Different responses to job insecurity of Chinese workers in joint ventures and state-owned enterprises

Yui Tim, Edward WONG, Chi Sum WONG, Hang Yue NGO, Hon Kwong LUI

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

94 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Job insecurity has become an important issue for western organizations in the last decade due to uncertain economic conditions, global competition, and the advancement of information technology In this study, we integrate social exchange theory and rational choice theory to explain employees' responses to job insecurity in the Chinese context. We distinguish short-term transactional exchange from long-term relational exchange, and argue that joint ventures (JVs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are characterized by different kinds of employee-organization exchange. An integrated theoretical framework is developed to explain why workers in these organizations respond differently to job insecurity A total of 548 supervisor-subordinate dyads in a JV and a SOE in China are used to test the hypotheses derived from our framework. The results of hierarchical regression analysis indicate that the effects of job insecurity on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and job performance depend on both organizational types and employees' trust in their organization.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1391-1418
Number of pages28
JournalHuman Relations
Volume58
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2005

Keywords

  • Job insecurity
  • Organizational citizenship behavior
  • Rational choice theory
  • Social exchange theory
  • Trust in organization

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