최근 많은 기업들은 급변하는 경영환경 속에서 생존하기 위해 경영혁신, 사업 구조조정 등의 조직변화를 추진하고 있으며, 그에 따라 구성원들이 인지하는 직무에 대한 불안정성은 증가하고 있다. 이러한 증가하는 직무불안정성은 구성원들의 조직에 대한 애착과 충성심을 낮추는 주된 요인으로 작용하고 있다. 따라서 지금까지의 선행연구들은 구성원의 정서적 조직몰입에 부정적인 영향을 미치는 선행요인의 하나로서 직무불안정성을 강조해 온 반면, 직무불안정성이 높은 상황에서 구성원의 정서적 몰입을 높일 수 있는 방안에 대해서는 많은 관심을 기울이지 않은 측면이 있다. 이에, 본 연구에서는 성과보상연계성이 구성원의 조직지원인식을 높여서 정서적 몰입을 높일 수 있으며, 이들 관계가 구성원이 인지하는 직무불안정성(직무상실가능성, 무력감) 수준에 따라 다르다는 점을 규명하고자 하였다. 국내 직장인 134명을 대상으로 설문조사를 통해 자료를 확보하여 분석한 결과, 성과보상연계성이 조직지원인식에 긍정적 영향을 주었으며(가설 1), 성과보상연계성과 정서적 조직몰입 간의 관계를 조직지원인식이 매개하는 것으로 나타났다(가설 2). 또한 직무불안정성의 조절효과를 검증한 결과, 구성원의 무력감은 성과보상연계성과 조직지원인식 간의 관계를 조절하는데, 구체적으로 이들 간의 정적인 관계는 구성원의 무력감이 높을 때 강화되는 것으로 나타났다(가설 4). 그러나 가설과 달리, 직무상실가능성의 조절효과는 지지되지 않았다(가설 3). 본 연구는 이론적으로는 성과보상연계성과 정서적 몰입 간의 관계를 조직지원인식이라는 조직과 구성원간의 사회적 교환관계의 관점에서 살펴보았고, 이러한 교환관계에 대한 구성원의 인식이 직무불안정성(무력감)에 따라 달라질 수 있음을 보였다는 데 의미가 있다. 실무적으로는, 조직지원인식을 높이기 위해서 조직은 구성원이 직무상실가능성을 통제할 수 있다는 인식을 심어주는 활동(예: 의사결정참여 등)을 전개하거나, 구성원의 무력감이 높을 때에는 성과와 연계된 보상을 제공하는 것이 중요하다는 점을 시사한다. 본 연구와 관련한 한계점 및 향후 연구과제는 연구 말미에 정리되어 있다.
To respond effectively to the rapidly changing business environment, many organizations have emphasized organizational changes and innovations such as the reinforcement of pay-for-performance and the restructuring of business portfolios. A series of organizational changes accelerates job uncertainty as well as employment uncertainty; consequently, employees’ perceptions of job instability can cause loyalty withdrawal and decrease emotional attachment to the organization. Researchers have pointed to job insecurity as a critical antecedent that lowers employees’ affective organizational commitment. However, despite the importance of job insecurity in terms of affective commitment, few studies have investigated how to sustain and/or enhance employees’ affective commitment in a job insecurity situation. To address this gap in the literature, we focus on the performance-based reward as an antecedent to increasing affective organizational commitment. Based on social exchange theory and justice theory, performance-based rewards can help organizations form high-quality social exchange relationships with their employees through the provision of fair rewards for employees’ contributions to their organizations. In doing so, organizations can derive affective commitment from employees. In particular, since long-term benefits such as the security of tenure cannot be expected when job insecurity is high, relatively short-term benefits such as performance-based rewards may have more influence on employees’ perceptions of, and attitudes toward organizations. This study therefore aims to investigate whether performance-based rewards are positively related to employees’ affective organizational commitment through perceived organizational support (POS), and how their perceptions of job insecurity-which is comprised of the two dimensions of probability of job loss and powerlessness-moderates the relationship between performance-based rewards and POS. We collected data from 134 South Korean employees through self-reported questionnaires, and analyzed them through hierarchical regressions. As expected, the results showed that performancebased rewards are positively related to POS (Hypothesis 1), and POS mediates the relationship between performance-based rewards and affective organizational commitment (Hypothesis 2). These findings imply that economic exchange relationships based on performance-based rewards can develop into social exchange relationships between employees and organizations. In addition, the results support the moderating effect of powerlessness (Hypothesis4). As hypothesized, the positive relationship between performance-based rewards and POS was strengthened for high levels of powerlessness, but not for low levels of powerlessness. This means that whereas performance-based rewards are important for POS when employees feel high powerlessness, performance-based rewards may not be critical when they feel low powerlessness. However, contrary to our expectation, a moderating effect of probability of job loss was not found (Hypothesis 3). This study contributes theoretically to performance-based reward literature by examining how performance-based rewards affect employees’ affective commitment from the perspective of POS based on social exchange relationships between employees and organizations. On a practical level, we suggest that it is important for organizations to provide performance-based rewards when employees feel powerlessness in resisting job threats or to offer the power to control an insecure situation (i.e., participation in decision making) to enhance employees’ POS. Limitations and some directions for future research are discussed.