Exploring the Nexus Among Job Insecurity, Emotional Exhaustion and Job Embeddedness During COVID-19: Empirical Evidence from Structural Equation Modelling

The COVID-19 outbreak has drastically affected educational institutes. The current study, based on the Conservation of Resources Theory examines the effect of COVID-19 on job insecurity and emotional exhaustion among the teaching staff of Pakistan. Moreover, moderating effect of job embeddedness has been investigated. A quantitative method was used to collect the data from 231 respondents by using an online questionnaire. Two statistical software SPSS and AMOS were used to check the data analysis and Structural Equation Modelling was applied to locate the direct, mediating, and moderating effect. Results indicated that fear of COVID- 19 was positively associated with emotional exhaustion and job insecurity. The indirect effect of fear of COVID-19 on emotional exhaustion among the teaching staff was also found significant. The moderating role of job embeddedness on the positive relation of job insecurity and job embeddedness was not proved in this study. The implication from this study indicated that educational institutes should educate their employees on how they can use protective measures to reduce their risk to get through emotional breakdown and exhaustion during COVID-19.