Psychological safety and affective commitment: A dual-pathway model of job satisfaction and rumination
Abstract
This study examines how psychological safety fosters employee affective commitment by examining the serial mediating roles of job satisfaction and rumination, and the moderating influence of abusive supervision. Grounded in Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theory and enriched by Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the study conceptualize psychological safety as a foundational job resource that initiates a resource gain process, enhancing job satisfaction and enabling adaptive cognitive regulation. Abusive supervision, in contrast, functions as a resource-depleting demand that alters these dynamics. Data from a two-wave, time-lagged survey of U.S. employees support the proposed model. Psychological safety significantly increases job satisfaction, which subsequently reduces rumination and strengthens affective commitment. Notably, the findings suggest that rumination may function differently depending on employees’ resource conditions; when preceded by higher job satisfaction, it may reflect more adaptive, reflective processing that reinforces emotional attachment to the organization. Contrary to expectations, abusive supervision strengthens, rather than weakens, the positive effect of psychological safety on job satisfaction and its indirect effect on affective commitment, indicating a compensatory or buffering dynamic under high-demand conditions. These findings advance JD-R theory by integrating cognitive-affective mechanisms and applying COR principles to explain dynamic resource trajectories. the study highlight how the interplay of leadership behavior and psychological safety shapes employee commitment and offer actionable insights for building resilient, high-commitment workplaces.
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