The Ripple Effects of Leader Job Insecurity: How and When Job Insecure Leaders are Detrimental to the Team

ABSTRACT The existing job insecurity research predominantly focuses on general employees, viewing job insecurity as an intrapersonal phenomenon that primarily affects the person experiencing it. Shifting this focus to leaders, this research aims to examine how and when leader job insecurity may have interpersonal implications on team outcomes. Integrating the job insecurity literature and the emotion as social information (EASI) model, we theorize that job insecurity experienced by team leaders renders their frequent display of anxiety, which in turn induces two parallel emotion‐based mechanisms—higher team anxiety and lower team perception of leader effectiveness—that subsequently influence team outcomes (i.e., team task performance and team citizenship behavior). Further, we examine emotional stability of the leader and emotional stability of team members as two important contingencies for such ripple effects. Findings from a field survey study and four vignette‐based experiments in different cultural contexts largely support our hypotheses. Our research offers novel insights into the complex ripple effects of leader job insecurity in teams.