Cognitive Job Insecurity Research Articles

Measurement invariance of cognitive and affective job insecurity: A cross-national study

Empirical evidence of established measurement invariance of job insecurity measures may enhance the practical utility of job insecurity as a valid predictor when utilised over different cross-national samples. This study investigated the measurement invariance of the nine-item versions of the Job Security Index (a measure of cognitive job insecurity) and the Job Security Satisfaction Scale (a measure of affective job insecurity), across four countries (i.e. the United States, N = 486; China, N = 629; Italy, N = 482 and South Africa, N = 345). Based on a novel bifactor-(S-1) model approach we found evidence for partial metric, partial scalar and partial strict invariance of our substantive bifactor-(S-1) structure. The results extend measurement invariance research on job insecurity with obvious pragmatic implications (e.g. scaling units, measurement bias over cross-national interpretations).Contribution: This research provides evidence to support the applied use of cross-national comparisons of job insecurity scores across the nationalities included in this study. Theoretically, this research advances the debate about the nature of the relationship between cognitive and affective job insecurity, suggesting that in this cross-national dataset, a model where cognitive job insecurity is specified as the reference domain outperforms a model where affective job insecurity is assigned this status. Practically, it demonstrates that it is sensible and necessary to differentiate between cognitive and affective job insecurity and include measures of both constructs in future research on the construct.

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Job Insecurity Scale (JIS) in Brazil and cross-national analysis of Job Insecurity effects in Brazil and Spain

BackgroundJob flexibilisation has increased interest in job insecurity and its consequences. Job insecurity, understood as a fear of losing employment, is linked to a deterioration of mental health, social relations or job satisfaction. Its study has been developed primarily in Europe, in the absence of validated psychometric scales in the Latin American context. To bridge this knowledge gap, the aim of this study is to cross-culturally adapt the Job Insecurity Scale (JIS) in Brazil, and secondly, to establish a cross-national analysis between people employed in Brazil and Spain.MethodsAs criteria for the sample, people with formally established employment in Brazil and Spain were selected. For the scale adaptation process, a sequence of EFA, CFA and validity tests are carried out, as well as a multigroup invariance according to the gender variable. The cross-national comparison compares the effect sizes of affective and cognitive job insecurity on the mental health variable measured with the GHQ-28 scale in both countries.Results1165 employed people participate in the study, of whom 573 reside in Brazil and 592 in Spain. The results of the scale adaptation show that the JIS is suitable for use in the Brazilian employment context. The scale offers a factorialisation in two dimensions (affective and cognitive) (CFI = 0.993; TLI = 0.987; RMSEA = 0.04; SRMR = 0.049; GFI = 0.999; NFI = 0.980) with good reliability (ω > 0.84). The cross-national comparison shows that job insecurity has a greater weight in explaining the mental health of the employed population in Brazil than in Spain, which is related to higher indicators of job insecurity in the Brazilian context.ConclusionsWith this validation we now have a validated scale of job insecurity validated for the Brazilian context. The comparison between countries shows the need to establish these analyses, since the behaviour of the phenomenon is different in the contexts studied.

AI in the Workplace: Uncovering Its Impact on Employee Well-being and the Role of Cognitive Job Insecurity

AI in the Workplace: Uncovering Its Impact on Employee Well-being and the Role of Cognitive Job Insecurity

A Longitudinal Investigation of the Roles of Cognitive and Affective Job Insecurity Before and During the Pandemic

Abstract: Background: While an increasing body of research has examined employees’ job insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, we know little about the role of cognitive and affective job insecurity in the pandemic context. Methods: We conducted a two-wave study on 211 service employees in South Korea to assess the indirect effect of their cognitive job insecurity that existed before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic on their job performance after the onset of the pandemic, via affective job insecurity. Results: Mediation analysis revealed that pre-COVID cognitive job insecurity significantly indirectly affected mid-COVID job performance through mid-COVID affective job insecurity. Further, we found this indirect effect significant only among female employees. Discussion: These findings underscore the long-term effects of cognitive job insecurity on job performance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Differential Antecedents and Consequences of Affective and Cognitive Ruminations.

Adopting the information processing perspective, the current study aims to investigate the differential effects of affective and cognitive ruminations on individuals’ affective states and learning behavior, and to further explore their differential mediating roles in transmitting effects of challenge and hindrance stressors on affect and behavior. A two-wave survey, in which stressors and ruminations were measured in the first wave and affective states and learning behavior were measured in the second, was conducted to obtain responses from 410 employees. As expected, affective and cognitive ruminations were differently associated with challenge stressors (i.e., cognitive job insecurity) and hindrance stressors (i.e., interpersonal conflict), and yielded different effects in terms of positive affect, negative affect, and learning behavior. Specifically, the results showed that: (a) cognitive job insecurity was significantly and positively related to cognitive rumination, while interpersonal conflict was significantly and positively related to affective rumination; (b) affective and cognitive ruminations were significantly associated with positive or negative affect, but in the exact opposite direction; (c) cognitive rumination, but not affective rumination, was significantly related to learning behavior; and (d) cognitive rumination mediated the effect of cognitive job insecurity on positive affect and learning behavior, while affective rumination mediated the effect of interpersonal conflict on negative affect. The current study contributes to the literature on rumination by introducing a new perspective, and sheds new light on the understanding of how and why affective and cognitive ruminations may lead to different affective states and behaviors.

Does a stick work? A meta‐analytic examination of curvilinear relationships between job insecurity and employee workplace behaviors

SummaryThe job insecurity literature has been limited by the dominant linear view on the effects of job insecurity and the misconception that the conceptualizations and operationalizations of job insecurity across studies are homogenous. To challenge these two assumptions, we contrast the integrated perspective based on social exchange theory and job preservation motivation with activation theory and propose competing hypotheses for the curvilinear relationships between job insecurity and employee behavioral outcomes, including task performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), creative performance, safety behavior, and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). We also examine the moderating roles of different conceptualizations of job insecurity (i.e., cognitive vs. affective job insecurity; quantitative vs. qualitative job insecurity) in the proposed curvilinear relationships. Our meta‐analysis demonstrates that the negative relationships of job insecurity with task performance and OCB‐organization turn positive after inflection points, supporting the integrated perspective of social exchange theory and job preservation motivation but not activation theory. Moreover, the negative relationships of job insecurity with OCB‐individual and creative performance turn nonsignificant as job insecurity further increases. Finally, job insecurity has a linear, negative relationship with safety behavior, but a linear, positive relationship with CWB‐organization. Interestingly, affective job insecurity has lower inflection points than cognitive job insecurity, and qualitative job insecurity has lower inflection points than quantitative job insecurity. This study provides a deep and fine‐grained understanding of the curvilinear relationships between job insecurity and workplace behaviors and pushes the literature forward by focusing on the nuanced differences among various types of job insecurity.

Acting Proactively to Manage Job Insecurity: How Worrying About the Future of One's Job May Obstruct Future-Focused Thinking and Behavior.

An increasing number of people experience insecurity about the future of their job, making it more important than ever to manage this insecurity. While previous research suggests that proactive coping is a promising way to alleviate job insecurity, we suggest that, paradoxically, it may be particularly difficult to act proactively when feeling emotionally distressed about the future of one’s job. Drawing on the principle of resource scarcity and the Conservation of Resources theory, we propose that affective job insecurity ignites a scarcity mindset that inhibits workers’ future focus and cognitive functioning, thereby undermining proactive career behavior. Additionally, we examine whether income adequacy can compensate for these negative consequences of job insecurity. Results of a three-wave survey study among 108 self-employed professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that initial affective job insecurity was negatively related to cognitive functioning but unrelated to future focus. Yet, the latter relationship was moderated by income adequacy: affective job insecurity was positively related to future focus when participants reported high income adequacy. In turn, future focus was positively related to proactive career behavior, which was subsequently related to lower cognitive job insecurity. Thus, while replicating the finding that workers can proactively manage their cognitive job insecurity, we also showed that initial affective job insecurity may obstruct people’s cognitive functioning. We discuss how our results signal a Matthew effect, in which job insecure people with sufficient means are able to look ahead and proactively build resources to change their career, while job insecure people with insufficient means may fall behind.

Digital Transformation and Subjective Job Insecurity in Germany

Abstract The present study examines to what extent employees in Germany are afraid of losing their jobs, depending on the degree of computerization of their occupations. So far, empirical evidence on the relationship between digital transformation and subjective job insecurity is scarce. We distinguish three interrelated insecurity measures: cognitive job insecurity, i.e. the individual assessment of job loss probability, labour market insecurity, i.e. the perceived availability of job alternatives, and affective job insecurity, i.e. the extent to which individuals are worried about a potential job loss. The analysis is based on a large-scale panel study from Germany and refers to the period between 2013 and 2016. Computerization is measured by the occupation-specific substitution potential, i.e. the extent to which occupational tasks are substitutable by computers or computer-controlled machines. The results from multivariate panel analysis suggest that the digital transformation has a negative impact on cognitive job insecurity. We do not find effects on labour market insecurity and affective job insecurity.

Mental Well-being Among Workers: A Cross-national Analysis of Job Insecurity Impact on the Workforce

Drawing on 2011 and 2016 European Quality of Life Survey data from eight European countries, this paper considers the importance of subjective indicators of employment conditions in impacting mental well-being. Among employment conditions, job insecurity has been discussed as having a negative impact on mental well-being by enhancing the worker’s sense of unpredictability. The idea of losing one’s job brings with it the fear of an uncertain or unclear future and the sense of lack of agency—i.e. feeling powerless with respect to the risk of becoming unemployed. Thus, we investigate two dimensions of job insecurity, namely ‘cognitive job insecurity’ and ‘labour market insecurity’. Our dependent variable is mental health well-being, measured using the 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5), which is a self-reported health scale validated by several studies and internationally adopted for measuring psychological well-being. We apply a fixed-effects model and use a set of individual control variables to obtain parameter estimates. Moreover, to control for country-level heterogeneity, two macro-level variables are considered: the type of welfare regime and employment protection. The novelty of this research lies in disentangling the concept of precariousness from the dichotomy of open-ended/non-open-ended contract and in including in the analysis subjective categories such as self-perceived job insecurity. The findings of our study suggest that self-perceived job insecurity is negatively related to mental well-being for both permanent and temporary workers, making this stressor an important feature in predicting the emergence of psychological distress (i.e. feelings of anxiety or depression) among the workforce.

Why and when cognitive job insecurity relates to affective job insecurity? A three-study exploration of negative rumination and the tendency to negative gossip

ABSTRACT The job insecurity literature distinguishes between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity where cognitive job insecurity reflects perceptions regarding the likelihood of total job loss or job features loss and affective job insecurity refers to emotional reactions to that potential loss. Indeed, affective job insecurity is demonstrated to be an affective reaction to cognitive job insecurity. However, the relationship between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity may be neither direct nor unconditional. Drawing from cognitive appraisal theory, this research takes a nuanced approach to exploring the mediating role of negative work rumination and the moderating role of the tendency to negative gossip in the relationship between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity. We examined our hypotheses using three time-lagged survey studies with employees recruited from the U.S. and China. These studies found that negative work rumination mediated the relation between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity (Studies 1–3) and the tendency to negative gossip attenuated the positive relation between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity (Studies 1 and 2). Thus, this research advances the job insecurity literature by identifying a mediator and a moderator in the process of how employees may experience job insecurity.

Associations between cognitive and affective job insecurity and incident purchase of psychotropic drugs: A prospective cohort study of Swedish employees

BackgroundPrevious research suggests that job insecurity is associated with poor mental health, but research examining how different aspects of job insecurity relate to clinical measures of poor mental health are lacking. We aimed to investigate the association between cognitive and affective job insecurity and incident purchases of psychotropic drugs. MethodsWe included 14,586 employees participating in the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH), who answered questions on cognitive and/or affective job insecurity in 2010, 2012 or 2014. Respondents were followed in the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register (2.5 years on average). We investigated the association between job insecurity and incident psychotropic drugs with marginal structural Cox models. ResultsAffective job insecurity was associated with an increased risk of purchasing any psychotropic drugs (Hazard Ratio (HR) 1.40 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.04–1.89)) while cognitive job insecurity was not (HR 1.15 (95% CI 0.92–1.43)). Cognitive and affective job insecurity were both associated with antidepressants, affective job insecurity with anxiolytics, but no association was found with sedatives. Women and younger workers seemed to have higher risk compared to men and older workers, but differences were not statistically significant. LimitationsAlthough job insecurity and psychotropic drugs were assessed through independent sources and several covariates were considered, unmeasured confounding cannot be ruled out. ConclusionsThe findings support that affective job insecurity is a risk factor for psychotropic drug treatment, that it may be relevant to distinguish between different types of job insecurity, and to consider sex and age as moderating factors.

The institutionalization of part-time work: Cross-national differences in the relationship between part-time work and perceived insecurity

We propose an institutionalization of part-time work model to account for the cross-national variation in workers' perceptions of insecurity in their jobs and in the labor market, arguing that part-time work is institutionalized as high quality or marginal employment depending on the extent to which it is voluntary, gendered, and legally protected. Using heterogeneous choice models on 2005 ISSP data linked to country-level characteristics, we find that the relationship between part-time work and insecurity is gendered and contingent upon the type of insecurity (cognitive job insecurity, labor market insecurity, or affective job insecurity) and whether or not one works part-time on a voluntary basis. At the individual level, working in a part-time job is associated with greater cognitive job insecurity but lower labor market and affective job insecurity. At the national level, the expected negative association between the part-time work rate and insecurity is most consistent for affective job insecurity. The findings also indicate that the strength of the association between working in a part-time job and insecurity varies by the national institutional context of part-time work, including the degree of gender segregation of part-time work and legal protections for part-time workers. Overall, the results from this study provide support for our institutionalization of part-time work perspective. Part-time work is not inherently secure or insecure employment. The amount of insecurity associated with this type of non-standard work is contingent upon the prevailing local myths or scripts that structure the ways that the state, employers, and workers view part-time work.

A comparison between cognitive and affective job insecurities

Background Cognitive and affective job insecurity are compared in six aspects related to employment: job loss, worsening of tasks, schedule, salary and workplace, and difficulties over finding an alternative job (also known as labor market insecurity). Methods: Cross-sectional study. Data comes from the third Spanish Psychosocial Risks Survey (2016) which is a representative sample of the Spanish salaried population. Results: Affective responses are more variable than cognitive ones resulting in a low degree of answer concordance (IC95% Kappa = 0.08–0.13 to 0.18–0.23). There is a significant percentage of workers (22.5–50.3%) highly concerned about their future despite perceiving low probabilities of experiencing the specific insecurity threat, except for the labor market insecurity question. Conclusion: The differences observed in the degree of insecurity between the affective and the cognitive forms confirm that they are measuring different components of the insecurity construct. These differences are partly due to the economic situation of their households.

Cognitive and Affective Job Insecurity: A Meta-Analysis and a Primary Study

Job insecurity is one of the most common stressors in contemporary working life. Although research indicates that the job insecurity construct has cognitive (i.e., the perceived negative change to one’s job) and affective (i.e., the emotional reactions to the potential change to one’s job) components, scholars rarely apply this distinction between cognitive and affective job insecurity in their conceptualization and theory development. On the basis of 535 independent samples, a meta-analysis in Study 1 found that (1) job insecurity was significantly related to 51 out of 56 outcomes and correlates; (2) affective job insecurity had stronger relations with the majority of outcomes and correlates than did cognitive job insecurity as well as explained valid, unique variance in outcomes and correlates above and beyond cognitive job insecurity; and (3) in most cases, affective job insecurity mediated the relationships between cognitive job insecurity and its outcomes. Furthermore, Study 2 examines a moderator that may explain why individuals with the same level of cognitive job insecurity may display different levels of affective job insecurity. Specifically, we found a stronger relationship between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity among individuals with high work centrality with two samples. Overall, results demonstrate that it is empirically meaningful to treat cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity as two separate constructs and that affective job insecurity is more closely related to employee outcomes than is cognitive job insecurity. Future research could further assess affective job insecurity and continue to explore moderators and mediators in the cognitive job insecurity–affective job insecurity relationship.

Does turnover intention mediate the effects of job insecurity and co-worker support on social loafing?

This study explores the relationships between job insecurity, co-worker support, social loafing and turnover intention, specifically the mediating effect of turnover intention in the relationship between job insecurity, co-worker support and social loafing. It uses social exchange theory and norm of reciprocity theory to look investigate turnover intention. Data were collected from a questionnaire distributed to 222 restaurant employees in Mersin, Turkey. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research hypotheses. While the mediating effect of turnover intention in both the relationship between co-worker support and social loafing and between affective job insecurity and social loafing is fully supported, the mediating effect of turnover intention in the relationship between cognitive job insecurity and social loafing is only partially supported. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

Job Insecurity: A Comprehensive Integration of Research Findings

Given the prevalence of job insecurity and the adverse consequences of job insecurity, this symposium seeks to deepen our understanding of the job insecurity process. Job insecurity can be defined as the perceived negative change to one's job (e.g., losing one's job or attractive job features) and emotional reactions to the perceived change to one's job (e.g., worry). Thus, job insecurity can be conceptualized as cognitive and affective job insecurity or job feature insecurity and job loss insecurity. The five empirical articles in this symposium, therefore, reflect these different conceptualizations of the job insecurity construct. Specifically, the first two articles focus on cognitive and affective job insecurity, while the last three articles focus on job loss job insecurity and/or job feature job insecurity. Moreover, deriving from diverse theoretical foundations, these five articles examine antecedents, outcomes, mediators, and moderators in the job insecurity process. Specifically, building on the emotional contagion literature, the first article explores antecedents (i.e., joy-absorbed, fear- absorbed) of cognitive and affective job insecurity. Drawing from cognitive appraisal theory, the second article examines the mediator (i.e., work rumination) and moderator (i.e., negative gossip) in the relation between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity. Using job crafting as the theoretical foundation, the third article tests a moderated mediation model where I-deals mediate and grit moderates the relation between job loss insecurity and a host of outcomes. Based on conservation of resources theory, the fourth article examines the mediation role of work-family conflict and the moderation role of work centrality in the relation between job feature insecurity and subjective well-being. The last article, drawing on the literature on different foci of employee commitment and proactivity, builds a mediated moderation model to compare the differential effects of job loss insecurity and job feature insecurity.

Cognitive and Affective Job Insecurity: A Meta-analysis

Job insecurity is one of the most common stressors in contemporary working life. Although research indicates that the job insecurity construct has cognitive (i.e., the perceived negative change to one’s job; e.g., losing one’s job or attractive job features) and affective components (i.e., the emotional reactions to the potential change to one’s job; e.g., concern, worry, anxiety, fear), scholars rarely apply this distinction in their conceptualization and theory development. Thus, this meta- analysis aims to: 1) quantitatively examine the outcomes and correlates of job insecurity, 2) explore whether it is empirically meaningful to differentiate cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity, and 3) investigate whether affective job insecurity mediates the relationships between cognitive job insecurity and employee outcomes. The meta-analytic results based on 535 independent samples largely provide support for our hypotheses. We found that job insecurity was significantly related to 51 out of 56 outcomes and correlates examined in this study. Although cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity were highly correlated (ρ=.65), affective job insecurity had stronger relationships with the majority of outcomes and correlates than cognitive job insecurity. Moreover, in most cases, affective job insecurity mediated the relationships between cognitive job insecurity and its outcomes. Overall, results provide evidence that it is empirically meaningful to treat cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity as two separate constructs. Future research may pay more attention to affective job insecurity and explore the mediators and moderators in the cognitive job insecurity – affective job insecurity relationship.

Job insecurity and the emotional and behavioural consequences thereof

The aim of this study was to investigate the relations among negative emotional reactions (reduced affective organisational commitment and higher job-related stress), and behavioural reactions to job insecurity (coping behaviour). A non-experimental correlation research design was used and the participants were a convenience sample of employees working for a private hospital in Gauteng, South Africa (N = 242). The measuring instruments included the Job Insecurity Inventory, the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire, the Experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire, and the COPE Questionnaire. The results showed that job insecurity was associated with job-related stress. Affective job insecurity was associated with detachment from the organisation, while cognitive job insecurity was associated with low identification with the organisation. Experiences of affective job insecurity, job-related stress, and low organisational commitment were associated with the use of avoidance coping strategies. Employees who experienced cognitive job insecurity (compared to those who experienced lower cognitive job insecurity) were less inclined to apply active coping strategies, even if their job-related stress was low.

Is job insecurity compensated for by employment and income security?

The so-called flexicurity approach suggests that security for employees can be successfully combined with flexibility for organizations and companies. This article studies if affective job insecurity (worry about losing one’s job) is compensated for by perceptions of employment security (possibilities of finding an equal or better job) and income security. Data derive from a survey carried out in 2010 among employees in Sweden. The main findings are that cognitive job insecurity (the perceived risk of job loss) increases affective job insecurity, whereas both employment and income security have the opposite effect. Moreover, cognitive job insecurity and employment security interact, implying that the effect of cognitive job insecurity on affective job insecurity is reduced in the presence of employment security but is reinforced in the absence of it. These results are discussed in relation to the flexicurity approach, concluding that flexicurity may be a risky venture for employees.

Differentiating cognitive and affective job insecurity: Antecedents and outcomes

SummaryTo test a proposed model of the job insecurity (JI) process that treats cognitive JI and affective JI as separate constructs, this study investigates organizational‐level employee involvement and communication practices that influence the level of cognitive JI; increasing levels of cognitive JI in turn can create an affective reaction (i.e., affective JI). This affective reaction then influences individual psychological and behavioral outcomes. With two waves of data from three large Chinese organizations, the model test results show that employee involvement decreases cognitive JI perceptions. This reduction then leads to lower affective JI. Affective JI in turn relates negatively to employee psychological well‐being but positively to both supervisor‐rated job performance and affective JI six months later. The effect of cognitive JI on employee outcomes is partially through affective JI. Cognitive JI has a direct impact on psychological well‐being but not on job performance. These findings offer key theoretical and practical implications. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.