Perceived threat of terrorism and employee outcomes: The moderating role of negative affectivity and psychological capital

Using the conservation of resources theory and the terror management theory, we proposed that the perceived threat of terrorism would hurt employees' well-being, performance and individually directed citizenship behaviors (OCBI) and increase employee stress and emotional exhaustion. We tested our hypotheses in two studies using time-lagged data with independent measures for behaviors. In study 1, two-wave data comprised of 160 peer-employee dyads supported the proposed relationships of fear of terrorism with well-being and performance and the moderating role of negative affectivity. In study 2, two-wave data from 350 employee-supervisor dyads supported the proposed relationships of perceived threat of terrorism with stress, emotional exhaustion, performance, and OCBI. Results supported a moderating role of psychological capital in these relationships. We believe that our research adds meaningfully to the limited research on the effects of terrorism on employees’ well-being and behaviors. We discuss the implications of our findings for managers and the future research.