The “double-edged sword” impact of job insecurity climate on team innovative behaviours

Purpose The purpose of this study is to construct a double-edged sword model of job insecurity climate on team innovation, providing a theoretical basis and decision-making guidance for organizational managers to address job insecurity climate issues and enhance team innovative behaviours from the perspective of power change. Design/methodology/approach Empirical data were gathered from 528 questionnaires through a two-stage survey conducted across time points of 528 leaders and employees in 73 teams within 23 high-tech enterprises located in Shenzhen, Jinan and Suzhou, China. Findings The job insecurity climate has a “double-edged sword” effect on team innovative behaviours; different teams with promotion focus and prevention focus display different information processing styles in the face of the job insecurity climate, which in turn generates different team innovative behaviours. Originality/value Numerous scholars have substantiated research concerning the effects of job insecurity at the individual level. However, there is a scarcity of studies that explore the concept of job insecurity climate at the team level, and the specific impact it exerts on team innovative behaviours remains poorly understood. In the present study, the transactional theory of stress and regulatory focus theory were introduced. A regulated mediation model was constructed with group challenge stressors and group hindrance stress as the mediating variables and collective regulatory focus as the moderating variable.