Why do temporary workers sharing the same working conditions as permanent employees still frequently engage in deviant behaviors that negatively affect the organization’s interests? Drawing on the theory of social identity, this articlr discusses the relationships among employment status, organizational identification, and counterproductive work behavior. Time-lagged data were collected from sample of 210 dyads of employees and corresponding supervisors from a large Chinese state-owned service company, to test hypothesis. Results showed that temporary workers engage in counterproductive work behaviors more frequently than permanent employees, and organizational identification plays a mediating role in this process. Turnover intention moderated the relationship between employment status and counterproductive work behavior (organizational identification). In terms of turnover intention, organizational identification and counterproductive work behavior, two types of employees did not exhibit a significant difference. However, when turnover intention increase, there was a sharper decline in organizational identification and a greater increase in counterproductive work behaviors among temporary employees than among permanent employees. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.

PurposeHow to manage outsourced employees in interorganizational teams with triangular relationships has not yet attracted enough attention. Based on relative deprivation theory, this study explores how relative deprivation affects outsourced employees’ innovative behavior and investigates the complex moderating effects of dual organizational support.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested their hypothesis by conducting a two-wave survey; responses to a questionnaire were collected from 283 outsourced employees and their managers among 52 client organizations.FindingsResults found that relative deprivation negatively influences the outsourced employees’ innovative behavior by eliciting their perceptions of status conflict. Support from client (supplier) organization attenuates (aggravates) the positive impact of relative deprivation on innovative behavior throughout status conflict. The moderating effect of client organizational support was moderated by support from supplier organization.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors selected the outsourced employees in a Chinese context to conduct this study, and the results need to be generalized in future research.Practical implicationsClient organizational support can alleviate the negative effect of relative deprivation on outsourced employees, whereas supplier organization support aggravates the negative effect; managers should pay attention to the different effects of the two organizations’ support and provide reasonable support for outsourced employees.Originality/valueThis study identified the mechanism of relative deprivation’s effect on outsourced employees’ innovative behavior from the perspective of interpersonal interaction and compared the effect of support from dual organizations. This study expands the research on triangular relationships, relative deprivation, status conflict and other field.

The current significant change from traditional to hybrid employment arrangements may contribute to counterproductive work behaviour by workers of differing employment status. However, limited efforts have been made to solve the problem. In this study, we utilise a psychological contract lens to develop a counterproductive work behaviour model in hybrid employment that includes pay satisfaction and job security. We use 215 dyads of workers and supervisors from a Chinese state-owned airline company. Our findings show that employment status can elicit workers' counterproductive work behaviour, and pay satisfaction and job security serve as chain mediators that link differential human resource management behind employment status to counterproductive work behaviour. We contribute to the knowledge of employee behaviour under hybrid employment by exploring the differences through a psychological mechanism. This work provides practical implications for organisations to develop appropriate motivating practices.

Organizational scholars concur that job security can attach employees to a workplace and improve their job quality. The relationship between job security and employees’ deviant behaviors in the workplace, such as counterproductive work behavior (CWB), lacks insights into how or why this occurs, especially in a diversified employment context. To address these limitations, we developed a theoretical model of job security impact on employees’ CWB from the perspective of social identity. Analysis of employees (N = 208) and their supervisors in a China state-owned company were used to test the hypothesis. Results confirmed the negative relationship between job security and CWB; organizational identification partly mediates the relationship between job security and CWB. Moderated mediation analyses further indicate that the indirect effect of job security on CWB via organizational identification are stronger for temporary employees than for permanent employees. This article contributes to the understanding of job security’s impact on employees’ deviant behavior, practical implications and research aspects are discussed.