Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour: A Psychological Contract Perspective - Psychologica Belgica
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Niesen, W., et al. (2018). Job Insecurity and Innovative Work
Behaviour: A Psychological Contract Perspective. Psychologica Belgica,
57(4), pp. 174–189, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/pb.381
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Job Insecurity and Innovative Work
Behaviour: A Psychological Contract
Perspective
Wendy Niesen*,†, Anahí Van Hootegem†, Tinne Vander Elst†,‡,
Adalgisa Battistelli§ and Hans De Witte†,||
Innovation is considered to be of crucial importance for organisational survival and
growth, and in this respect employees play a leading role, as they are the ones
who develop innovative ideas. At the same time, the struggle for organisational
survival and growth gives rise to perceptions of job insecurity. To date, few s tudies
have explored how employees’ innovative work behaviour (IWB) is influenced by the
perceived threat of job loss (i.e. job insecurity). As both job insecurity and IWB are
increasingly salient in light of organisational change and competition, the present
study examines the relationship between job insecurity and IWB, as well as the role
of psychological contract breach in explaining this relationship. We hypothesized
a negative relation between job insecurity and innovative work behaviour, with
psychological contract breach as a mediator in this relationship. Participants were
190 employees from an industrial organisation that had faced restructuring and
downsizing for several years. Contrary to our predictions, no direct association
was found between job insecurity and the two sub-dimensions of innovative work
behaviour (i.e., idea generation and idea implementation). Indirect relationships,
however, were found between job insecurity and the two types of IWB through
psychological contract breach. Surprisingly, psychological contract breach was
positively related to idea generation and idea implementation. These findings shed
new light on the relationship between job insecurity and IWB.
Keywords: Innovative work behaviour; job insecurity; psychological contract breach;
idea generation; idea implementation
* Thomas More, BE §
EA4139 Laboratory of Psychology, University of
†
Work, Organisational, and Personnel Bordeaux, FR
Psychology Research Group, ||
Optentia Research Focus Area, Vanderbijlpark
KU Leuven, BE Campus, North-West University, SA
‡
IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Corresponding author: Anahí Van Hootegem
Protection at Work, BE (Anahi.vanhootegem@kuleuven.be)Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour 175
Introduction adoption designed to significantly benefit the
Technological changes, the aftermath of individual, the group, organisation or wider
the economic recession, globalization and society” (p. 16). Prior research has demon-
worldwide competitiveness have caused strated that these employee innovations are
organisations to resort to different kinds of important drivers for an organization’s success
restructurings, often in the form of employee and thus the security of its members (Janssen,
downsizing (Burke & Ng, 2006). Although 2000; Ma Prieto & Pilar Perez-Santana, 2014;
organisations employ these measures De Spiegelaere, Van Gyes, De Witte, Niesen, &
to increase productivity and improve their cost Van Hootegem, 2014). Since scholars argue
structures, research has shown that an organ- that IWB consists of two sub-dimensions
isation’s performance rather deteriorates (i.e., idea generation and idea implementa-
than improves following downsizing (Datta, tion), we separately take both types of IWB
Guthrie, Basuil, & Pandey, 2010). These into account (Scott & Bruce, 1994; West, 2002).
detrimental effects may be explained by
The current study focuses on the question if
increased perceptions of job insecurity and why job insecurity and IWB are related. We
during the restructuring as well as in the investigate these relationships in the context
post-restructuring period. A review by of a downsizing organisation, thereby
Quinlan and Bohle (2009) on the effects contributing to a better understanding of
of downsizing for employee well-being the reactions of employees who are in the
demonstrated that increased job insecurity midst of a restructuring organisation.
explained the negative consequences of Organisational restructuring and downsiz-
downsizing on health and safety in most of ing have also altered employees’ perceptions of
the reviewed studies. In addition, de Jong and reactions to the employment relationship
and colleagues (2016) reviewed longitudinal (Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski, & Bravo, 2007). As
studies about the impact of restructuring the violation of promises made during recruit-
on employee well-being. Similarly, their ment has been found to explain several of job
results indicated that experienced job insecurity’s attitudinal outcomes (De Cuyper &
insecurity was a key mechanism in interpret- De Witte, 2006), and psychological contract
ing the adverse outcomes of organizational fulfilment has been shown to be an anteced-
restructuring. ent of innovative behaviour (Ramamoorthy,
The same societal and industrial changes Flood, Slattery, & Sardessai, 2005), the present
that are responsible for increased organi- study aims to examine whether breach of the
sational restructuring, and thus for height- psychological contract plays an explanatory
ened feelings of job insecurity, have also role in the association between job insecurity
increased the importance of innovation for and both dimensions of IWB.
organizations’ competitiveness. In addition, This study contributes to the literature in
many organisations expect that restructur- the following ways. First, a new possible out-
ing and downsizing will enhance innovation come of job insecurity is introduced, namely
(Probst, Stewart, Gruys, & Tierney, 2007). IWB. Second, we examine the concept of
While current changes in the labour mar- IWB more closely, by investigating the rela-
ket have inspired scholarly interest in job tionship between job insecurity and two
insecurity and employees’ innovative work different dimension of IWB, that is, idea gen-
behaviour (IWB) separately, the relationship eration and idea implementation. By doing
between both concepts has remained under- so, we assist in resolving the controversy of
researched. In line with West and Farr (1989), the similarity of the antecedents of both
we define IWB as “the intentional introduc- stages. Finally, we aim to advance insights in
tion and application, within a role, group or the mechanism underlying the negative out-
organisation of ideas, processes, products comes of job insecurity by analysing whether
or procedures, new to the relevant unit of psychological contract breach mediates the176 Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour
relationship between job insecurity and IWB. creation of ideas that are relatively new, that
This study might be considered as innova- is, new in the context in which they will be
tive since the links of both job insecurity and implemented, and offer an improvement
psychological contract breach with IWB are or solution to problems an employee has
under-researched topics. encountered. Idea generation is therefore
similar to creativity, as both behaviours con-
Job insecurity cern the rise of new ideas (West, 2002). Idea
This article focuses on job insecurity, which implementation refers to the adaptation and
is defined as “the subjectively perceived convergence of these ideas with daily work
likelihood of involuntary job loss” (Sverke practices.
et al., 2002, p. 243). As a result, job-insecure
employees find themselves in an undesired Job insecurity and idea generation
twilight zone between employment and According to West (2002), idea generation
unemployment. Not surprisingly, job inse- requires an environment which is undemand-
curity was found to relate to multiple stress ing, that is, an environment low in external
reactions, such as anxious feelings, depres- demands, threats or uncertainty. Such an
sion, somatization and psychiatric symptoms undemanding environment is unlikely to be
(Boya, Demiral, Ergör, Akvardar, & De Witte, present for insecure employees, since they
2008; Meltzer et al., 2010). Concerning perceive their environment as uncertain and
behavioural outcomes, job insecurity has threatening. Likewise, Pech (2001) assumed
been associated with work withdrawal behav- that downsizing in organisations hinders
iours (Probst, 2005), decreased OCB (Reisel, the creativity of employees, and thus their
Probst, Chia, Maloles, & König, 2010) and exit idea generation. Due to a lack of research
behaviour of the best employees (Berntson, on the association between job insecurity
Näswall, & Sverke, 2010). and idea generation, we rely on studies that
focus on the relation between variables that
Innovative work behaviour are closely related to job insecurity and idea
Behaving innovatively at work refers to the generation, such as restructuring and creativ-
intentional generation and implementa- ity, respectively. Probst and colleagues (2007)
tion of new ideas at work in order to benefit have, for instance, demonstrated a negative
role performance, group performance or the relationship between job insecurity and
organisation in general (Janssen, 2000). IWB creativity, both in an experiment and a field
is a behaviour performed for the benefit of setting. Additionally, Cascio (1993) found
the organisation (Axtell, Holman, Unsworth, restructuring to lead to an increase in risk
Wall, & Waterson, 2000; De Jong & Hartog, adverse thinking. Idea generation is likely to
2007). Several employee behaviours may suffer from restructurings since the genera-
help organisations to become more inno- tion of a new idea always includes the risk of
vatively, and accordingly, IWB is considered unsuccessfulness. Similar findings emerged
“a construct that captures all behaviours from a study by Amabile and Conti (1999),
through which employees can contribute to which demonstrated that organisational
the innovation process” (De Jong & Hartog, downsizing negatively impacted the work
2007, p. 43). There is considerable evidence environment for creativity. Based on the
that organisations need to rely on the inno- aforementioned empirical evidence, a nega-
vative abilities of all employees in order to tive relation between job insecurity and the
become more innovative. Two phases are first phase of IWB is expected, leading to the
typically distinguished in the innovation following hypothesis:
process, namely the generation of ideas
and subsequently the implementation of Hypothesis 1a: Job insecurity and
these ideas. Idea generation concerns the idea generation are negatively related.Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour 177 Job insecurity and idea however, comes from Bommer and Jalajas implementation (1999), who found that the threat of organi- For an innovative idea to improve organi- zational downsizing negatively relates to sational functioning or increase profit, the employees’ willingness to make innovative testing and commercialising of an idea (i.e., suggestions to supervisors. In keeping with idea implementation) is crucial. In spite of the aforementioned theoretical and empiri- the importance of this application-oriented cal arguments, we hypothesize that: behaviour and agreement on the effect of external factors on innovative efforts, Hypothesis 1b: Job insecurity and research on the relation between job insecu- idea implementation are negatively rity and idea implementation is scarce. Idea related. implementation might manifest itself in various ways, such as by persuading others Psychological contract breach as an of the value of the idea, by testing and adapt- explanatory variable ing an idea or by modifying the workplace Apart from studying the direct relationship to the innovation (de Jong & Hartog, 2007). between job insecurity and both dimen- Difficulties often arise, such as an increase sions of IWB, this article further aims to in conflicts with co-workers when engaging analyse the process through which these in IWB, explaining why only few innovations variables are related, by including psycho- are truly implemented (Janssen, 2003). Idea logical contract breach as a mediational implementation may therefore be considered mechanism. Psychological contract breach as a behaviour that requires considerable derives from psychological contract theory effort from employees. When experiencing (Rousseau, 1989), and is defined as “the feelings of job insecurity, employees are less idiosyncratic set of reciprocal expectations likely to engage in behaviours which require held by employees concerning their obliga- extra effort, as they tend to withdraw from tions and their entitlements” (McLean Parks, the organisation. Withdrawal implies that Kidder, & Gallagher, 1998, p. 698). These employees disengage from their work and reciprocal obligations form the essence their organisation, resulting in lower levels of the psychological contract (Rousseau & of performance and effort (Abramis, 1984), McLean Parks, 1993), and generally con- as well as intentions to leave the organisa- sist of contributions of the employee in tion and apply for a job elsewhere (Cheng & terms of time, effort and work attitude, Chan, 2008). Similarly, employees might versus promised benefits on the part of withdraw from the insecure job situation by the employer, such as job security, salary, reducing the effortful, change-related behav- appreciation, challenging work or prospects iour of idea implementation. for promotion (Rousseau & McLean Parks, As successful idea implementation requires 1993). When one or both parties feel that sustained efforts, the negative association the other party did not fulfil his/her prom- between job insecurity and employees’ efforts ises, psychological contract breach occurs might provide guidance as to how job inse- (Robinson & Morrison, 2000). curity might relate to idea implementation. Prior research has demonstrated that organ- Already in 1984, Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt isational restructuring is significantly related found a negative relationship between job to perceptions of psychological contract insecurity and exerted effort, and a posi- violations, mostly due to perceived broken tive relationship between job insecurity promises regarding job security (Turnley & and resistance to change. Brockner, Grover, Feldman, 1998). Since the promise of job Reed, and Dewitt (1992) demonstrated that security is included in the traditional psy- high levels of job insecurity negatively relate chological contract, which is dominant in to expended effort. The strongest evidence, Europe (De Witte, 2005), employees might
178 Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour
expect that when they fulfil their part of the aforementioned theoretical and empirical
deal, the organisation will reciprocate by evidence which predominantly points to this
offering job security (De Cuyper & De Witte, negative pathway. These arguments align
2006). De Cuyper and De Witte (2006, 2007) with the longitudinal study of Ng, Feldman,
empirically demonstrated that feelings of and Lam (2010) that demonstrated that the
job insecurity were linked to psychologi- perception of psychological contract breach
cal contract breach. Next, we may predict a leads to lower levels of innovative b ehaviours.
negative relationship between psychologi- This negative effect was interpreted as a form
cal contract breach and IWB. When a fair of negative reciprocation and considered
exchange between employer and employee as a way to react to psychological contract
is lacking, employees will lower their innova- breach.
tive contributions to the organisation (IWB) In sum, job insecurity may be positively
(Robinson & Rousseau, 1994). These innova- related to psychological contract breach,
tive efforts can be very diverse: an employee which in turn may be related to lower
may help his/her organisation by introduc- levels of IWB in terms of idea generation
ing new ideas (i.e., idea generation) or by and idea implementation. This implies that
applying these ideas to the daily functioning psychological contract breach mediates the
of the organisation (i.e., idea implementa- relationship between job insecurity and
tion). Employees will invest less, as a way IWB. Prior studies have found psychological
to no longer feel short-changed (Robinson, contract breach to account for the relationship
1996) and to restore the equity between between job insecurity and the behavioural
their investments or costs and the benefits outcome of self-rated performance, thereby
they receive (Adams, 1965). offering indirect support for the expected
In the context of organizational downsiz- mediating effect (De Cuyper & De Witte,
ing, however, a reversed and positive rela- 2006; King, 2000).
tionship between psychological contract
breach and IWB might also be possible. The Hypothesis 2: Psychological contract
study of Janssen (2002) demonstrated that breach mediates the relationship
employees scale back on their IWB when between job insecurity and IWB,
they perceive that their innovative efforts i.e., idea generation (H2a) and idea
are under-rewarded by the organisation. implementation (H2b).
In other words, employees expect to be
rewarded for their innovative work behav- Method
iour. At the same time, prior research has Organizational context
shown that employees that have been This study was run in an industrial o
rganisation
affected by organisational restructuring in the region of Brussels that had recently
report an imbalance between their exerted undergone multiple restructurings and lay-
efforts and the rewards they get from their offs. Due to the financial crisis, the organisa-
organisation (Tsutsumi, Nagami, Morimoto, & tion reduced almost 30% of their workforce
Matoba, 2002). Hence, engaging in IWB in the two years prior to the data collection.
might not be sufficiently rewarded in a At the time of data gathering, the organiza-
downsizing organization, thereby leading to tion was still facing restructuring. More spe-
a perceived breach of the psychological con- cifically, two more branches were planned
tract. This would entail a positive relation- to close and some employees were going to
ship in which IWB leads to perceptions of be transferred to a French company that was
psychological contract breach. linked to the downsizing company. One year
Yet, the current study expects a nega- after the data was collected, the organisation
tive relationship that flows from psycho- downsized another 20% of their remaining
logical contract breach to IWB, based on the employees.Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour 179
Sample and procedure Cuyper, 2014), with responses varying
Data were collected by means of an online between 1 (strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly
questionnaire that was part of a larger scale agree). A sample item is “I feel insecure about
study on employee well-being within the the future of my job”.
organization. White-collar workers were
invited to fill out the questionnaire by mail, Innovative work behaviour (IWB)
in which a link gave access to the online IWB was measured using 10 items from de
questionnaire. Blue-collar workers received Jong and den Hartog (2010) that were rated
an invitation by internal postal services on a five-point Likert scale ranging from
with a personal access code. By use of this 1 (never) to 5 (always). Principal component
code, they could fill out the question- analysis revealed two factors with eigenvalues
naire on public computers provided by the over one, explaining 68% of the variance. The
company. The questionnaire was sent to first factor corresponded to the generation
578 employees and was provided both in of ideas and the second factor matched idea
Dutch and in French; 203 employees com- implementation. This two-factor solution
pletely filled out the questionnaire (response was preferred over the one-factor solution as
rate of 35%). We excluded 13 participants it corresponds to the aforementioned theo-
who were in a higher management position, retical distinction and is more easily inter-
as they were involved in the decision-making pretable. The first factor was labelled ‘idea
of the restructuring process, resulting in a generation’ (four items, α = .87), while the
final sample of 190 employees. second was labelled ‘idea implementation’
The sample consisted of 84.5% men (n = (five items, α = .90). Sample items for the first
163) and 15.5% women (n = 30). The aver- and second scale are respectively “How often
age age of the respondents was 45.87 years do you search out new working methods,
(SD = 7.83), with ages ranging from 23 to 60 techniques or instruments” and “How often
years. The mean tenure was over 2.18 years do you contribute to the implementation of
(SD = 9.08). The majority of the respond- new ideas?”. One item was eliminated from
ents (99.5%) had a permanent contract, and the idea generation scale as it decreased the
88.6% worked on full-time basis. Our sample internal consistency of the scale consider-
included 1.6% (n = 3) unskilled blue collar ably (from α = .83 to α = .87). Results will be
workers, 24.4% (n = 47) skilled blue-collar reported separately for both dimensions.
workers, 28.5% (n = 55) lower level white
collar workers, 23.8% (n = 46) intermedi- Psychological contract breach
ate white collar workers, and 21.8% (n = 42) Psychological contract breach (α = .82) was
upper white collar workers/middle manage- measured with five items, with responses
ment. A total of 112 (58%) employees spoke ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to
Dutch, while 81 (42%) of the respondents 5 (completely agree) from Robinson and
spoke French. Morrison (2000). This measure assessed the
overall evaluation of how well the employer
Measures has fulfilled the promises that were made
All measures were restricted to self-reports. during recruitment. A sample item is “Almost
Unless stated otherwise, all scales were all the promises made by my employer
found to have single-factor structures (PCA, during recruitment have been kept thus far”
Varimax rotation). (reverse coded).
Job insecurity Control variables
Job insecurity (α = .88) was measured with Following the recommendations of Becker
four items of the Job Insecurity Scale (De (2005), we included control variables that
Witte, 2000; Vander Elst, De Witte, & De were likely to relate to the dependent180 Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour variables. Organizational tenure (years) was Analyses included as a covariate since it negatively The hypotheses were tested using the relates to IWB (Dorenbosch, Engen, & software package SPSS. Hypothesis 1a and 1b Verhagen, 2005). Education and occupa- were tested by means of hierarchical regres- tional position are both related to IWB sion analysis (HRA), whereas Hypothesis 2a (Oldham & Cummings, 1996; Spreitzer, and 2b were analysed with the PROCESS 1995). However, to avoid multi-collinearity, macro (model 4) (Hayes, 2013). PROCESS is we included only one of them in the analy- a computational procedure that uses boot- ses. Occupational position was p referred strapping to test direct and indirect effects over education. While the educational level in mediation. This approach allows for more of employees influences their potential valid conclusions as normality is not required to be innovative in general, occupational for the sampling distribution of the indirect position can be considered as a situational effects (Mackinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, facilitator or inhibitor that influences West, & Sheets, 2002). Moreover, PROCESS the extent to which an employee has allows to employ heteroscedasticity consist- the opportunity to be innovative in ent standard errors to rule out heterosce- his/her job, thereby having a large influence dasticity in the model. All variables were on the actual innovative behaviour of standardised prior to analyses to produce an employee. We treated occupational standardised regression coefficients. The position (1 = unskilled blue collar worker; control variables were added to the model as 2 = skilled blue collar worker; 3 = lower covariates. Separate analyses were performed level white collar worker; 4 = intermediate for both subscales of IWB (i.e., idea genera- white collar worker; 5 = upper white collar tion and idea implementation). worker/middle management/executive staff) as a continuous variable as these Results occupational positions represent a range Descriptive statistics going from less skilled to highly skilled Table 1 displays the means, standard devia- (De Cuyper et al., 2014). In addition, we tions and correlations among the variables. compared whether the results differed if On average, the respondents scored mod- the analyses were run with four dummy erately high on job insecurity (M = 3.34, variables, which was not the case. Since SD = .94), indicating that they feel slightly male managers generally have a more posi- insecure about the future of their job. As tive attitude towards creativity (Mostafa, expected, job insecurity correlated positively 2005) and are more innovation oriented with psychological contract breach. However, (Mueller & Thomas, 2000), gender (1 = male; no relationship between job insecurity and 0 = female) was also inserted as a control both types of IWB was found. Surprisingly, variable. In addition, fulltime employment psychological contract breach was positively (1 = fulltime employment; 0 = otherwise) correlated to idea generation as well as idea was included as a covariate, because these implementation. This suggests that employ- employees spend more time at work, giving ees who believe that their employer has not them more possibilities to be innovative. kept all his promises are more inventive and Finally, language (0 = French, 1 = Dutch) creative, and implement these ideas more was also included. Note that we did not often than employees who believe that their control for the possible effect of method employer kept all of his promises. (invitation by mail or internal postal ser- vices), as the method was dependent upon Hypothesis 1: Job insecurity and IWB the occupational position of the employees Hypothesis 1a concerned the negative rela- (see above), which was already selected as a tionship between job insecurity and idea covariate. generation. Contrary to our predictions, the
Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour 181
Table 1: Summary of Means, Standard Deviations and Intercorrelations.
Variables M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1. Male – –
2. Tenure 21.18 9.08 .10
3. Fulltime – .16* −.22**
4. Occupational position 3.40 1.12 −.04 −.22** .08
5. Dutch – – −.05 .03 −.11 −.03
6. Job insecurity 3.36 .93 .15 .10 −.02 −.15* .14
7. PC Breach 3.55 .80 .04 .02 .02 −.06 .05 .33**
8. Idea generation 3.43 .64 .07 −.24** .12 .25** .15* −.01 .21**
9. Idea implementation 2.86 .73 .19** −.08 .20** .18* .06 .01 .16* .67**
Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.
Table 2: Hierarchical Regression Analyses Predicting Idea Generation and Implementation
Behaviour from Job Insecurity and Breach of Psychological Contract.
Idea Generation Idea Implementation
β ΔR2 β ΔR2
Step 1 .13*** .11**
Male .10 .18*
Tenure –.19** –.03
Fulltime .05 .15*
Occupational position .21** .18*
Dutch .17** .09
Step 2 .00 .00
Job insecurity –.08 –.03
Step 3 .05** .03*
PC breach .24** .17*
Adjusted R2 .15 .10
N 190 190
Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.
HRA demonstrated that job insecurity did Hypothesis 2: The mediating role of
not significantly contribute in predicting this psychological contract breach
behaviour (see Table 2). Similarly, no signifi- Hypothesis 2a concerned the indirect rela-
cant link was found between job insecurity tionship between job insecurity and idea
and idea implementation, thereby rejecting generation through psychological contract
Hypothesis 1b (see Table 2). Hence, our data breach. The mediation analysis showed a
did not support Hypothesis 1. significant indirect effect of job insecurity182 Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour
Table 3: Bootstrap Point Estimates and Bias-Corrected and – Accelerated (Bca) Confidence
Intervals (Cis) for the Indirect Effects on Idea Generation and Idea Implementation.
Indirect effect Effect Boot SE 95% bias corrected and
accelerated confidence interval
Lower Upper
JI – PC breach – idea generation .08 .03 .03 .16
JI – PC breach – idea implementation .05 .03 .01 .13
Note. JI = job insecurity; SE= standard error.
Figure 1: Mediation of psychological contract breach in the relation between job insecurity
and innovative work behaviour. Note. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.
on idea generation via psychological con- in comparison to employees whose psycho-
tract breach (effect = .05; 95% CIs [0.02, logical contract was not violated.
0.11]) (i.e., the 95% CI did not include Hypothesis 2b concerned the indirect
zero) (see Table 3), whereby job insecurity relationship between job insecurity and
positively related to psychological contract idea implementation through psychologi-
breach, which in turn positively related to cal contract breach. The bootstrapping test
idea generation (see Figure 1). Contrary to provided evidence for psychological contract
our expectations, these results suggest that breach as a mediator in the relationship
employees with a violated psychological between job insecurity and idea implemen-
contract display more acts of idea generation tation (effect = .04; 95% CIs [0.01, 0.10]).Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour 183
The results indicated that perceptions of job depend on employees’ trust in the organi-
insecurity are associated with higher percep- sation, as trust has been found to impact
tions of psychological contract breach, which the association between job insecurity and
in turn is associated with higher levels of behaviour (Wong et al., 2005). Second, we
idea implementation. The positive relation- might argue that the relationship between
ship between psychological contract breach job insecurity and idea generation and
and idea implementation is in contract with idea implementation is not a linear rela-
what we hypothesized. tionship. This suggestion originates from
Brockner and colleauges (1992) who found
Discussion an inverted-U relationship between job inse-
Organisations employ strategies of restruc- curity and subsequent work effort. Finally,
turing and downsizing with the aim of results suggest that innovative work behav-
improving efficiency and competitiveness. iour could be considered as a more distal
Additionally, many organisations cite outcome of job insecurity, which implies
enhanced innovation as an expected outcome that the association between job insecurity
of the aforementioned measures (Probst takes some time to develop or that this asso-
et al., 2007). The present study investigated ciation is conditional upon other processes
the relationship between job insecurity and (Sverke et al., 2002).
innovative work behaviour (IWB), and the In line with Hypothesis 2, our findings
mediating role of psychological contract corroborated the mediating role of psycho-
breach in this relationship. These constructs logical contract breach in the relationship
are especially relevant in the context of a between job insecurity and IWB for both
downsizing organisation. Analyses were IWB components, that is, idea generation
conducted separately for both dimensions (H2a) and idea implementation (H2b). The
of IWB, namely idea generating and idea present study thus extends existing knowl-
implementation. The findings of the current edge on psychological contract breach as a
study suggest that there is no direct relation- potential mechanism behind the behaviour
ship between job insecurity and both sub- of job insecure employees. The positive
dimensions of IWB. Our results did provide relationship between psychological con-
support for the mediating role of psycho- tract breach and idea generation and idea
logical contract breach in the relationship implementation was unexpected because
between job insecurity and IWB. We found it does not correspond to the literature on
a positive association between job inse- psychological contract breach that predicts
curity and psychological contract breach. negative effects for behavioural outcomes
Contrary to our expectations, psychological (Dulac, Coyle-shapiro, Henderson, & Wayne,
contract breach was in turn positively related 2008; Ng et al., 2010). These studies –
to idea generation and idea implementation. typically conducted in a stable organiza-
These results were confirmed by a bootstrap- tional environment – convey the common
ping analysis: psychological contract breach belief that the perception of psychological
was found to explain the relationship between contract violation leads to a decrease in
job insecurity and idea generation (H2a) exerted efforts in order to restore balance in
and between job insecurity and idea imple- the employment relationship (Robinson &
mentation (H2b). Rousseau, 1994).
The absence of support for the direct rela- However, a possible explanation for this
tionship between job insecurity and idea positive relationship between psychological
generation (H1a) and idea implementation contract breach and IWB might lie in the spe-
(H1b) could have several reasons. To start, cific context of organizational turmoil. More
the association between job insecurity and specifically, it might be that employees who
employees’ subsequent performance may have shown high IWB but are not adequately184 Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour rewarded by their organisation experience replicate our results (i.e., a positive relation- this situation as a psychological contract ship between psychological contract breach breach. Building on the central assump- and innovative work behaviour) before draw- tion of psychological contract theory, which ing practical implications. In general, we states that employees strive for a balance in believe that the results of this study raise a their employment relationship, we might number of questions which warrant further expect that employees increasingly expect research. their organisation to reciprocate the time and energy they have invested by behaving Limitations and future research in an innovative way. When employees do Several limitations concerning the study not receive what they believe to be entitled design and sample require further attention. to, namely high rewards in exchange for First, all variables were measured through input in the form of IWB, they are likely to self-report questionnaires, which introduces perceive a breach in their psychological con- a potential risk for common method bias tract. Other employees who invest less in the (Doty & Glick, 1998). Despite this drawback, organisation may expect fewer incentives as the subjective nature of job insecurity and they also have contributed less, resulting in psychological contract breach requires a self- the absence of psychological contract viola- report measure. Future studies, however, tion. This reasoning especially applies in the could benefit from including other-rated context of organizational downsizing, where IWB. Second, because the present study is employees have to perform highly innova- limited to cross-sectional data, no inferences tive work, and where it is likely that they about causality can be made (Mackinnon, do not receive the expected rewards due to Fairchild, & Fritz, 2007). A longitudinal on-going restructuring and uncertainty. The follow-up study would allow to further imbalance between employees’ efforts to be examine the direction of the associations, innovative and the organisation’s reduced thereby clarifying the debate about the investments might cause employees to per- direction of the relationships between ceive a breach of the psychological contract psychological contract breach and innova- breach. To date, however, no prior research tive work behaviour. Another possibility has reported findings that are in line with for determining the causal impact of the our results. We conclude that, for idea gen- different constructs, is to test the different eration and idea implementation, an indirect relationships by means of an experimental relationship with job insecurity through psy- design. The study of Probst and colleagues chological contract breach was found. (2007), for instance, simulated the threat Our findings contribute to research inves- of being laid-off in a laboratory experiment. tigating the relationship between the chang- These studies, however, have the shortcoming ing work environment, which includes job of a lower ecological validity, as the artificially insecurity, and employees’ IWB. By investi- created conditions cannot fully capture the gating psychological contract breach as an negative consequences and stressful nature explanatory variable in our theoretical frame- of job insecurity. work, we increased the understanding of the Third, the current sample consisted of an mechanism through which job insecurity organization that had recently undergone is related to IWB. Our findings suggest that restructuring, which contributed to mod- job insecurity and innovative behaviours are erately high levels of job insecurity in our not directly related. Job insecurity, however, sample. As this survey was conducted in col- appears to indirectly relate to idea genera- laboration with the higher management, the tion through psychological contract breach. low response rate of 34% might have been Given the surprising results of this study, it a reflection of decreased trust in the higher may be advisable to wait until future studies management. The generalizability of our
Niesen et al: Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour 185
findings are limited due to the absence of a Competing Interests
representative sample size. Future research The authors have no competing interests to
might benefit from replicating these findings declare.
in more representative samples.
The present study was particularly inter- Authors Information
ested in IWB and how these behaviours Both Wendy Niesen and Anahí Van Hootegem
relate to job insecurity and psychological are joint first authors.
contract breach. Nonetheless, the effects
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How to cite this article: Niesen, W., Van Hootegem, A., Vander Elst, T., Battistelli, A. and De Witte,
H. (2018). Job Insecurity and Innovative Work Behaviour: A Psychological Contract Perspective.
Psychologica Belgica, 57(4), 174–189, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/pb.381
Submitted: 16 January 2017 Accepted: 31 May 2017 Published: 04 January 2018
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