No Money, Poor Mental Health, and High Counterproductive Behavior: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Stress on Financial Threats and Job Performance

Financial threat refers to fear, unease, and uncertainty regarding an individual’s present or forthcoming financial state. Despite consistent findings indicating that financial threats are harmful to individuals’ behaviors and mental health, their impacts remain largely unexplored in the context of organizational behaviors. This study examined whether and how financial threats are detrimental to various aspects of employees’ performance, including task, contextual, and counterproductive performance. A sample of 165 working adults in Malaysia responded to an online survey consisting of the Financial Threat Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and Individual Work Performance Questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the structure of the measurements, although some items were eliminated. Pearson correlation analysis showed that financial threats had a positive relationship with perceived stress and counterproductive performance. Meanwhile, perceived stress was negatively related to task performance and positively associated with counterproductive performance. Finally, structural equation modeling revealed that perceived stress mediates the relationship between financial threats and counterproductive performance. These findings illuminate the underlying mechanisms by which financial threats impact employees’ job performance. They also highlight the importance of addressing resource depletion’s effects on the mental health of working adults. The implications of these findings for organizational management and employee well-being are discussed.