Challenge-Hindrance Stressors and Employability: The Combined Role of the Energy-Motivation Process and Organizational Investment

Purpose: This study investigates how challenge-hindrance stressors influence employability through the energy-motivation mechanism and explores the moderating role of pay satisfaction and perceived career opportunity based on the JD-R model. Methods: Three-wave time-lagged longitudinal data of 206 employees are analyzed using latent structural equation modelling. Results: First, challenge stressors have an indirect positive effect on employability, mainly through intrinsic motivation, while hindrance stressors have an indirect negative effect on employability, mainly through emotional exhaustion. Second, perceived career opportunity strengthens the positive effect of challenge stressors on intrinsic motivation, which further promotes employability. Third, pay satisfaction alleviates the negative effect of hindrance stressors on emotional exhaustion, which, in turn, inhibits the decline in employability. Conclusion: The paper clarifies the specific mediating effects of the energy and motivation mechanisms in the association between challenge-hindrance stressors and employability and the moderating effects of pay satisfaction and perceived career opportunity, thus extending studies on the challenge-hindrance stressors to career field and filling the gap in the knowledge of the boundary conditions of the energy-motivation mechanism.

Automated summary

This study examines the impact of challenge-hindrance stressors on employability through the energy-motivation mechanism. It also investigates the moderating role of pay satisfaction and perceived career opportunity based on the JD-R model. The findings reveal that challenge stressors positively influence employability through intrinsic motivation, while hindrance stressors negatively affect employability through emotional exhaustion. Perceived career opportunity strengthens the positive effect of challenge stressors on intrinsic motivation, and pay satisfaction alleviates the negative effect of hindrance stressors on emotional exhaustion, thereby promoting employability.