The structure of ownership and control in organizations: does organizational identification attenuate the relationships of work-to-family conflict and job strain with job search behavior?

Abstract

Based on conservation of resources theory, this study investigates how work-to-family conflict may lead to job strain and job search behavior. Using social identity theory, it also examines how organizational identification and worker cooperatives influence the relationships of both work-to-family conflict and job strain with job search behavior. Using a longitudinal data set of 305 employees in 25 worker cooperatives and 27 matched conventional corporations, we tested a set of hypotheses through multilevel moderated mediation and mediated moderation analyses. We found that worker cooperatives indirectly moderate, via organizational identification, the associations between work-to-family conflict and job search behavior and between job strain and job search behavior. Our findings suggest that the effects of work-to-family conflict and job strain on job search behavior may be contingent on the structure of ownership and control in organizations and the degree of employees' organizational identification.