Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, Unethical Behavior in the Name of the Company: The Role of Job Insecurity, Job Embeddedness, and Turnover Intention

Abstract

The worldwide economic crisis initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic certainly altered the perception of regular job insecurity dimensions and brought these to the ultimate level. When employees feel insecure, they may decide to participate in unethical behavior in the name of the company to avoid layoff and become retained employees. This study investigated the relationship between job insecurity and unethical organizational behavior through the mediating role of job embeddedness and turnover intention. A total of 685 employees working in five- and four-star hotels and category A travel agents participated in this study. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Job embeddedness and turnover intention were found to be partially mediated by the impact of job insecurity on unethical organizational behavior. Theoretical and practical implications were identified and discussed.

The Impact of Job Insecurity and Distributive Injustice Post COVID-19 on Social Loafing Behavior among Hotel Workers: Mediating Role of Turnover Intention

“…As discussed earlier the SET explains workers’ behavior during social interaction, which takes a form of reciprocity [ 9 ]. This indicates that when a worker perceives positive practice or behavior from his colleague, supervisor, or organization, s/he returns by exhibiting positive behavior.…”

“…This research draws on Social Exchange Theory (SET) and examines the direct impact of job insecurity and distributive injustice post COVID-19 on social loafing behaviors among hotel workers and the indirect influence through turnover intention. The SET asserts that worker perceptions that s/he is supported or unsupported by his/her colleagues, supervisors, and organization result in reciprocal behavior towards his/her colleagues, supervisors, and organization [ 9 ]. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe psychological impact on workers [ 2 ], including hotel workers, this is worth investigation as well being undertaken by this research study.…”

Perceived Risk of Job Instability and Unethical Organizational Behaviour Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Family Financial Pressure and Distributive Injustice in the Tourism Industry

“…Since the world’s COVID-19 outbreak, the hospitality and tourism industries have suffered a serious downturn [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. Organizational dynamics have changed as a result and organizations faced with the need to drastically reduce activities [ 5 , 7 ], jobs and working hours, or lay off employees [ 8 ].…”

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, the fear of employment instability produced substantial physical and mental health problems. Researchers [ 3 ] found that job instability had a negative impact on employees’ organizational behaviour, such as increased unethical organization activity in the name of the company [ 3 ]. Employees were found to engage in unethical organizational behaviour (UOB) to benefit their organizations [ 18 ].…”

“…Job instability, on the other hand, is portrayed as a psychological contract breach for permanent workers [ 23 ] or as an imbalance in effort and reward in social-exchange-related theories (feeling job unstable lessens rewards that employees obtain from their loyalty and investments) [ 24 ]. As a result, feeling job instability lowers justice perceptions, which might drive people to act unethically to save their jobs [ 3 ]. This study aims to explore the relationship between the perceived risk of job instability and employees’ UOB.…”