Abstract
Many research studies have brought up job insecurity as an increasingly serious problem in organizations. Research on job insecurity and psychological contract violations attributes impaired well-being and negative attitudes toward the organization to the fear of job loss. Research efforts have also been directed at identifying how negative consequences of downsizing and job insecurity can be mitigated. Very little is known, however, about how attempts to deal with job insecurity may differ between unionized and non-unionized employees. The present paper, therefore, focuses on the type of social support that is provided by the union, and asks to what extent unionized and non-unionized employees differ with respect to how they deal with experiences of job insecurity. We begin our investigation with a theoretical discussion of job insecurity and how it can be considered a breach of the psychological contract. The exit, voice, and loyalty framework is used in order to understand how union members and non-members may cope with job insecurity. Our empirical investigations are based on data from a sample of nurses in a Swedish health care organization going through downsizing. We relate our results both to the exit, voice, loyalty framework, as well as to theories regarding the psychological contract.
Published Version
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