The mediating effect of psychological resilience in the impact of increasing job insecurity with the pandemic, on organizational commitment and turnover intention

Purpose This study aims to examine how new and senior employees' perceptions of job insecurity affect their commitment and turnover intention in the economic crisis environment created by the pandemic and whether their psychological resilience has a mediating effect on this effect. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from 147 novices (tenure < five years) and 160 seniors (tenure > five years) full-time employees from three different industries to examine these relationships using the SPSS program and the process add-on. Findings The results showed that perceptions of job insecurity were negatively correlated with affective commitment, normative commitment and psychological resilience and positively correlated with continuance commitment and turnover intention for both employee groups. While psychological resilience played an expected mediating effect for novices in the organization, it played only a mediating effect for affective and normative commitment for seniors. Originality/value This study contributes to the field of management psychology by investigating, for the first time, the negative impact of the perception of job insecurity, which has increased with the pandemic, and the mediating effect of psychological resilience in this effect.