Challenge–Hindrance Stressors and Employability: The Combined Role of the Energy–Motivation Process and Organizational Investment

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates how challenge–hindrance stressors influence employability through the energy–motivation mechanism and explores the moderating role of pay satisfaction and perceived career opportunity based on the JD-R model.

Methods

Three-wave time-lagged longitudinal data of 206 employees are analyzed using latent structural equation modelling.

Results

First, challenge stressors have an indirect positive effect on employability, mainly through intrinsic motivation, while hindrance stressors have an indirect negative effect on employability, mainly through emotional exhaustion. Second, perceived career opportunity strengthens the positive effect of challenge stressors on intrinsic motivation, which further promotes employability. Third, pay satisfaction alleviates the negative effect of hindrance stressors on emotional exhaustion, which, in turn, inhibits the decline in employability.

Conclusion

The paper clarifies the specific mediating effects of the energy and motivation mechanisms in the association between challenge–hindrance stressors and employability and the moderating effects of pay satisfaction and perceived career opportunity, thus extending studies on the challenge–hindrance stressors to career field and filling the gap in the knowledge of the boundary conditions of the energy–motivation mechanism.

Keywords:

• challenge–hindrance stressors
• employability
• dual mechanism of energy and motivation
• pay satisfaction
• perceived career opportunity

Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

This study was adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethic Committee of Business School, Southwest University of Political Science and Law. In the questionnaire, we introduced this study purposes and explained that this study welcomed voluntary participation and the data, complying with the principle of confidentiality, is only used for research purposes. All participants gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study.

Disclosure

The authors declare no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71902166), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2018M643786XB) and the Scientific research project of Southwest University of political science and Law (2021xzndyb-06).