Could job insecurity (also) be a motivator?

Abstract

"This study tested the idea that there is not only a negative effect of job insecurity on performance but also a positive one. The positive effect can be expected because job insecurity might also motivate people to work hard because good performance might be believed to lessen the chance of being made redundant. We assume that both effects work simultaneously but that the negative effect is stronger than the positive one. Furthermore, we assume that the negative effect is mediated by work attitudes. Job insecurity, performance (in-role behavior and organizational citizenship behaviour), and work attitudes (job satisfaction, commitment, and justice perceptions) data were collected from 132 German nonmanagerial employees. Structural equation modeling provided some evidence for the hypothesized relationships. In addition, our data replicate the finding of Borg & Elizur (1992) that there are two separate dimensions of job insecurity with different correlational patterns: cognitive job insecurity (i.e., the probability estimate of loosing one's job) and affective job insecurity (i.e., being worried about loosing one's job)." (author's abstract)