Job Insecurity Can Lead to Sabotage, New ASU Research Finds

(Featured Image Provided)

Ever feel checked out at a job? Fear over job security can turn good employees bad.

Instead of just slacking off, some employees can do actual harm to a company, stealing supplies, fudging expense reports, bad-mouthing people, and other costly behaviors.

New research by Professor Ned Wellman at ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business highlights the rationalizations workers facing job loss can use, to justify bad behavior, and how company management can prevent it. His paper was recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Researchers found that job insecurity coupled with having a bad relationship with a supervisor, and having other job prospects can make an employee feel undervalued. When people feel mistreated they can do more than disengage, they can act out.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. The research shows there are ways for employers to intervene. Click here to read more.