Transmitting affective job insecurity (AJI) within teams: Layoff effects of AJI convergence on intrateam power struggles and team outcomes
研究团队中员工对失业的焦虑（情感性工作不安全）如何随时间趋同，并发现高趋同水平会引发内部权力斗争，损害团队绩效和主动性，对管理者有警示意义。
Summary Extant research on job insecurity (JI) largely focuses on the individual level, rather than considering the process of JI at collective, team levels. But employees' worries and anxiety about potential job losses create affective job insecurity (AJI), which can converge over time in teams, especially following dramatic changes such as layoffs. Drawing on a multilevel theory of emergence in teams and uncertainty reduction theory, this study offers theoretical predictions of AJI convergence, as well as its potential influences on team functioning and outcomes. A four‐wave, post‐layoff survey of 468 employees and 91 supervisors confirms two major predictions. First, AJI convergence exists within teams over time, as established by a consensus emergence model. Second, teams with members who converge at a high level of AJI experience intrateam power struggles that impair both team performance and team proactivity. By theorizing about the phenomenon of AJI convergence, this study not only expands the notion of JI from the individual to the team level, noting its harmful effects on teams, but also highlights the need for both team members and team leaders to pay close attention to such convergence and its potentially detrimental effects following layoffs.