Mediating Role of Perception of Job Insecurity on the Relationship between Psychological Contract Breach and Work Engagement

Abstract

This paper attempts to examine the effects of psychological contract breach (PCB) on work engagement (WE) of employees. Unfortunately, Pakistan has the lowest work engagement rate (WE) i.e. 5 percent as compared to South East Asian countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippine, Singapore and Malaysia); Oceania countries (Austria and Newzeland) and South Asian countries (Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) (Gallup, 2017). It is one of the few studies that has taken job insecurity as a mediator in the given relationship. Specifically, we perceive that job insecurity reveals through an interactive process in which negative perceptions, such as PCB make employees feel less valued in their workplace. The mediation model explained that exposure to breach lowers the work engagement of employees because of their high level of perceived job insecurity in the perspective of conservation of resource theory (COR). Breach and engagement relationship would not be recognized without variable, job insecurity, by this means proposing its indirect effect. Though work engagement is a widely researched topic but it is somehow ignored in the perspective of conservation of resource theory. By introducing the proposed model, the study attempts to address the research gap.