The moderating effect of cultural orientations on the curvilinear relationship between job insecurity and employee voice

Abstract

Job insecurity and a culturally diverse workforce have become important topics within organisations. Although there has been an extensive body of research on the effects of job insecurity, the influences of job insecurity on employee behaviour have received significantly less scholarly attention. Moreover, the impacts of cultural values are often neglected within the job insecurity literature. To fill these research gaps, this study explored a potential curvilinear relationship between job insecurity and employee (promotive and prohibitive) voice, and whether employees’ cultural orientation (i.e., power distance orientation, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation) moderated this relationship. Based on social exchange theories, this study examined the moderating effect of power distance orientation, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation on the U-shaped relationships of job insecurity with promotive voice and prohibitive voice. Using the data from 139 employees from a two-wave online questionnaire, this study found no support for the curvilinear relationship between job insecurity and promotive voice or prohibitive voice. However, this study suggested a significant moderating effect of masculinity on the curvilinear relationship between job insecurity and promotive voice, and the moderating effect of individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity on the curvilinear relationship between job insecurity and prohibitive voice. Specifically, the curvilinear relationship between job insecurity and promotive voice was attenuated among employees with more masculine beliefs, and the curvilinear relationship between job insecurity and prohibitive voice was more pronounced among employees with more collectivistic, high uncertainty avoidance, and masculine beliefs.