The Impact of Job Insecurity on Employee Happiness at Work: A Case of Robotised Production Line Operators in Furniture Industry in Lithuania

Živilė Stankevičiūtė,Eglė Staniškienė,Joana Ramanauskaitė

doi:10.3390/su13031563

Živilė Stankevičiūtė, Eglė Staniškienė + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031563

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Feb 2, 2021
Citations: 14	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Kaunas University of Technology

Abstract

As a result of intensive robotisation over the past decade, employees have been constantly experiencing job insecurity, a term which refers to the perceived threat of job loss and the worries related to this threat. Previous studies have supported the detrimental effect of job insecurity on employees; however, the focus on happiness at work is still missing, despite the notion that a happy employee is essentially contributing to sustainable business performance. Trying to narrow the gap, the paper aims at revealing the linkage between job insecurity and happiness at work and its dimensions, namely job satisfaction, affective organisational commitment, and work engagement. Building on the hindrance stressor dimension of the stress model, and conservation of resources and psychological contract theories, the paper claims that a negative relationship exists between the constructs. Quantitative data were collected in a survey of robotised production line operators working in the furniture sector in Lithuania. As predicted, the results revealed that job insecurity had a negative impact on happiness at work as a higher-order construct and all of its dimensions. This finding should be taken seriously by organisations creating a robotised production environment while striving for sustainability.

Highlights

Over the past few decades, a growing conviction has emerged that our society is entering a new phase, called “robot society” [1], when robots create a fundamental shift in economies and transform the nature of work [2]
Treating job insecurity as a hindrance stressor and relying on the conservation of resources and psychological contract theories, the paper claimed a negative association between job insecurity and happiness at work, including job satisfaction, affective organisational commitment, and work engagement
The current paper expanded the scope of the prior literature while concentrating on the second-order construct and the way it was influenced by job insecurity

Summary

Introduction

Over the past few decades, a growing conviction has emerged that our society is entering a new phase, called “robot society” [1], when robots create a fundamental shift in economies and transform the nature of work [2]. As job insecurity is expected to continue and remain inevitable in the contemporary world [15], extensive research has been carried out on the impact of job insecurity on employees and organisations, reporting mainly detrimental effects [16,17,18,19]. Such negative effects do not correspond to the essence of sustainability but rather contradict it, as sustainability refers to the idea that organisations serve the needs of multiple stakeholders and have a broader range of obligations besides economic. Social aspects, the perceived threat of job loss, should be taken into consideration by organisations when striving for sustainability

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