Abstract
Uncertainty in the employment environment has led to concerns about the growing job insecurity of employees. Although much of the literature alleges negative effects of job insecurity, the possibly that insecurity may also have positive utility is not negligible. Based on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress and the conservation of resources theory, we investigated the relationship of job insecurity with job engagement and turnover intention, and examined the role of internal and external career self-management (CSM) and career resilience in this relationship. Using a two-wave time-lagged design with two sourced data (employees and their supervisors), we found that (a) job insecurity was positively related with job engagement; (b) internal CSM mediated the relationship between job insecurity and job engagement, and external CSM mediates the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intention; (c) Career resilience negatively and positively, respectively, moderated the relationship between job insecurity and internal and external CSM, and (d), career resilience moderated these mediating effects. The findings make substantial theoretical implications that enable a more thorough understanding of the impact of job insecurity.