助推力还是绊脚石？工作不安全感对个体创新行为的“双刃剑”影响

根据压力交互理论和调节焦点理论，构建工作不安全感对个体创新行为的“双刃剑”影响理论模型，探讨挑战性压力和阻碍性压力的中介作用、促进型焦点和防御型焦点的调节作用。选取12家高新技术企业60个团队414份领导和员工的两时间点配对调查问卷进行实证检验。研究发现：一方面，工作不安全感会通过挑战性压力认知和促进型焦点的调节导向对个体创新行为产生积极影响，成为个体创新行为的“动力”和“助推力”；另一方面，工作不安全感会通过阻碍性压力认知和防御型焦点的调节导向对个体创新行为产生消极影响，成为个体创新行为的“负担”和“绊脚石”。

Impetus or Stumbling Block? Research on the "Double Edged Sword" Mechanism of Job Insecurity on Innovation Behavior

Facing the complex international situation and the arduous tasks of reform and development at home, China comes into the critical stage of strategic opportunities for innovation and development. The innovation behavior of employees is crucial to the survival and development of enterprises. It is generally believed that some supportive and stable factors such as effective interaction, positive atmosphere and positive leadership are important aspects to stimulate innovative behavior. However, with the rapid change of the external economic environment, the phenomenon of organizational merger and reorganization, layoffs, temporary or short-term employment contracts appear more frequently. The stability and predictability of employment have been increasingly replaced by job insecurity, which has become a common psychological problem in the workplace. Job insecurity refers to individuals' fear that the job itself or important job characteristics (e.g., position, salary, etc.) may be lost in the future. Therefore, in the era when job insecurity is becoming increasingly common, how to manage and stimulate organizational innovation behavior has become a common concern of academic and practical circles. #br#Due to the difference in research perspectives,there is no consensus on the relationship between job insecurity and innovation behavior. From the perspective of pressure or social exchange, some scholars interpret job insecurity as a hindrance stressor or an imbalance in the exchange relationship between employees and employers. They believe that job insecurity is a "resistance" and "stumbling block" that will negatively affect innovation behavior. From the perspective of job retention motivation or active coping, some scholars believe that job insecurity is a positive stimulus, namely "motivation" and "thrust", which would motivate employees to work harder to achieve the purpose of job retention. A certain degree of insecurity is beneficial to the promotion of creativity. Different research perspectives have caused a dilemma in organizational management practice. Then, is it better to stimulate employees' innovative behavior by completely avoiding job insecurity, or by introducing competitive mechanisms such as competition for positions, elimination system, and merger and reorganization (i.e., job insecurity exists in workplace to a certain extent)? Previous theories have some limitations in revealing the effects of job insecurity. #br#Based on the pressure interaction theory and the regulatory focus theory, this study affirmed that an individual would have different cognitive and behavioral patterns of job insecurity due to different cognitive assessment processes and self-regulation systems. This study constructed a theoretical model of the impact of job insecurity on individual innovation behavior with challenging stressors and hindrance stressors as mediating variables and promoting focus and preventing focus as moderating variables. Furthermore, the empirical test was conducted by selecting 414 paired questionnaires of leaders and employees from 60 teams of 12 high-tech enterprises in Henan Province. The results show that job insecurity has a positive impact on individual innovation behavior through the cognition of challenge stressors and the moderating orientation of promoting focus; while job insecurity has a negative impact on individual innovation behavior through the cognition of hindrance stressors and the moderating orientation of preventing focus. #br#The theoretical contributions of this study are as follows. (1) Based on the pressure interaction theory, this study constructed a "double-edged sword" model of the impact of job insecurity on innovation behavior, which enriches relevant researches on the mechanism of job insecurity. (2) Based on the regulatory focus theory, this paper proposed the moderating mechanism of promoting focus and preventing focus on job insecurity and innovation behavior, which expands the research on the functional boundary of job insecurity. Accordingly enterprises can introduce job insecurity and set up a power-oriented incentive mechanism for job insecurity. #br#For example, by transforming short-term employment into the employment relationship of mutual investment, adjusting salary structure, adopting diversified performance reward methods, and opening up the career development channel to realize the flexible adjustment of positions,they can enhance individuals' ability and belief of coping with challenging pressure by promoting active individual learning and lifelong learning, as well as improving their ability to deal with task requirements. Enterprises should also relieve preventing stressors promptly, such as creating a harmonious working atmosphere that is tolerant of trial and error and accepts failure. Lastly enterprises should adopt different management methods for employees with different regulatory focus. For example in daily management, enterprises should pay attention to stimulate employees' situational focus and promoting focus; in performance appraisal, they should adopt different assessment and evaluation methods for employees and teams with different regulatory focus. This paper provides guidance and reference for contingency management of organizational job insecurity and enterprise innovation and development.#br#