What Do Job Insecure People Do? Examining Employee Behaviors and their Implications for Well-Being at a Weekly Basis

The current study investigated employees’ weekly responses to job insecurity. Based on appraisal theory, it was postulated that employees may adopt three coping strategies in response to job insecurity (i.e., remaining silent, adapting, or being proactive) in order to maintain or improve their weekly well-being. We introduced a multilevel moderated mediation model, explaining how weekly job insecurity would be related to well-being in the following weeks through these three behaviors. A 5- week diary study of 149 subordinates partially supported the model. The results showed two main contributions. First, employees are not passive responders to perceived job insecurity, but active shapers through coping depending on the context. Second, subordinates’ emotional regulation strategy and supervisors’ prosocial motivation, as trait variables, impact on how subordinates respond to perceived job insecurity over weeks. From a practical point of view, the dynamic nature of perceived job insecurity suggests implications for interventions to maintain subordinates’ well-bein