Can Employees with Job Insecurity Engage in Job Crafting? Moderating Effect of GNS

직무안정성과 직무재창조 간의 관계: GNS의 조절효과

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of perceived job insecurity on job crafting behaviors among employees from two different cultures: Jamaica and South Korea. Growth needs strength was also examined as a moderating variable on the job insecurity/job crafting relationship. This study collected 102 data samples from working individuals from Jamaica and 98 from South Korea. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and the hierarchical regression analysis were used in order to analyze the data. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 24.0. Our research results indicated that perceived job insecurity has a significant effect on employees job crafting behaviors. The relationship between perceived job insecurity and job crafting behaviors differs based on culture. In addition, employees growth need strength moderates the relationship between the two variables. Although this study has some limitations, it contributed to the stress-coping literature by showing that individuals will engage in coping behaviors when they perceived job insecurity in the organization. In addition, culture and individual drive or need for growth plays an important role in how individuals cope with perceived stress or uncertainty.

이 연구의 목적은 자메이카와 한국의 두 문화권의 조직내 구성원들 사이에서 고용 불안정과 직무재창조 간의 관계GNS의 조절효과를 실증하는 것이었다. 조직의 성장에는 구성원들의 성장욕구(GNS)가 필요하지만 고용 불안과 직무재창조 간의 관계에서는 조절변수로 검토될 수 있다. 이 연구는 자메이카에서 일하는 조직 구성원들과 한국에서 한국기업에 근무하고 있는 98명을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였다. 실증분석 위해 탐색적 요인 분석(EFA)과 위계적회귀 분석을 사용했습니다. 통계 분석은 SPSS 24.0을 사용하여 수행되었습니다. 연구 결과에 따르면 고용불안이 직무재창조에 영향은 매우 큰 것으로 나타났으며 특히, 인식된 고용 불안과 직무재창조 사이의 관계는 문화에 따라 다르게 나타났다. 향후 좀 더 정교한 비교문화 관점의 연구를 전개하기 위해서는 국가문화 특성에 따른 개인의 추진력 또는 성장에 대한 욕구와 인지된 스트레스나 불확실성에 어떻게 대처하는지를 검토하여 좀 더 변수를 확대 혹은 통제하여 실증할 필요가 있다.

Ⅰ. Introduction

During the COVID-19 pandemic, every domain of industry has experienced a severe economic downturn with concomitant stress throughout the economy[1]. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO)[2], 38% of the global workforce are now facing a high risk of job loss[2]. This crisis will lead to long term changes in the organization and this will have an impact on employee's sense of job securityl3].

Job insecurity is regarded as the overall concern about the continued existence of the job in the future[4]. Job insecurity is a threatening or hindering stressor because employees tend to perceive it as an obstacle to personal growth and task accomplishment, triggering job stress[5].

Previous research has indicated that employees are more likely to exhibit a variety of proactive behaviors when encountering situations of uncertaintyl6]. Appropriate ways of coping with stress can be practiced in order to reduce the negative effect that it is associated with[7]. Coping is defined as constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific internal/external demands that are appraised as exceeding the resources of the person[8]. Failure to cope with perceived stressors may lead to negative organizational outcomes[9][10], therefore the need for employee proactive behavior is becoming increasingly important in order to operate effectively in a complex and uncertain work environment[11]. In this research, job crafting is viewed as a form of proactive behavior that involves employees initiating changes in their job demands and resources to increase the fit between these job characteristics and personal abilities and needs[12]. The aim of this research is to determine if employees engage in job crafting as a coping behavior when they perceived job insecurity in the organization.

Culture is said to affect the choice of coping strategies that an individual utilizes in any given situation. How an individual copes affects not only that person but also others in the immediate social environment(13]. Hofstede[14] define culture as "the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or society from another. This research focuses on two cultures: Jamaica and South Korea. Over the years, Jamaica and South Korea have established and continue to build bilateral cooperation agreements in various sectors such as education, culture, technical cooperation and disaster relief[15]. As the relationship between the two countries strengthens, it is important to understand each culture, so as to minimize risk of cultural misperception and misunderstanding because of cultural ignorance.

One of the most popular lenses through which cross-cultural differences are viewed and studied is through that of individualism /collectivism. A collectivist culture is viewed as one where the interest of the group prevails over the interest of the individual. Here, people are integrated into strong, cohesive in groups that continue throughout a lifetime to protect the exchange for unquestioning loyalty[14]. Individualistic culture emphasis is placed on individual identity, individual goals and individual welfare[14]. Hofstede[14] in his research viewed both South Korea and Jamaica as collectivist culture. The score on this dimension indicated though that South Korea is considered to be highly collectivist compared to Jamaical14]. Jamaica's culture is also said to include a mixture of both collectivist and individualist values. Core collectivist' values includes honoring parents and elders, family security, equality, loyalty, friendship, responsibility while individualist values include independence, success, ambition, freedom, choosing ones own goals[16].

The present study has three aims. The first is to expand the stress coping literature by examining job crafting as a coping strategy of perceived job insecurity. Second, to examine the moderating role of growth needs strength on the relationship between the two variables. Finally, examining two samples will allow for cross-cultural comparisons to be made to determine whether there be will be differences between the two countries.

II. Hypothesis and Literature Review

Perceived Job Insecurity and Coping Strategy (Job Crafting)

Previous studies consistently found a negative association between job insecurity and work attitudes[17][18].

When an individual perceives a work-related threat (ex. job insecurity) and cannot deal with it, the individual will tend to reduce the resource investment of extra-role behavior (ex. job crafting) and increase the resource investment of protecting himself/herself for reasons of self-protection and counterattack [19][20].

In addition, the social exchange theory posits that voluntary actions of individuals are motivated by the returns they are expected to bring[21]. Based on the context of this theory, employees are expected to perform satisfactorily in return for fair rewards and continuous employment(22]. If employees perceive job insecurity, this can be viewed as a situation where an employer violates the long-term obligation of providing stable and continuous employment for employees. When this occurs, employees would carefully consider the possible consequences of their decreased or increased work effort, extra role behaviors and performance, and then decide what action to take. They will choose whichever coping strategy provides them with the maximum benefit in order to ensure their own welfare[22].

Based on Tims, Bakker and Derks[23] generic job crafting scale, job crafting consists of four dimensions: (1) increasing structural job resources (e.g. perform to increase autonomy, skill variety etc.), (2) increasing social job resources (e.g. feedback and support from others), (3) increasing challenging job demands (e.g. asking for more responsibilities and volunteering for special projects), and (4) decreasing hindering job demands (e.g. performing behaviors that aim to decrease cognitive, and emotional demands). According to Rafferty and Restubog[20], individuals are more likely to cope by reducing their behaviors that are beneficial for the organization and others when they are faced with stressful work environment. In addition support received from others reduces the negative effects of stressors by helping employees cope with perceived stress[19]. Harris and Cha[24] in their research also found that employees engage in job crafting behaviors when they perceived occupational stress. We therefore proposed that:

H1: Perceived job insecurity will be positively related to job crafting behaviors.

Employee's Growth Needs Strength as a Moderator

Growth-need strength refers to an individual's desire to be challenged and to grow on the job or one's need for personal accomplishment, learning, and development on the job"[25]. High growth need strength provides an internal, sustaining force that drives employees to push themselves and to persevere in the face of challenges, inconsistent findings, and performance pressures[26]. Growth need strength has been examined as moderator by many researchers, but many researchers have only examined the relationship between the core job characteristics and outcomesl27]. However, to the researchers knowledge there is no research that looked at the moderating effect that growth need strength will have on the relationship between perceived uncertainty and coping strategy. This research proposed that:

H2: Employees growth needs strength will moderates the relationship between perceived job insecurity and employees job crafting behaviors.

Figure. 1. Research Model

Ⅲ. Methods

1. Respondents

A survey was conducted to collect data for this research. The questionnaire was translated to korean for korean respondents and english for Jamaican respondents. From the collected samples, a total of 102 reponses for Jamaica and 98 responses for Korea were used for analysis after excluding those that were incomplete or inappropriate for the purpose of this research. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 24.0.

Table 1. Demographics of Respondents

2. Measurements

The measurement tools used in this study were based on the questionnaire items verified by previous studies. All variables were measured using a 7-point likert scale (1- strongly disagree to 7-strongly agree).

Job crafting was measured with the scale that was developed by Tims, Bakker and Derks[23]. It contains 21 items in four subscales: increasing structural job resources (ISJR) J (α =.834) k(α =.843), increasing challenging job demands (ICJD) J(α=.746) k(α= .785), decreasing hindering job demands(DJD) J(a =.733) k(a =.833) and increasing social job resources (ISOJR) J(a =.736) k(a = .840).

Perceived job insecurity was measured using 4 items by Witte[28]. High scores on this scale indicate high levels of job insecurity. J(a : .894) k(a =.882).

Growth need strength was measured with a modified version of the measure for growth-need strength developed by Hackman and Oldman[29] in the Job Diagnostic Survey. The revised GNS scale contained six items, each describing a characteristic of work. J(a : .856) k(a : .878)

IV. RESULTS

Bivariate Pearson correlation was used to determine the correlation between the main variables in this research. Results are shown in [Table 2]: Jamaican respondents and [Table 3]: South Korean respondents below. For Jamaican respondents perceived job insecurity negatively correlates with increasing social job resources (-.570**) and decreasing hindering job demands (-.324*). Decreasing hindering job demands (.274*) and increasing structural job resources (.438**) positively correlates with growth needs strength.

Table 2. The Result of Means, Standard Deviations, Reliabilities and Intercorrelations (JA)

Note 1: *p < .05, **p < .01.Note 2: (PJIS: perceived job insecurity, ISJR: increasing structural job resources, DHJD: decreasing hindering job demands ISOJR: increasing social iob resources, ICJD: increasing challenging job demands, GNS: growth needs strength).

For South Korean respondents, perceived job insecurity negatively correlates with increasing challenging job demands (-.301*) and positively correlates with increasing social job resources (522**). Growth needs strength positively correlates with increasing structural job resources (.468**), decreasing hindering job demands (.368**), increasing social job resources (.511**) and increasing challenging job demands (.686**).

1. Hypothesis Validation

Regression analysis was conducted to investigate the first hypothesis of how perceived job insecurity relates to the various dimensions of job crafting. For Jamaican respondents [Table 4], perceived job insecurity has a negative but significant relationship with decreasing hindering job demands (β= -.307*) and increasing social job resources (β= -.626*)

For South Korean respondents [Table 5], perceived job insecurity has a positive relationship with increasing social job resources(β=.717**) and increasing structural job resources (β= .385*). Therefore hypothesis 1 was partially supported.

Table 3. The Result of Means, Standard Deviations, Reliabilities and Intercorrelations (SK

Note 1: *p < .05, **p < 01.Note 2: (PJIS: perceived job insecurity, ISJR: increasing structural job resources, DHJD: decreasing hindering job demands ISOJR: increasing social iob resources, ICJD: increasing challenging job demands, GNS: growth needs strength).

Table 4. Regression Analysis: Job Crafting (Jamaica)

Note 1: *p < .05, **p < .01.Note 2: (PJIS: perceived job insecurity, ISJR: increasing structural job resources, DHJD: decreasing hindering lob demands, ISOJR: increasing social job resources, ICJD: increasing challenging job demands, GNS: growth needs strength).

Table 5. Regression Analysis: Job Crafting (South Korea)

In hypothesis 2, employee's growth needs strength was expected to moderate the relationships between perceived job insecurity and job crafting dimensions. [Table 6] shows the results for Jamaican respondents. The results obtained at model 2 of the hierarchical multiple regression indicated that interactions for perceived job insecurity and employee S growth needs strength was significantly related to increasing social job resources (β​​​​​​​=1.440, t=2.079*) but not for the dimension of decreasing hindering job demands (β=-1.440, t=-1.924). Furthermore, [Table 7] shows the

Table 6. Moderating effect of Growth Needs Strength (Jamaica)

Note 1: *p < .05, **p < .01.Note 2: (PJIS: perceived job insecurity, DHJD: decreasing hindering job demands, ISOJR: increasing social job resources, GNS: growth needs strength).

Table 7. Moderating effect of Growth Needs Strength (South Korea)

Note 1: * p < .05, **p < .01. Note 2: (PJIS: perceived job insecurity, ISJR: increasing structural job resources, ISOJR: increasing social job resources, GNS: growth needs strength).

results for Korean respondents. The interaction between perceived job insecurity and employee's growth needs strength was significantly related to both increasing structural job resources (β=2.664, t=2.072*) and increasing social job resources (β=4.317, t=5.286**). These interactions were graphically illustrated in [Figure 2] and [Figure 3] below. [Figure 2] shows that the negative effect of perceived job insecurity on increasing social job resources is weaker in employees with high growth needs strength than those whose growth needs strength is low. In [Figure 3], the simple slope analysis showed a positive relationship between increasing structural job resources and perceived job insecurity as well as increasing social job resources and perceived job insecurity under the condition of employee S high growth needs strength. This research can therefore conclude support for hypothesis 2.

Figure 2. The moderating role of growth needs strength (Jamaica)

Figure 3. The moderating role of growth needs strength (South Korea)

Ⅴ. Discussion

1. Research summary and implications

This research has indicated several points that add to our understanding of employees' coping strategies when they faced with perceived stress. One of the most important findings of this research was thatJamaican and South Korean employees engage in job crafting differently when they perceived job insecurity in the organization. The findings are summarized as follows. For Jamaican respondents, results showed that perceived job insecurity had a negative but significant relationship with decreasing hindering job demands and increasing social job resources. These findings may be in agreement with Astarlioglu, Bayraktar and Varnali[30] who mentioned that job insecurity may motivate employees to work hard because one might believe that good performances decreases the chance of being redundant. As mentioned before Jamaica has both individualistic and collectivist cultural values [16]. Even though Jamaicans values loyalty, friendship, responsibility etc[16], Jamaicans culture is also one that encourages strategies in the corporate environment that enables one to get ahead and secure resources for personal or professional objectivesl31]. This could explain why Jamaicans are more likely to engage in individual behaviors that are perceived to increase or improve performances and would engage less in collective behaviors when they perceived that there is a strong possibility of job loss. On the other hand, based on the results, South Koreans will engage more in increasing structural job resources and increasing social job resources when they perceived job insecurity in the organization. This result can also be explained based on the cultural values of individualism/collectivism. In that study, Korea is considered more collectivist than individualist culture; the interest of the group prevails over the interest of the individual[14]332.. Koreans may avoid behaviors that may seem beneficial to only oneself in order to maintain social harmony in their relationships in an attempt to meet the needs and goals of others. Contrary to previous studies that state that under stressful or uncertain work environments, individuals are more likely to cope by reducing their behaviors that are beneficial for the organization and others[20], when coping with a situation such as perceived job insecurity, Koreans may try to adjust their own behavior to the social context rather than try to change the current problem[33].

In this research employees growth needs strength strengthen the positive relationship and buffers the negative relationship between job crafting behaviors and perceived job insecurity. This is consistent with the research of Elias[26] which states that high growth needs strength provides an internal, sustaining force that drives employees to push themselves and to persevere in the face of challenges, inconsistent findings, and performance pressures.

This research adds to the stress coping and also proactive literature by examining job crafting as a coping strategy for perceived job insecurity. Employees who perceived job insecurity in the organization may cope by engaging in job crafting behaviors. The results of this present study are consistent with previous findings which indicated that experience ofjob uncertainty or stress may lead to increase use of proactive behaviors[19][203[24]. In addition individual differences plays an important role on the stress/coping relationship. This result is also consistent with Bindl and Parker[34] who in their research found that individual differences interacted to influence proactivity at work. Lastly this research also proves that culture affect the choice of coping strategy that an individual utilizes[13].

2. Limitations and suggestions for future studies

There are several limitations to this study. First, the study was based on self-reported measures, which might raise questions of social desirable response bias]. Second, for a cross-cultural research the sample size was too small and only two countries were included in this research.

We hope that the present findings stimulate further research in this field. Future study need to adopt an experimental or a longitudinal research design to avoid social desirable response bias. In addition, future research is needed that extends the present findings, by investigating similar relationships using data from various countries around the world. Finally, job crafting was reported only at the individual level and since employees are mostly apart of a team, future research is also recommended on a team level.