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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to extend knowledge about theoretical explanations of the job insecurity-performance relationship. Specifically, the authors examine how and why job insecurity is negatively associated with task and contextual performance (i.e. organizational citizenship behavior) and whether organizational identification may account for these relationships. Design/methodology/approach The mediational hypotheses were examined using structural equation modeling in a heterogeneous sample of Italian employees. Findings Consistent with social identity theory, results show that job insecurity is related to reduced levels of identification with the organization and, consequently, to low task and contextual performance. These findings suggest that employees’ behaviors in job insecure contexts are also driven by evaluations about the perceived belongingness to the organization. Practical implications The research supports initial evidence that it is possible to prevent low performance resulting from job insecurity by designing interventions to boost organizational identification. By ensuring a sense of belonging and providing a positive basis for employees’ social identity, managers may increase involvement and attachment to the organization. Originality/value This study provides a deeper understanding of behavioral reactions to job insecurity and adds a path unexplored so far, by introducing a theoretical perspective from social psychology. Job insecurity may represent a specific condition that leads organizational identification to be a key mechanism for employees and their behaviors.

This study aims to propose a theoretical model that explains the psychological processes underlying the job insecurity-performance relationship. To accomplish this goal, we draw on a twodimensional stressor framework. Job insecurity may undermine performance through a hindrance effect, because it causes strain reactions and withdrawal behaviours. In contrast, it can trigger productive behaviours as a form of job preservation strategy, when reacting actively. These competing predictions are integrated in the same structural equation modeling by testing the negative indirect effect of job insecurity on task and contextual performance, mediated by job satisfaction and affective commitment. The positive challenge effect is examined by testing the remaining direct path to performance. To provide convergence of evidence, two studies were conducted with the purpose to replicate patters and findings across different measures and samples.The results provide support only for negative and passive reactions to job insecurity, leading to lower performance.

Earlier studies established that perceived job insecurity is more strongly related to the experiences of permanent employees, and conversely that perceived employability is more strongly related to the experiences of temporary employees. We challenge these results against the background of the 2008/2009 crisis using samples from the 2010 European Social Survey with employees from Continental and Mediterranean Europe. First, we argue that job insecurity has become a structural phenomenon that associates with temporary and permanent employees' satisfaction in the same fashion, which found overall support. Second, we argue that employability may have become important for all employees, regardless of contract type, which was largely supported. A cause for concern is that the relationship between perceived job insecurity and satisfaction was comparatively stronger than the relationship between perceived employability and satisfaction. This may suggest that employees have not yet fully embraced ideas about employability as the new form of security.

This study examines the relationship between job insecurity and discretionary behaviors, that is, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB), with the purpose to extend knowledge on the theoretical explanations for these outcomes. Considering the employment relationship with the organization, two different perspectives are suggested and compared in a multiple mediator model, in order to understand the reasons for discretionary behaviors. We draw upon social exchange theory as the basis of psychological contract perceptions and we rely on the group value model to explain organizational justice evaluations. A total of 570 blue-collar workers in Italy participated in our survey. The results show that job insecurity is indirectly related to OCB and CWB through psychological contract breach and organizational injustice. Both mediational mechanisms have equivalent strength in explaining the relationships, namely, they are complementary processes in accounting for both behaviors. These findings suggest that employees' behaviors in job insecure contexts are driven not only by concerns related to the exchange of resources with the organization, but also by evaluations about their value as important members of the group.

Leading change is an enduring managerial challenge that encompasses individual and collective efforts within an organization. Among the levers that managers can use to foster change, mobilizing activities are considered particularly relevant since they enable leaders to activate the resources and processes necessary for change to actually occur. This study investigates whether individual person-and task-centred orientations to leadership relate to an emphasis on mobilizing change through their effect on distributed leadership. These hypotheses are tested using an international survey involving 459 middle managers from different firms, countries and industries who had implemented a planned organizational change project. The findings reveal that both person-centred and task-centred orientations to leadership relate positively to mobilizing change, and that distributed leadership may explain the relationship between orientations to leadership and mobilizing activities.

Purpose. In a context characterized by growing ageing of the global population, this paper aims to examine the relationship between proactive personality and training motivation among older workers (aged over 55). We have hypothesized that proactive personality predicts the motivation to learn of older workers, and furthermore that this relationship is mediated by goal orientation. In particular, the proposal is that learning goal orientation mediates the relationship between proactive personality and learning motivation. Methodology. Employees of an Italian bank completed an on-line questionnaire. AMOS 17 was used in order to carry out Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and SPSS-macro to test the meditational model. Findings. Our results confirm both the hypotheses, demonstrating the influence of proactive personality on training motivation of older workers, as mediated by goal orientation and, in particular, by learning goal orientation. Practical implications. From a practical point of view, this study may have implications for organizations which aim to increase the employability of older people by encouraging them to undertake more training. In particular, interventions aimed at increasing learning goal orientation could contribute to strengthen proactive personality that, in turn, may affect levels of training motivation. Originality. Even if proactive personality has been already found as a predictor of learning motivation, to the best of our knowledge this is the first study demonstrating the mediating role of goal orientation in the relationship between proactive personality and training motivation.

Empirical evidence considers job insecurity as a stressor that leads to poor job-related well-being. With the present study we intend to increase this knowledge by testing how and through what mechanisms job insecurity may give rise to such consequences. In particular, we examined the mediating processes underlying the relationship between job insecurity and emotional exhaustion, as an indicator of psychological well-being and core element of burnout. A total of 322 blue collar workers in Italy are used to test the hypotheses derived from our framework. The results found support for a model in which the effect of job insecurity on exhaustion was mediated by two variables, i.e. breached psychological contract and perceived distributive injustice (three-path mediational model). Employees who were insecure perceived a breach of their psychological contract, which led to distributive injustice perceptions, which in turn increased emotional exhaustion. The tested model provides a theoretical framework that may lead to new insights on the job insecurity-burnout relationship.Index Terms-Job insecurity, psychological contract breach, distributive justice, emotional exhaustion.