Job Insecurity and Work-Family Conflict: Mediating Roles of Work Withdrawal and Emotional Exhaustion

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this research investigates the processes underlying the linkages between job insecurity and work family conflict from a stress perspective, focusing on the mediating role of subordinates' work withdrawal and emotional exhaustion. Specifically, we tested two distinct mediating mechanisms: work withdrawal and emotional exhaustion that have received less attention in testing the job insecurity- work family conflict linkage. Survey data included 206 professionals from different occupational sectors. The findings suggest that subordinates' emotional exhaustion and work withdrawal mediated the relationship between job insecurity and work family conflict. Further, we found that emotional exhaustion as a mechanism contributed more in comparison to work withdrawal in explaining how and why job insecurity translates into work family conflict. The results illustrate the theoretical explanations and practical implications of the adverse consequences of job insecurity to the employees’ well being and a cost to the organization in terms of work withdrawal.