The mediating role of social identity in the effect of job insecurity and leader member exchange on emotional exhaustion and self-esteem

This study aims to present a social identity perspective to research on perception of job insecurity and leader member exchange (LMX). In this context, firstly, it was aimed to examine whether there is a relationship between job insecurity and self-esteem, and between job insecurity and emotional exhaustion, and whether the social identity of "employee" plays a mediating role in these relationships. Secondly, it was aimed to examine whether there is a relationship between the quality of leader member exchange and self-esteem, and between the quality of leader member exchange and emotional exhaustion, and whether there is a mediating effect of "employee" social identity on these relationships. Worrying about being unemployed harms the employee; because it refers to the expected membership of the group of the unemployed, which has been characterized as negative. Job insecurity thus threatens a person's "employee" social identity. In the context of leader-member exchange, employees with low-quality LMXs feel less supported by their leaders and benefit less from their leader's social network. In this respect, it seems likely that an employee with a low-quality LMX will see his future as uncertain and not find the institution he works for reliable. In addition, employees with low quality LMX are considered as outgroup members. Due to the uncertainty about the future of the employee and the membership of the outgroup, low-quality leader-member exchange highlights and threatens the social identity of the "employee". For the purpose of the study, quantitative research methods were used. 1417 white-collar private and public sector employees were included in the study. Questionnaire form was used as data collection tool. First of all, the Social Identity Scale developed by Doosje, Ellemers and Spears (1995) was adapted into Turkish to be used in the thesis study. Then, reliability analyzes of the scales were performed. Correlation, regression, mediating effect and independent sample t-test analyzes were used in the analysis of the data. The findings of the study show that job insecurity weakens the social identity of the employee and therefore reduces self-esteem or increases emotional exhaustion. This reveals that job insecurity threatens social identity and harms an individual's indicators of well-being. Second, the findings show that the quality of leader member exchange strengthens the employee's social identity, and the change in employee social identity increases self-esteem or reduces emotional exhaustion. This reveals that a quality leader-member exchange contributes to an individual's well-being by reducing the perceived threat to the employee's social identity.