Long-standing research shows that diversity of thought in
organizations is vital to innovation and creativity. New research shows
that during times of job insecurity, those vital ideas might be
suppressed if they counter the organization’s values. The study by Sung
Soo Kim, assistant professor of management at the Daniels College of
Business in the University of Denver, was published in the Journal of
Occupational and Organizational Psychology. Kim’s co-authors of the
paper “Creating facades of conformity in the face of job insecurity: a
study of consequences and conditions,” are Patricia Faison Hewlin and
Young Ho Song of McGill University in Montreal.
- The current study found that employees who feel their job security
threatened were more likely to suppress personal values and pretend to
embrace organizational values, and such responses were linked to their
intention to leave and reduced affective commitment.
- The results from this study highlight the importance of fostering
organizational environments that encourage authenticity such that
members are not compelled to suppress personal values and pretend to
embrace organizational values in job-insecure environments.
- The results also highlight how employees will enact their careers at
different stages of their lives. In job insecure environments, older
workers are more likely than younger workers to express divergent points
of view.
“Our study further shows that employees create facades of conformity
to cope with job insecurity but ironically, facades of conformity can
have an adverse impact on one’s feelings of attachment to the
organization, consistent with previous research on facades of
conformity,” Kim says. “In other words, the actual effort to better ‘fit
in’ via inauthentic expression can become taxing and foster a level of
detachment from the organization that negatively affects one’s
commitment to the organization and prompts one’s inclination to leave
the organization.”
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