关键词: 组织情绪能力, 工作不安全感, 组织动态能力, 曲线关系

Abstract:

Organizational Emotional Capability (OEC) is a critical yet underdeveloped construct situated at the intersection of strategic management and organizational behavior. Existing research has been constrained by circular reasoning in measurement—inferring OEC components from emotional outcomes—and by insufficient exploration of the mechanisms through which emotions influence organizational functioning. To address these gaps, this study is grounded in organizational dynamic capability theory and focuses on Job Insecurity (JI)—a prevalent emotional response in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments—as the emotional focal point. Work preservation behavior is introduced as the central explanatory mechanism to elucidate how OEC enhances organizational dynamic adaptability by shaping the motivational effects of JI. The research design comprises four interrelated studies, each featuring distinct theoretical and methodological innovations.

Study 1 develops a valid measurement tool for OEC that captures its intrinsic nature and resolves the circularity problem in prior scales (e.g., Huy’s emotion-derived framework). Drawing on individual emotional intelligence theory at the organizational level, it identifies three primary OEC carriers—leadership, strategic human resource management, and team interaction—and proposes a four-dimensional model (perception and understanding, decision facilitation, adjustment and guidance, norm solidification) derived from critical incident interviews and grounded theory analysis. Psychometric testing (exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses) confirms the model’s reliability and validity, resulting in an OEC Assessment System. This advancement restores OEC to its essential meaning as emotional capability and enables objective differentiation of OEC levels across organizations.

Study 2 clarifies the controversial relationship between JI and adaptive performance—a key indicator of individual dynamic adaptation. A meta-analysis, based on Shoss’s work preservation behavior framework (task-enhancing, task-protecting, interpersonal-enhancing, and interpersonal-protecting behaviors), examines JI’s associations with these behaviors and identifies moderators such as research design (cross-sectional vs. longitudinal) and social welfare systems. Behavioral experiments further reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between JI and adaptive performance: moderate levels of JI optimize adaptive performance, whereas excessively low or high JI diminish it. This finding resolves long-standing disputes over the linear versus curvilinear effects of JI, confirming that JI’s motivational value is context-dependent and providing a scientific foundation for JI-related management practices.

Study 3 constructs a cross-level dual-strategy mechanism to explain how OEC shapes the driving effects of JI, addressing a key gap in the literature. Drawing on the Emotions-as-Social-Information Theory, for low-to-moderate JI, OEC activates positive emotional events (e.g., leadership empathy, HR development programs) that transform JI into constructive motivation and enhance adaptive performance. For moderate-to-high JI, guided by the approach-avoidance motivation theory, OEC exerts a negative reshaping effect by promoting proactive work crafting (e.g., expanding task boundaries) and suppressing defensive work crafting (e.g., social withdrawal), thus mitigating JI’s detrimental impact. A longitudinal design validates this moderated mediation model, demonstrating OEC’s “bend-but-not-break” regulatory effect: high OEC sustains adaptive performance even under high JI, whereas low OEC leads to performance collapse. This innovation reveals OEC’s cross-level emotional transmission process from organization to individual.

Study 4 integrates individual and organizational levels through a dynamic causal loop model based on Dynamic Computational Theory, overcoming the static limitation of conventional organizational behavior research. Two self-regulation cycles are simulated: (1) at the individual level, OEC calibrates JI according to performance gaps—activating JI when adaptation is insufficient and reshaping it when JI becomes excessive—to maintain optimal adaptive performance; (2) at the organizational level, OEC aggregates individual adaptive performance to drive innovation performance (an indicator of dynamic adaptability) and adjusts JI management strategies in response to innovation gaps. This dynamic simulation predicts the timing and direction of OEC interventions, breaking the recursive logic of traditional models and providing a foundation for evidence-based management.

Overall, this study makes four key contributions: (1) it develops a non-circular measurement instrument for OEC, advancing quantitative research on the construct; (2) it clarifies the conditional positive effects of JI, resolving long-standing theoretical controversies; (3) it builds a cross-level dual-strategy mechanism that explicates OEC’s emotional transmission pathway; and (4) it establishes a temporal causal loop model that enables predictive management of organizational dynamic adaptability. Practically, this research offers strategic guidance for strengthening OEC and managing JI, while theoretically bridging the divide between strategic management’s cognitive orientation and organizational behavior’s emotional focus.

Key words: organizational emotional capability, job insecurity, organizational dynamic capability, curvilinear relationship