Job anxiety as psychosocial risk in the relationship between perceived organizational support and intrapreneurship in SMEs

ABSTRACT

Psychological health at work is important for creating new projects and renewing the company’s strategy, both of which help maintain organisational performance. This study, based on organisational support theory (OST), investigates the moderating role of job anxiety among employees in the indirect link between perceived organisational support (POS) and their intrapreneurial behaviour through intrapreneurial intention. The data were collected from a sample of 199 employees of four service sector SMEs in the province of Québec (Canada). The regression analysis results provide a positive link between POS and intrapreneurial behaviours and that these behaviours are planned and based on an intention that is favourable to such behaviour. Furthermore, we have observed that anxious employees are less inclined to develop intrapreneurial intention, and job anxiety negatively moderates the positive effect of POS on intrapreneurial intention and intrapreneurial behaviour. These findings suggest that business executives and managers must consider job anxiety as a psychosocial risk in the dynamics of intrapreneurship and must therefore act effectively towards highly anxious employees by implementing their own well‐being‐oriented human resource management practices. This paper reveals that in the context of SMEs, employees that perceive support from the organisation do not engage in intrapreneurial behaviours when they are highly anxious.

KEYWORDS:

• Intrapreneurial behaviour
• job anxiety
• SME
• perceived organisational support
• intrapreneurial intention

Acknowledgments

This first author’s work was supported by a postdoctoral scholarship grant from the Canada Research Chair on Entrepreneurial Career (CRCEC).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Further information about this preliminary analysis can be provided upon request.

2. Information provided upon request.