Learning from the bad things: a learning organization perspective of job insecurity, distrust, interpersonal conflicts and somatic symptoms

Purpose Learning organizations learn with every passing moment and value of well-being has been an important lesson learnt by the organizations. But the uncertainties like job insecurity have detrimental effects on it. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of job insecurity on somatic symptoms (a negative proxy of well-being) through the serial mediation of distrust in organization and interpersonal conflicts. Design/methodology/approach To analyze this relationship, the authors conducted a time-lagged study and data were collected from 312 employees working in service industry, i.e. banking, insurance and information technology firms of Pakistan. Findings Results show that job insecurity is positively associated with somatic symptoms. In addition, distrust in the organization and interpersonal conflicts serially mediate the relationship. Originality/value There is dearth of literature that focuses on job insecurity and somatic symptoms (well-being) relationship through serial mediation mechanism of distrust and interpersonal conflicts. The results highlight some useful findings for theory and practice purposes,while the same has been discussed in the respective sections.