Insecure people can eclipse your sun; so identify before it is too late: revisit to the nexus between job insecurity, organizational identification and employee performance behaviour

Purpose - With the enhancing notions of job insecurity in employees, the objective of this study is to revisit the association between job insecurity and employee performance behaviour (task performance and contextual performance) with the mediating role of organizational identification. Specifically, the study examines how and why there is a negative link between job insecurity and performance and whether organizational identification may serve as a mediating mechanism. Design/methodology/approach - A time-lagged survey of 192 employees having heterogeneous working background was analysed using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. Findings - The findings highlight that the nexus between job insecurity and organizational citizenship behaviour is fully mediated by organizational identification. However, the organizational identification partially mediated the association between job insecurity and task performance. Originality/value - The tendency of job insecurity in India is on the rise. This investigation gives a more profound comprehension of behavioural responses of job insecurity on employee performance behaviour with the social identity theoretical perspective. The study contributes to the extant literature by revisiting the model proposed by Piccoliet al.(2017) and includes organizational identification as a mediating mechanism, which has remained unexplored till now in the context of Indian manufacturing industry.