Purpose While job insecurity generally impedes performance, there may be circumstances under which it can prompt performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine a specific situation (reorganization) in which job insecurity may prompt task and contextual performance. The authors propose that performance can represent a job preservation strategy, to which employees may only resort when supervisor-issued ratings of performance are instrumental toward securing one’s job. The authors hypothesize that because of this instrumentality, job insecurity will motivate employees’ performance only when they have low intrinsic motivation, and only when they perceive high distributive justice. Design/methodology/approach In a survey study among 103 permanent employees of a company in reorganization, the authors assessed perceived job insecurity, intrinsic motivation and perceived distributive justice. Supervisors rated employees’ overall performance (task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors). Findings Multilevel analyses showed that job insecurity was only positively related to supervisor-rated overall performance among employees with low intrinsic motivation and, unexpectedly, among employees who experienced low distributive justice. Results were cross-validated using employees’ self-rated performance, replicating the findings on distributive justice but not the findings on intrinsic motivation. Research limitations/implications The results can inform future research on the specific situations in which job insecurity may prompt job preservation efforts, and call for research to uncover the mechanisms underlying employees’ negative and positive responses to job insecurity. The results and associated implications of this study are largely based on conceptual evidence. In addition, the cross-sectional design warrants precaution about drawing causal inferences from the data. Originality/value By combining insights from coping responses and threat foci, this study advances the understanding of when and why job insecurity may prompt performance.

中文翻译：

---

保持工作的努力：工作不安全感何时会促进绩效？

目的虽然工作不安全感通常会妨碍绩效，但在某些情况下它可能会促使绩效。本文的目的是研究一种特定的情况（重组），在这种情况下工作的不安全感可能会促使任务和情境表现。作者提出，绩效可以代表一种工作保存策略，只有在主管发布的绩效评估有助于确保工作时，员工才可以诉诸于此。作者假设，由于这种工具，工作不安全感只有在员工的内在动力较低时，并且只有在他们意识到分配正义时才能够激励员工的绩效。设计/方法/方法在一项对公司进行重组的103名长期员工进行的调查研究中，作者评估了认为的工作不安全感，内在动机和感知分配正义。主管对员工的整体绩效（任务绩效和组织公民行为）进行评估。研究结果多层次分析显示，内在动力低的员工，以及分配正义度低的员工，工作不安全感仅与主管定级的整体绩效呈正相关。使用员工的自我评价绩效对结果进行交叉验证，复制关于分配正义的发现，而不复制关于内在动机的发现。研究的局限性/意义这些结果可以为将来有关特定情况的研究提供参考，在这些情况下，工作不安全可能会促使工作保全工作，并呼吁进行研究，以揭示员工对工作不安全感做出消极和积极反应的机制。这项研究的结果和相关含义主要基于概念证据。另外，横截面设计保证了从数据中得出因果推断的预防措施。独创性/价值通过结合应对应对措施和威胁焦点的见解，本研究提高了对何时以及为什么工作不安全感可能会促进绩效的理解。