Job insecurity and employee motivation

This project investigates why employees who feel their jobs are insecure often lose intrinsic motivation and how leadership practices can counteract this effect. Unlike prior research that emphasizes stress and anxiety on the worker side, we propose a manager-driven mechanism: managers’ beliefs about job-insecure employees’ motivational potential (especially their potential to be intrinsically motivated) influence their leadership behaviors. Specifically, managers may assume these employees lack both current and future intrinsic motivation, leading them to withhold autonomy-supportive leadership (ASL)—a style that fosters autonomy, competence, relatedness, and supports intrinsic motivation. This lack of ASL perpetuates low intrinsic motivation among job-insecure workers.​

​To test this, we will conduct three studies using experimental, survey, and field-based methods. Study 1 examines whether managers’ perceptions of job insecurity reduce ASL through diminished beliefs in workers’ motivational potential. Study 2 explores whether ASL mediates the link between job insecurity and intrinsic motivation and whether ASL remains effective for insecure workers. Study 3 implements a managerial intervention to correct misconceptions about job-insecure employees, aiming to increase ASL and intrinsic motivation. This research advances theory by highlighting a manager-centric dynamic and offers practical, low-cost interventions to improve leadership effectiveness and employee well-being in an era of widespread job insecurity.​

Research Impact: This project highlights how managers’ beliefs and leadership behaviours can either undermine or sustain the intrinsic motivation of job-insecure workers, pointing to a low-cost, belief-based lever for resilience.