Can employees perform well if they fear for their lives? Yes – if they have a passion for work

Abstract

Purpose

With a basis in conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of championing behaviour in the relationship between employees’ fear of terror and their job performance, as well as the buffering role of their passion for work, as a personal resource, in this process.

Design/methodology/approach

The tests of the hypotheses rely on three-wave, time-lagged data collected from employees and their supervisors in Pakistan.

Findings

An important reason that concerns about terrorist attacks diminish performance is that employees refrain from championing their own entrepreneurial ideas. This mediating role of idea championing is less salient, however, to the extent that employees feel a strong passion for their work.

Practical implications

For human resource managers, this study pinpoints a key mechanism – a reluctance to mobilize active support for entrepreneurial ideas – by which fears about terrorism attacks can spill over into the workplace and undermine employees’ ability to meet their performance requirements. It also reveals how this mechanism can be better contained by the presence of adequate personal resources.

Originality/value

This study adds to burgeoning research on the interplay between terrorism and organizational life by specifying how and when employees’ ruminations about terrorism threats might escalate into diminished performance outcomes at work.

Citation

Haq, I.U., De Clercq, D. and Azeem, M.U. (2020), "Can employees perform well if they fear for their lives? Yes – if they have a passion for work", Personnel Review, Vol. 49 No. 2, pp. 469-490. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-01-2019-0030