Research On The Trickle-down Effect Of Job Insecurity And Its Impact On Job Crafting

The external environment full of crisis and competition intensifies the fluctuation of job positions,both managers and front-line employees in an enterprise are likely to have job insecurity,which may be transmitted to employees through managers' decisions or behaviors,thus expanding the influence range of job insecurity in the organization.In the field of organizational behavior,the trickledown effect refers to the phenomenon that the perception,attitude and behavior of middle and upper level individuals in an organization are passed down to lower level individuals.However,when supervisor's job insecurity is passed on to employees through trickle-down effect,it is difficult for enterprises to design a set of effective coping strategies for all employees.Instead,employees should take the initiative to deal with it through job crafting according to their own situations.Therefore,the enterprise not only needs to clarify the trickle-down effect mechanism of job insecurity between supervisors and employees,break the transmission of job insecurity between supervisors and employees,but also need to guide employees to cope job insecurity through job crafting that is beneficial to the organization.This study constructs the trickle-down effect of job insecurity and its impact on job crafting based on the conservation of resource theory,allocation preferences theory,approach-avoidance coping theory and qualitative analysis results.First of all,this study summarizes the relevant theoretical basis,including conservation of resource theory,allocation preferences theory,and approach-avoidance coping theory.Secondly,this study uses qualitative analysis method to summarize the coping styles of job insecurity and identifies the impact of job insecurity on job crafting and its motivation paths,which provides a theoretical framework for constructing the model of the impact of job insecurity on job crafting.Thirdly,this study based on the conservation of resource theory and allocation preferences theory proposes the trickle-down effect of supervisors' job insecurity on employees' job insecurity,inducing leader-member exchange differentiation and abusive supervision to construct dual mediation model.This study also examines the moderating roles of achievement striving and communion striving on the mediating effects of leader-member exchange differentiation and abusive supervision,revealing the boundary conditions of the trickle-down effect of job insecurity.Finally,this study based on the approach-avoidance coping theory and the qualitative analysis results proposes the effect of employees' job insecurity on job crafting,inducing approach motivation and avoidance motivation to construct the dual mediation model.This study also examines the moderating role of psychological safety on the mediating effects of approach motivation and avoidance motivation,revealing the boundary conditions of path selection in which employees' job insecurity affect different types of job crafting.This study conducts open questionnaire survey,multi-wave supervisorsubordinate dyads questionnaire survey and scenario experiment.The 75 employees who participate in the open questionnaire survey provide 299 items of job insecurity coping strategies.Through inductive analysis,this study summarizes 13 types of job insecurity coping strategies,such as seeking support,undertaking extra work and expanding interpersonal relationship.Through comparative analysis and frequency analysis,this study identifies the effect of job insecurity on job crafting,and identified the motivation paths between job insecurity and job crafting,namely the motivation of promoting positive events and the motivation of avoiding negative events.These qualitative analysis results provide theoretical support for constructing the model of the impact of job insecurity on job crafting.This study collectes data through questionnaire survey at two time points,and356 valid supervisor-surbordinate dyads data were obtained.Using the analytical method of multilevel structural equation model,this study firstly examines the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of the trickle-down effect of job insecurity.The results shows that :(1)supervisors' job insecurity can positively affect employees' job insecurity,i.e.,there is a trickle-down effect of job insecurity between supervisors and employees;(2)supervisors' job insecurity has a positive effect on employees' job insecurity through increasing leader-member exchange differentiation and abusive supervision;(3)when supervisors' communion striving is high,the mediating effect of abusive supervision between supervisors' job insecurity and employees' job insecurity is weaker.Secondly,using questionnaire survey and scenario experiment this study examines the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of the impact of job insecurity on job crafting.Results shows that:(1)psychological safety climate enhances the positive effect of employees' job insecurity on the promotion-oriented job crafting and weaken the positive influence of employees' job insecurity on prevention-oriented job crafting;(2)employees' job insecurity enhances promotingoriented job crafting through increasing approach motivation;(3)employees' job insecurity enhances prevention-oriented job crafting through increasing avoidance motivation;(4)when psychological safety climate is higher,the mediating effect of approach motivation between employees' job insecurity and promotion-oriented job crafting is stronger.This study discusses practical implications based on the above research findings,proposing strategies of job insecurity management and job crafting improvement for organizations and managers from two aspects: intervene the trickle-down effect of job insecurity and guide the positive coping of job insecurity.