Job insecurity and daily emotional exhaustion: An experience sampling method approach

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the mechanisms through which job insecurity influenced daily emotional exhaustion, as well as the moderating role of daily learning on this relationship. We adopted an experience sampling method to collect data on job insecurity, daily psychological availability, daily emotional exhaustion and daily learning among 74 full-time employees in mainland China. Multilevel analysis was performed over five consecutive days (N = 370) to test the moderated mediation model. Multilevel analyses showed that job insecurity indirectly increased daily emotional exhaustion by inhibiting daily psychological availability. Daily learning moderated the mediation model: the indirect influence of job insecurity on daily emotional exhaustion was only apparent when daily learning was low. When daily learning increased, the indirect influence disappeared. The results revealed the process through which job insecurity, a hindrance demand, depleted daily psychological availability, leading to daily emotional exhaustion. Further, we found that this process of depletion was buffered by daily learning, a beneficial job resource, indicating that the depletion resulting from job insecurity was not significant when learning was high.