The Relationship between Job Insecurity and Safety Behavior: The Buffering Role of Leadership Ethics

Yunsook Hong, Min-Jik Kim () and Young Woo Sohn ()
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Yunsook Hong: College of Business Administration, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 44610, Republic of Korea
Min-Jik Kim: School of Industrial Management, Korea University of Technology and Education, Cheonan 31253, Republic of Korea
Young Woo Sohn: Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 18, 1-22

Abstract: While numerous studies have delved into the ramifications of job insecurity for organizational outcomes, past endeavors have not adequately unveiled the mediating and moderating factors in the connection between job insecurity and safety behavior, especially from a positive psychology standpoint. Furthermore, the interaction between organizational leadership and job insecurity has been underexplored, despite the critical role of leaders during periods of job insecurity. Addressing these research gaps, we have devised a theoretical framework suggesting that meaningfulness of work might act as an intermediary in the link between job insecurity and safety behavior. We also hypothesize that ethical leadership might mitigate the adverse effects of job insecurity on the meaningfulness of work. Data were collected three separate times from 235 employees in the Republic of Korea. Our empirical evidence substantiates that meaningfulness of work indeed serves as a bridge between job insecurity and safety behavior. Additionally, the presence of ethical leadership moderates the interrelation between job insecurity and meaningfulness of work positively, attenuating the detrimental influence of job insecurity. These insights emphasize the fundamental roles of both meaningfulness of work (as a mediator) and ethical leadership (as a moderator) in defining the nexus between job insecurity and safety behavior.

Keywords: job instability; safety behavior; meaningfulness of work; ethical leadership; structural equation modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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