The relationship between job insecurity and employee performance: a systematic literature review and research agenda

• Published in: Career development international 2023-12, Vol.28 (6/7), p.589-632
• Main Authors: Muñoz Medina, Felipe, López Bohle, Sergio Andrés, Beurden, Jeske Van, Chambel, Maria José, Ugarte, Sebastian M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior; Boundary conditions; Business metrics; Creativity; Employees; Job performance; Job Security; Job Skills; Literature reviews; Occupational accidents; Systematic review
• ISSN: 1362-0436; 1758-6003
• DOI: 10.1108/CDI-06-2022-0164

PurposeAlthough research on job insecurity (JI) and its relationship with employee performance has increased in recent years, results are mixed and inconclusive. The objectives of this paper are to explore 1) the conceptualizations of JI, 2) the relationship between JI and different performance dimensions, 3) the theoretical perspectives used to explain the JI–performance relationship and 4) the mechanisms and contextual boundaries that affect the JI–performance relationship.Design/methodology/approachFollowing the PRISMA guidelines, the authors systematically searched for peer-reviewed empirical studies published before July 2021 in Web of Science and Scopus. The authors analyzed 81 empirical studies published on the conceptualization of job insecurity, its relationship with employee performance, and what mechanisms and contingency factors are studied. The authors used thematic analysis to analyze the articles.FindingsResults of this review show that the quantitative cognitive dimension is dominant in extant JI literature. Furthermore, in-role performance and OCB were most often investigated in relation to the four dimensions of job insecurity, drawing from a range of theoretical perspectives to explain this relationship. Moreover, a variety of mechanisms and contextual factors on individual, individual work-related, individual-level attitudes and job-level characteristics have found to play a role in this relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has a number of limitations. The first pertains to the exclusion of articles in languages other than English and non-peer reviewed papers. It is possible that the search strategy used may not have identified other studies that may have met the established criteria in order to be included in our research. However, this method was chosen to guarantee the quality of the included articles in this study and in line with previous meta-analyses and literature reviews (De Witte et al., 2016; Sverke et al., 2019). Second, one selection criteria focused on how performance was assessed in the studies incorporated in this literature review. The authors excluded studies that addressed performance from the perspective of the organization (i.e. studies that measured performance at the organizational level). The authors herewith might have excluded studies that focused on one or multiple job insecurity constructs, but the authors herewith included studies that were comparable in terms of performance indicator out