Moderating Effects of Perceived Fairness between Job Insecurity and Outcomes in Sport during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions throughout the sport and recreation industry. Given the heightened levels of stress and uncertainty brought by the pandemic, the purposes of the current study were to (a) examine the structural relationships among job insecurity, job satisfaction, and turnover intention and (b) test the moderation effect of perceived fairness toward governmental policies and actions during the COVID-19 pandemic among these variables for employees in the sport and recreation industry. The conceptual model, including four latent variables—job insecurity, perception of fairness, job satisfaction, and turnover intention—was developed based on uncertainty management theory. A total of 321 sport and recreation managers in South Korea participated in the online survey. Results of structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that job insecurity had a partial mediating effect on turnover intention through job satisfaction. The results of the moderated mediation analysis indicated a significant difference for the path from job insecurity to job satisfaction between the group with high fairness perceptions and the group with low fairness perceptions. However, the direction of the effect was contrary to expectations. These results provided an opportunity for empirical examination of the psychological and mental health conditions of sport service employees and relevant implications for governmental policies and actions under conditions of uncertainty, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.