Explaining the relationship between job insecurity and creativity: A test of cognitive and affective mediators

Abstract

Purpose

Despite a large body of literature on the negative consequences of job insecurity, one outcome – job creativity – has received relatively scant attention. While initial studies established a relationship between job insecurity and creativity, the explanatory mechanisms for this relationship have yet to be fully explored. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

Using threat-rigidity theory and broaden-and-build theory as a conceptual foundation, the authors implemented a two-country temporally lagged research design (the USA (n = 390); China (n = 346)) to test two potential mediating mechanisms – cognitive failures and positive job-related affect – as explanatory variables between quantitative and qualitative forms of job insecurity and self- and other-rated measures of creative performance.

Findings

Results from both countries suggest that job-related affective well-being and employee cognitive failures both explained the relationship between job insecurity and creative performance. However, affective well-being was a better explanatory variable for the relation between job insecurity and self-rated creative performance, whereas cognitive failures better accounted for the relationship between job insecurity and performance on an idea generation task.

Research limitations/implications

The authors discuss the implications of these findings from measurement, theoretical and practical perspectives.

Originality/value

The authors extend prior research on the relationship between job insecurity and creativity by: considering both quantitative and qualitative job insecurity, examining their relationships with both self- and other-rated assessments of creative job performance, and testing cognitive and affective mediating mechanisms explaining these relationships.

Citation

Probst, T., Chizh, A., Hu, S., Jiang, L. and Austin, C. (2020), "Explaining the relationship between job insecurity and creativity: A test of cognitive and affective mediators", Career Development International, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 247-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-04-2018-0118