The Effects of Employment Status: Mediating Role of Relative Deprivation and Hostile Emotions

Abstract

This study aims to understand why and when disadvantaged employment status relates to nonstandard employees’ interpersonal behavior. Drawing on relative deprivation theory, this study proposes a sequential moderated mediation model in which disadvantaged employment status activates relative deprivation and hostile emotions toward standard employees (i.e., resentment, anger, and envy), and thereby spur interpersonal deviance. Further, this study posits that in-group identification moderates the relationship between relative deprivation and hostile emotions. Using multi-wave and multi-source data from a sample of 311 nonstandard employees in China, results showed that relative deprivation and hostile emotions towards standard employees sequentially mediate the effects of disadvantaged employment status on interpersonal deviance, and in-group identification enhances the positive effects of relative deprivation on interpersonal deviance through hostile emotions towards standard employees. These findings provide implications for theory and practice.