The Mediating Role of Organizational Identification between Leadership and Job Security: A case of Teachers in Private institutions of Punjab-Pakistan

In the business environment today job security is an important and primary requirement of the employees as the employees’ turnover rate is haphazardly increasing in different industrial sectors. This study determines the impact of leadership and organizational identification on the job security of teachers in the private institutions Punjab, Pakistan and the mediation of organizational identification is also tested. Data is analyzed by using Smart partial least squares structural equation modeling (Smart-PLS-SEM). Many teachers suffer from low job security that not only affect them internally but also affect their work performance. Therefore the main objective of our research is to determine the responsible factors which affect the job security of teachers working in the private educational institutions operationalized under BISE Punjab. In this paper, the parameters used for determining the job security of teachers are; Leadership, and organizational identification and mediating role of organizational identification between leadership and job security is also tested. During this study, 150 teachers from different private institutions operational in Punjab were asked to 1 National College of Business Administration and Economics (NCBA&E) Multan, Pakistan; 2 National College of Business Administration and Economics (NCBA&E) Multan, Pakistan; 3 National College of Business Administration and Economics (NCBA&E)


The Mediating Role of Organizational Identification between Leadership and Job Security: A case of Teachers in Private institutions of Punjab-Pakistan
Haider Ali 1 Fawad Hussain 2 Anyl Khan 3

Abstract
In the business environment today job security is an important and primary requirement of the employees as the employees' turnover rate is haphazardly increasing in different industrial sectors. This study determines the impact of leadership and organizational identification on the job security of teachers in the private institutions Punjab, Pakistan and the mediation of organizational identification is also tested. Data is analyzed by using Smart partial least squares structural equation modeling (Smart-PLS-SEM). Many teachers suffer from low job security that not only affect them internally but also affect their work performance. Therefore the main objective of our research is to determine the responsible factors which affect the job security of teachers working in the private educational institutions operationalized under BISE Punjab. In this paper, the parameters used for determining the job security of teachers are; Leadership, and organizational identification and mediating role of organizational identification between leadership and job security is also tested. During this study, 150 teachers from different private institutions operational in Punjab were asked to 1. Introduction In Asian business market employees are more concerned regarding their job security. It is probably due to the nature of employers who are unwilling to hire their employees on a permanent basis. Rather than keeping them on a permanent basis they keep them on a temporary basis and can utilize them according to their short and long term needs and requirements. These norms are making the entire job scenario quite unsafe and employees feel unsecure. The level of job security is declining and employees are feeling alarmed that they might be substituted or being replaced by someone who is more capable and can perform better in similar work settings. Therefore, firms now a days, required to secure their human capital by enhancing their job security. Job security can be increased by adopting the 'people first' approach. By the help of this approach, employees feel that their employer give importance to them and hence their job security increases and they remain loyal to their organizations. Responsibilities of the human resource (HR) are not confined to develop, maintain and to retain the work-force in an organization, instead it is the necessary obligation of HR to designate specific employee on the specific job according to his/her capabilities and skills and to educate or trained them so that they may develop for the future and play primary roles in the uplift of the organization. Northouse (2018) described it as; employees should be encouraged to upgrade themselves so that they can play better roles in the wellbeing of the organizations. In addition, Forssell (2018) informed that a poor social climate at work predicted exposure to bullying behavior. On another note, Javed, Anas, Abbas, and Khan (2017) informed that innovative work behavior influence employees positively; and enhance their innovativeness. Together with innovativeness the external environment such as economic factors also impacts employee's job security (Valletta, 1999). However, Yousef (1998) and Rauter and Feather (2004), discussed the organization's internal environment noting that leadership styles and organization identification play an important role in maintaining job security harmony. The researchers (Yousef, 1998;Sverke, Hellgren, & Näswall, 2002;Kim, Leong, & Lee, 2005;Farber, 2010;Jandaghi, Mokhles, & Bahrami, 2011;Goretzki, 2016) debated job security and found that there are various internal and external organizational factors which might influence employee's job security. This paper is aiming to investigate the job security of employees' (teachers'), working in the private institutions of Punjab and organizational identification and leadership are treated as factors influencing the teacher's job security. Moreover, the mediation effects of organizational identification are discussed in this study.
Researchers like Goretzki (2016) studied internal factors which include organizational identification, self-efficacy, leadership styles, and trust and check their impacts on job security in general work settings in China through an online survey. Studies such as Mael and Ashforth (1992), Amstrong-Stassen (1993), Rauter and Feather (2004), Arif and Akram (2018) discussed organizational identification and found that there is a non-transparency in negotiations, unreliability issues, leg-pulling, and dis-honesty, organizations become unable to recognize the employee's efforts and often employees are misleaded. On the other hand, studies like Voon, Lo, Ngui, andAyob (2011), Northouse (2018), Arif and Akram (2018) investigated leadership styles and their impacts on job security, found some attitudinal problems, high rate of employees' turnover, male leaders are more feminized, take favorite and biased decisions, non-supportive attitude, unable to direct employees towards constructive directions and in various cases, politicized issues are evident in the literature. These problems are the main causes which are making employees unsecure and dissatisfied with their working environment. Therefore, the following questions arise that; Does leadership influenced the job security of employees? Is there any influence of leadership on organizational identification? , and Does organizational identification has an influence on the job security of employees? Cheng (2002) described that the level of teachers' job security is one of the problems that extends universally. As this problem surrounds the educational sector of Pakistan, especially in private institutions (Malik, Tirmizi, & Chaudary, 2006) and take it towards high rate of employee's turnover, therefore this paper will contribute to give the answers to these questions and contribute to the knowledge by pondering on internal factors affecting the job security of the teachers working in private institutions and the mediating role of organizational identification among the leadership and job security are also focused in it. Therefore on the basis of the above arguments, the following research objectives are established: 1. To examine the impact of leadership on job security of teachers in the private institutions of Punjab, Pakistan. 2. To investigate impact of leadership on organizational identification of teachers in private institutions of Punjab, Pakistan. 3. To examine impact of organizational identification on job security of teachers in private institutions of Punjab, Pakistan.

Literature Review
Many researches on the role and importance of human force of the organization concluded that no community is developed until and unless it develops its human resource and a human resource that offers security of job along with its other blessings is not less than a key towards glory (Alam, 2009).

Leadership and Job Security
Northouse (2018) described that a good leader motivates and gives directions to his/her people to achieve their goals. Leadership can play a crucial role in making the campus pollution free. Responsibilities of a leader are not restricted to maintain, develop and retain the subordinates instead it is also the basic obligation of a leader that he/she should give the organization such a diligent, capable and skillful recruitments by hiring specific personnel on the specific job, according to their abilities and hence developed them for the future needs so that they may compete with the updated and day by day changing trends of the industry and markets. Now a days the employees' need an atmosphere where leaders motivate and give courage and confidence to the employees who have ability to grow and develop for the future (Arif & Akram, 2018). Two basic leadership styles are transactional and transformational and among these, the later one is more effective and it has a stronger relationship with employees' job security (Voon et al., 2011). An effective leadership required that the leader should develop good working relationships with the sub-ordinates (Forsyth, 2014). Job security is one of the most crucial requirements of employees. This is because globally the working environment is becoming very competitive and demanding (Cheng, 2002). Therefore, the organization wanted to inject new, fresh, talented, and technologically capable employees, and hence the old or existing employee observes an insecurity of job. Job security affects organizational attitudes and confidence of the employees working inside the firm (Sverke, et al., 2002). Job security is defined as a probability that an employee feels about losing his/her job (Bertola, 1990). Almost everyone is doing some job in order to continue his/her life activities and brought up his/her family. Regular employment guarantees regular incomes while temporary employment or employment with less job security and low income lead towards limited routine life and its activities because with low income one can manage lesser life commodities (De Witte, 1999;Russel, 1999). This might lead to make a sacrifice on having a car, a small compartment, and even lead to the limited usual and social lifestyle. Job insecurity also badly and deeply affect the socialistic lives (Winkelmann, 2009). On the basis of the above literature the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 1: Leadership has an impact on job security of teachers in private institutions of Punjab, Pakistan.

Leadership and Organizational Identification
Organizational identification is strongly associated with the leadership, a good and effective leadership provides the employees better chances to identify their organization and hence it becomes convenient for employees to work in such an identified organization, by this way they feel proud while working in it and considered it better to introduce themselves with the name of the organization to which they belong (Straiter, 2005). Job security is an important aspect of employees' life and its occurrence or non-occurrence influence their lives, so it will be fruitful to investigate about employees' job security level because once it is known to us, the human capital can be saved (Alam, Ismail, & Mishra, 2010). Job security is the reaction of the employees towards their organizations and the roles which they play in the uplift of the organization, is surely depend on the level of their job security (Madhavan, 2001). Under a good leadership the employees have chances to understand and learn more and more about their organizations and transformational leaders always play important roles in this regard (Voon et al., 2011). Job security develops when employees become satisfied with their leaders and organizations (Kim et al., 2005). Contrary to this, job insecurity can be demonstrated as a risk that may have negative, harmful, or alarming outcomes (Jessor, 1991), and this risk is minimized if leaders and organizations play their role in keeping employees engaged according to their specific roles without any differences and favoritism. On the basis of the above literature the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 2: Leadership has an impact on Organizational identification of teachers in private institutions of Punjab, Pakistan.

Organizational Identification and Job Security
The consequences of organizational identification vary among the different employees working at different places and firms, therefore human resource department of the firm has needed to implement a differentiated and competitive human resource strategies with the focus to improve the organizational identification of the employees working with them (Arif & Akram, 2018) so that the employees can feel their jobs secure and safe. Therefore organization identification is needed to be taken at a higher level in this regard firms as well as employees have needed to stay connected on all levels, Identification to the organization has come from loyalty and stimulate the formation of positive believes, attitudes, behaviors, and emotions towards the organization (Mael & Ashforth, 1992). Organizational identification is a psychological tie between leadership and job security of the employees (Reade, 2001). The Psychological knot among the employee and organization is occurred strongly when employees absorb or accept the organizations' basic attributes as theirs. While doing so, the workers of the organization feel as "one" by moving with the company (Reade, 2001). Arabi (2000), said that job security is described as the spirit of having a satisfactory job that offers surety of its continuance as well as the absence of alarming factors and this can be achieved if employees and their organizations are on the same page i.e. they knew each other. Considered an example, If individual "A" (i.e. employee) having confidence that he/she will carry on his/her job until the end of his/her service tenure and will not be threatened by another individual "B" (i.e. employer), such a person enjoys job security along with organizational identification and will become able to play his role with full loyalty in an efficient way in the uplift of organization. On the basis of the above literature the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 3: Organizational identification has an impact on job security of teachers in private institutions of Punjab, Pakistan.

Methodology
The target population in this study consisted of teachers of private institutions that are operational in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. The data is collected from 100 willing respondents (teachers) working in the different private educational institutions working under BISE Punjab, Pakistan. A sample size of 100 is taken in accordance with the criteria suggested by Gorsuch (1983), a sample size of a minimum 100 should be taken when the population is unknown or not sure to us. The questionnaires were distributed to the willing respondents by visiting them or mailing them online. Researchers intentionally distributed more questionnaires i.e. 130 due to the low response rate of the respondents. But out of those 130 questionnaires only 94 usable questionnaires are collected that are used as a primary data source in this study. In the similar setting researchers like Malik, Tirmizi, and Chaudary (2006) have also evidenced the limited response rate of teachers because the teachers whose ages lies between 30 to 45 years are comparatively less participative in surveys, particularly private institutions' teachers avoided to record their true opinions regarding job security. The questionnaire which is a research instrument of this study comprises of 5-parts including a different number of questions related to demographics, job security, leadership, and organizational identification. The number of items of each variable that are used in the questionnaire, along with their Cronbach's alpha value and the sources from where they developed are shown in table 1 below. A questionnaire is consisted of 32 questions out of which question no. 1-4 are demographic, 5-13 belong to leadership, 14-23 related to organizational identification, and 24-32 belongs to job security. Data is analyzed by using Smart Partial Least Square structural equation modeling (Smart PLS-SEM) and this software is used to show an effective and reliable analysis graphically, analysis includes the frequency analysis, descriptive analysis, measurement model analysis, reliability analysis, validity analysis, Structural modeling analysis, etc. Furthermore, hierarchical regression was performed to test the influence of some determinants without the influence of others. Table 2 shows that out of the 130, 94 respondents that were considered for this study, the 48 were male (51.1%) and 46 were female (48.9%). Furthermore, the marital status of all the respondent that took part in the survey questionnaire shows that out of the 94 the 54 were single, (57.4%) and 40 were married (42.6%). Moreover, the age of the respondents that took part in the questionnaire survey has frequencies i.e., 29 were below the age of 25 (30.9%; the majority of the respondents), 24 were between 26 and 30 years (25.5%), 22 were between the ages of 31 and 35 years (23.4%) and 19 respondents were above the age of 35 years (20.2%). It was found that out of the 94 respondents that are considered for this research, none of them have an intermediate degree (0.00%), beside that 26 have a Bachelor's degree (27.7%), 50 have a Master's degree (53.2%; the majority of the respondents) and 18 respondents have a degree other than these (19.1%). In Table 3 above, the Pearson's correlation coefficient is showing that leadership is (0.263) correlated with organization identification. In addition, leadership is (0.184) correlated with job security which is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). The descriptive analysis helps to understand and present demographic factors about the population using statistical measures such as mean, mode, and median. Standard deviation denotes how dispersed the values are, and it basically tells about the dispersion of the data. Average and standard deviation for the variables are as follows: Leadership (μ=5.2, SD=1.0), organization identification (μ=4.5, SD=0.8), and job security (μ=4.5, SD=0.8).

Measurement Model
The measurement model is the model that analyses the relationship between the latent variables and their measured values. Table 4 Summary of Measurement Model

Validity and Reliability Analysis
Another thing is to test the construct empirically which is suggested by (Nascimento & Bernardes, 2014), for this purpose convergent validities and discriminant validities of the sample are to be checked, here from the above Table 4.

Convergent validity:
The averages variance extracted (AVE) for job security, leadership, and organizational identification are 0.53, 0.75 and 0.57 respectively as shown in table-4 above, and all the values are above the minimum acceptable limit i.e., 0.50 (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988), Hence it was cleared that the convergent validity exists in the given sample, which shows that our all constructs which we considered theoretically related are in fact related.

Composite Reliability:
The composite reliability is helpful in enquiring whether the given sample is fully free from biases or if the responses 'on the whole' are reliable enough. Composite reliability coefficients b/w 0.60 and 0.70 are considered good and acceptable in exploratory research, while coefficients of 0.70 and 0.90 are considered appropriate for the other types of research (Sarstedt, Ringle, Smith, Reams, & Hair Jr, 2014). Moreover, composite reliability of items has shown in above table-4, which was calculated separately for each determinant, through Smart-PLS; For Job security, its value is 0.85 and for leadership, its value is 0.96 in the same way its value for organizational identification is 0.88, as shown in table-3 above. All determinants of the study have their reliability coefficient greater than the lowest standardized level of 0.4, which is a suitable value for exploratory research and also greater than the value 0.70, which is considered fit for confirmatory studies (Hulland, 1999). So from these evidences we can say that our sample is truly free from bias and is reliable for study.

Discriminant Validity:
In this validity, the basic focus is to see the distinction between the variables, it basically tells us about the extent to which one determinant or variable is distinct from the other, i.e. to which level one variable correlate with other(s), and to which level the indicators describes a variable (Hair, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2013).  Table 4; while the off-diagonal values are the correlations among variables. As all the Averages of the square root are greater than the correlation coefficient values, so this is deduced that the discriminant validity also exists in the given sample of data (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Figure 2. Structural Model
The above figure is the structural model of the framework of this study. It is evident from this model that there is a strong connection between leadership and organizational identification and also a strong bond existed between organizational identification and job security, moreover leadership and job security have a week connection which is also proved from literature i.e. the Goretzki (2016) claimed that job security of employees is not strongly affected by leadership and its styles. Besides this, the outer-loadings also proves a good fit for this model as all their values are above or equal to 0.5 except one outer-loading which is O10, but it is not excluded.

H1: Leadership has an impact on job security of teachers in private institutions of Punjab, Pakistan. (Not Supported)
By the analysis, we have concluded that 'there is no significant relationship between leadership and job security' of the teachers in private institutions of Punjab i.e., (P-Value: 0.128084; T-Statistics: 0.365743), as given in table-6 above. It is found that p-value associated with a 95% confidence level greater than 0.05 and Tstatistics is less than the cut-off value of 1.96, therefore hypothesis # 1 is not supported. This result is consistent with Goretzki (2016) who showed in-significant relationship among job security and leadership in his study because the employees who have good relationships with their leaders or are friends of their leaders or belong to their casts or family often feel themselves more secure in their jobs as compared to other employees. If the leader keep friendly behavior and interact with some employees leniently and in a friendly way, such employees feel their jobs much secure because they remain comfortable with their leaders' attitude and don't even think that their leader will cancel their employment. Moreover, in some institutions the hierarchy of management is set up in such a way where a leader's job is just to manage the workers besides this he/she has no such rights to recruit new employees or to rusticate any, only owners keep this power into their own hands.

H2: Leadership has an impact on organizational identification of teachers in private institutions of Punjab, Pakistan. (Supported)
It was evident through results shown in table-6 above, that there is an appropriate relation among 'Leadership and organizational identification of teachers, employed in private institutions of Punjab. As the (P-Value: 0.048108; T-Statistics: 5.626794), as given in table-6. It is found that p-value associated with a 95% confidence level lesser than 0.05 and T-statistics is greater than cut-off value of 1.96, therefore hypothesis #2 is supported. So it is cleared that leadership has an impact on organizational identification because if leadership is neutral and supportive the employees work honestly with their organizations and they love to know more and more about their firm and always feel proud to introduce themselves by the names of their organizations. It is also proved from the literature review, Shore and Martin (1989) said that leadership plays an important role in making employees loyal to their work and to their organizations. Goretzki (2016) also said that good leadership can make campus pollution-free and make employees loyal and aware about their organizations. Besides this Organizational identification is improved by the way as suggested by Van Dick, Wagner, Stellmacher, and Christ (2004), who stated that the identification of the work-groups operating in an organization, is actually made the employees to identify their organizational. If the activities of workgroups are being promoted in an organization then the level of its employees' organizational identification can be improved. In order to act upon this suggestion, the private colleges' management have needed hardly to arrange the grouped and team-building events in an informal manner. Such teamed or grouped activities give teachers the opportunity to share their experience to one another and allow them to talk openly which leads them towards identifying each other and also made them aware of their organizations, and hence human capital of the private colleges can be saved and the turnover rate can be minimized.

H3: Organizational identification has an impact on job security of teachers in private institutions of Punjab, Pakistan. (Supported)
It was cleared by the results that organizational identification and teachers' job security, who are employed in private institutions, have a significant relationship among them. As the values of P and T are; (P-Value: 0.043033; T-Statistics: 5.949441), as given in table-6. It is found that p-value associated with a 95% confidence level lesser than 0.05 and T-statistics is greater than cut-off value of 1.96, therefore hypothesis # 3 is supported. This means organizational identification have a positive impact over the job security level of employee/teachers i.e. if an employee identifies his/her organizational the level of job security of such employee is higher. This result satisfied the research results of Goretzki (2016) whose results also show a positive relationship of organizational identification with the dependent variable i.e. job security. Besides this, it is relevant from the findings of (Amstrong-Stassen, 1993;Rauter & Feather, 2004) who described that job security and organizational identification have a strong relationship with each other. But it was evident that there is a link between job satisfaction and organizational identification, as claimed by Shore & Martin (1989). The employees who like or love their jobs can feel their jobs very safe and secure. In order to verify this premise, further research is required in which job security, job satisfaction, and organization identification are considered as determinants and one of them is might be used as a mediating variable. The research can be executed easily through a survey.

Mediation
The basic characteristic of a mediating outcome (i.e., indirect effect or mediation) is that it involves a third variable that plays an intermediate role in the relationship between the independent and dependent variables (Nitzl, Roldan, & Cepeda, 2016).
Technically speaking, the effect of the independent variable X on the dependent variable Y is mediated by a third variable, M, called the mediating variable or mediator (See Figure 1). Therefore, when we articulating mediation proposition, as according to Preacher and Hayes (2008) it is stated that on "how, or by what means, an independent variable (X) affects a dependent variable (Y) through one or more potential intervening variables, or mediators (M)." On the basis of this understanding in this study, we have separately tested the paths and found that leadership and job security (P-Value 0.128084; T-Statistics 0.365743), (Given in table-6) was not support. Moreover, leadership and organizational identification (P-Value 0.048108; T-Statistics 5.626794), (Given in table-6), was supported and lastly the relationship between organizational identification and job security (P-Value 0.043033; T-Statistics 5.949441), (Given in table-6), was also supported. Therefore according to Zhao, Lynch Jr, and Chen (2010), this type of mediation is known as "Indirect-only mediation" which is explained as to have a mediation effect exists between variable "a" and "b" but no direct effect.
Therefore, under the light of these evidences and strong references we can say that Leadership and job security have no significant relationship but as 'leadership and organizational identification' & 'organizational identification and job security' have significant and proved relationships hence we have concluded that organizational identification is acting as "Indirect-only mediator" between leadership and job security (Zhao, Lynch Jr, & Chen, 2010) in our conceptual framework. (See Figure 1)

Recommendations
Findings of research provide an understanding of the job security level of the teachers of private colleges of Southern Punjab, Pakistan, and thus gave practitioners i.e. HR managers some ideas in understanding how to maintain the job security level of their respective human force and hence saving their human capital. Leaders should focus on each teacher and give them importance in the decision making process i.e., they may take suggestions and feedback from teachers of every level according to their respective roles in the colleges. In order to increase the Organizational identification of the employee leaders can play a crucial role, they should be needed to develop such an idealistic atmosphere in which the workers feel comfortable to work and they can ask and say their problems and opinions without hesitation. Besides, they can be provided with equal chances to grow and develop without any favoritism. Moreover, the colleges also have a responsibility to take care of their respective employees and they should be given their full rights including financial benefits, medication, less work Burdon, free studying package to their children and conveyance facilities and all other facilities which they have needed to better survive in the working environment. Model of this research is also utilized by other organizations in similar work settings in order to enhance their employees' job security level

Future research and Limitation
This will be expected that this research will open new doors for future workings in the area of Human resource management (HRM).
This quantitative research work also raise some other queries and gives chances to researchers for future work, in looking for the answers to these arisen queries. It is recommended that for further research, one may use job satisfaction as one of the determinants for job security, it may be used as a mediator or moderator. Leadership and job satisfaction can also be used as sub-variables of organizational identification. For future research, this will also be important to get into focus some of the conditions or situations occurring in the working atmosphere, i.e. contraventions affecting the level of belief and shake the confidence level of the employees within the organizations. Therefore the future research can be made by considering this aspect if we want to maintain the job security level of employees in every organization and securing the human capital. Moreover, some more demographic attributes can also be considered and the sample size can also be increased to get more efficient and generalized results, in the future. Besides this, job security is a sensitive topic for sub-ordinates, they often feel hesitation to answer some personal questions related to their job and hence fill the questionnaire in hesitation, by giving some desirable answers, so it is suggested for future research to arrange interviews as data collection technique so that more authentic information can be retrieved.