The moderating role of corporate reputation and employee-company identification on the work-related outcomes of job insecurity resulting from workforce localization policies

Although previous studies have examined the impact of job insecurity, there remains a need to understand specific issues related to job insecurity that results from government workforce localization policies. This study addresses this gap by examining employees' work-related outcomes: employee engagement, job burnout, and intentions to quit, recognizing the interplay of employees' identification with an organization and perceived corporate reputation in the context of Saudi Arabia's localization policies. The study uses social identification theory to explain how employees' perception of corporate reputation and their identification with a company shape their work attitudes in the presence of job-insecurity. Partial least square - path modeling (PLS-PM) and PROCESS tool is used to test hypotheses from data collected from 135 expatriate migrant employees working in different organizations in Saudi Arabia. Findings show that job insecurity has a significant effect of reducing the engagement of immigrant employees and leads to increased employee burnout and intentions to quit jobs. The results of moderation analysis show that favorable corporate reputation reduces the negative impact of job insecurity on employee's burnout and intentions to quit, whereas high level of identification with company may also reduce employee burnout, even during job insecurity. Although immigrant employees do not seek to leave a reputable organization due to localization policies, they still experience stress, become disengaged, and so are less productive. As a result, businesses should leverage their reputation towards governmental policies of localization, by advocating expatriate employees' contributions towards organizations and economy.