical implications and research aspects are discussed.

Highlights

We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) by AMOS 24.0 to test the construct validity of the major variables included in this study, namely, employment safety, organizational identification, and counterproductive work behavior (CWB)
The results revealed that job security may elicit more pronounced psychological reaction for temporary employees than permanent employees, this result is in line with those of previous studies that employees of different employment status showed great differences in their psychological states and behavior [37,39,54]
The results show that the negative relationship between organizational identification and CWB is stronger for temporary employees than for permanent employees

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Over the past two decades, the construct ‘job security’ has often been heard in discussions regarding the organizational behavior field. Job security is a critical element with respect to influencing employees’ psychological states and behaviors in the workplace [1]. A burgeoning body of job security research has shown the impact of job security on employees’ psychological state in workplace, including trust [2], anxiety [3], turnover intention [4], and expectation [5]. Numerous empirical studies have explored job security’s influence on employees’ job performance [5,6]. The link between job security and employees’

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Discussion

Conclusion