The Moderating Role of Job Autonomy in the Relationship between Job Insecurity and Life Satisfaction: A Job Demands-Resources Perspective

The service industry is characterized by high interpersonal interaction, emotional labor, and an unstable employment environment, making its employees particularly vulnerable to job insecurity. Service employees have to exert continuous psychological and emotional efforts to ensure customer satisfaction, which can exacerbate the negative effects of job insecurity on their well-being. However, limited research has examined the spillover effect of job insecurity on life satisfaction among service industry employees. Based on the job demands-resources theory, this study examines whether job insecurity influences employees’ life satisfaction through thriving at work, comprising vitality and learning, and whether job autonomy moderates this relationship. A three-wave survey was conducted with South Korean service-sector employees (n=299), with each wave administered at two-week intervals. Results from the PROCESS macro showed that job insecurity negatively affected both vitality and learning at work, which were positively related to overall life satisfaction. Furthermore, job autonomy moderated the indirect effect of job insecurity on life satisfaction via learning, with the negative effect being weaker for employees with high job autonomy. However, job autonomy did not moderate the relationship between job insecurity and vitality. Overall, these findings underscore the detrimental effect of job insecurity on well-being both within and beyond the workplace and emphasize the importance of job autonomy in mitigating these negative effects for service industry employees.