The Mediating Role of Job Insecurity in the Relationship Between Technology Threat Perception and Organizational Commitment: An Investigation on Artificial Intelligence Anxiety

Abstract

This study examines the mediating role of job insecurity in the relationships between technology threat perception, artificial intelligence anxiety, and organizational commitment. Data were collected from 387 full-time employees across multiple sectors in Türkiye through a cross-sectional survey. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling (AMOS 24), following confirmatory factor analysis and bootstrap-based mediation analysis (5,000 resamples). Technology threat perception and AI anxiety were both positively associated with job insecurity, which in turn was negatively associated with organizational commitment. Both stressors also showed significant direct negative associations with organizational commitment, and bootstrap analysis confirmed significant indirect effects through job insecurity, indicating complementary partial mediation. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is among the first studies to jointly model technology threat perception and AI anxiety as co-occurring antecedents of job insecurity within a single structural framework linking both to organizational commitment, extending cognitive stress appraisal theory, Conservation of Resources theory, and Social Exchange Theory to the context of AI-driven workplace change, with region-specific evidence from Türkiye.