The “silent assassin” in your organization? Can job insecurity climate erode the beneficial effect of a high-quality leader-member exchange?

Date03 September 2018
Pages1174-1193
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2017-0266
Published date03 September 2018
AuthorIrina Nikolova,Beatrice Van der Heijden,Lena Låstad,Guy Notelaers
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM
The silent assassinin your
organization? Can job insecurity
climate erode the beneficial
effect of a high-quality
leader-member exchange?
Irina Nikolova
Faculty of Management, Science and Technology,
Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, The Netherlands;
KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium and
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Beatrice Van der Heijden
Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;
Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, The Netherlands;
Kingston University, London, UK and
Hubei University, Wuhan, China
Lena Låstad
Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden and
University of Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden, and
Guy Notelaers
Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible role of job insecurity climate as a moderator
in the relationship between leadermember exchange (LMX) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).
Design/methodology/approach Questionnaire data were collected from 466 employees working in 14
organizations from both the private and public sector. Following the core tenets of social exchange theory and
occupational stress theories, the authors argue that ideally job insecurity is studied as a climate-level
construct, given the fact that intra-group social exchange processes strongly influence the formation of
employee perceptions about specific aspects of their work context (e.g. job insecurity).
Findings In line with one of the hypotheses, multi-level analyses revealed that LMX is significantly and
positively related to OCBs. In addition, the authors found support for a negative moderation effect, such that
LMX has a less strongly positive relationship with extra-role behaviors that are beneficial to the organization
when job insecurity climate is high.
Originality/value The study contributes to the limited empirical scholarly research on job insecurity
climate and its correlates. Management and HR professionals in working organizations are advised to focus
on preventive measures (e.g. to invest in the professional development of their employees, that is focus on
employability enhancement, in order to reduce job insecurity) as well as on participation-based interventions.
Keywords Quantitative, Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), Leadermember exchange (LMX),
Job insecurity climate, Moderation model, Private and public sector
Paper type Research paper
Nowadays, organizations have to rely largely on the leadership skills of their mid-level
management representatives in order to provide solutions for critical performance and HRM
issues. As the most proximal organizational representative for employees (Kozlowski and
Doherty, 1989), managers are in an ideal position to stimulate organizational citizenship
Personnel Review
Vol. 47 No. 6, 2018
pp. 1174-1193
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-09-2017-0266
Received 8 September 2017
Revised 8 February 2018
Accepted 21 April 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
1174
PR
47,6
behaviors (OCBs) among their staff members by shaping high-quality leadermember
exchange relationships (LMX) (Huang et al., 2014; Liden et al., 2006; Wan, 2011). OCBs refer
to employee discretionary work behaviors that benefit the effective functioning of the
organization but that are not formally included in the organizational reward system or
required by the formal contract (Organ, 1988).
Instead of focusing on interpersonalOCBs (i.e. helping; see Williamsand Anderson, 1991),
this contribution concentrateson prosocial organization-directed OCBs (Chiaburu et al., 2011),
as this is particularly beneficial to groups and organizations (Koopman et al., 2016), for
instance, in terms of their efficiency, sales and customer satisfaction (Podsakoff et al., 2009;
Spitzmuller et al., 2008). OCBs are more and more critical in the current era, because the
willingness of employees to perform beyond and above the call of dutyserves as a key
strategic asset for organizations in the turbulent and highly competitive economic
environment (Yunus et al., 2010). That is to say, the potential of an organization to perform
well depends on the availability of a pool of employees that are capable to continuously
develop, cultivate and maintain fundamental qualifications (Brown et al., 2001), and to
enhance their broader employability at the same time (Van der Heijden et al., 2009).
Obviously, besides the challenges faced by working organizations, the present-day dynamic
economic environment has consequences for employees as well. More precisely, in the
contemporary labor market all individual workers should adhere to higher standards of
performance, due to high-speed changes and increased expertise needs (Greenhaus et al., 2008;
Van der Heijden et al., 2016), while dealing with the on-going threat posed by job insecurity
(Kalleberg, 2011). Job insecurity pertains to an employees perceptions and concerns about
potential involuntary loss of employment (e.g. De Witte, 1999; Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt, 2010).
Apart from the detrimental effect, actual lay-offs have on those employees who have to leave the
organization, a prolonged fear of losing employment has far-reaching negative consequences for
the survivors as well (Reisel et al.,2010;VanderElstet al., 2013). In terms of their effects on
well-being, such circumstances of psychological distress, due to employees being worried about
losing their job, are comparable to a situation of unemployment itself (Burchell, 2011).
Job insecurity climate is defined as a set of shared perceptions of powerlessness to
maintain the continuity of threatened jobs in an organization(Sora et al., 2009, p. 130), and
such a climatemay emerge becauseemployees share perceptions oftheir environment asbeing
unpredictable and entailing the threatof job loss (Sora et al., 2009). Apparently, a job insecurity
climate mightbe particularly disadvantageous for organizations asthey are highly reliant on
employeepositive attitudes and workbehaviors; that is to say, managersare unlikely to evoke
positive work attitudes and behaviors if organizations fail to provide stability of employment
(Jiang and Probst, 2016). Thelack of stable employmentopportunities is likelyto be seen as a
considerable violation of employeesexpectations in this regard and could evoke adverse
reactions (Costa and Neves, 2017; De Cuyper and De Witte, 2006; Rousseau, 1995).
Of course, on the one hand, neither the employees direct manager nor the top
management in working organizations can guarantee absolute job security to all of their
staff, particularly in times when organizations need to cope with a multitude of challenges
posed by the highly complex and dynamic economic environment (Keim et al., 2014; Molloy
and Noe, 2010). However, on the other hand, several earlier studies have shown how
impactful job insecurity is, and how it can result in negative work-related attitudes and
behaviors (Cheng and Chan, 2008; De Cuyper and De Witte, 2006). Job insecurity causes a
serious breach in employees expectations that their employer will reciprocate their loyalty
and efforts by providing them with a secure employment (Vander Elst et al., 2016).
We argue that managers can play an important role in this regard, as they can greatly
influence employee functioning at work by fostering high-quality relationships (Furst and
Cable, 2008). That is to say, they are assumed to be a crucial anchor that can provide a sense
of stability in a labor market context wherein job insecurity is on the rise (Kalleberg, 2011).
1175
The silent
assassin
in your
organization

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