Coping with Job Insecurity: The Role of Procedural Justice, Ethical Leadership and Power Distance Orientation

This study examines the relationship between procedural justice and employee job insecurity, and the boundary conditions of this relationship. Drawing upon uncertainty management theory and ethical leadership research, we hypothesized that procedural justice is negatively related to job insecurity, and that this relationship is moderated by ethical leadership. We further predicted that the moderating relationship would be more pronounced among employees with a low power distance orientation. We tested our hypotheses using a sample of 381 workers in Macau and Southern China. The results support all of our hypotheses. The implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.