Low Job Insecurity Research Articles

Examining the mediating effects of motivation between job insecurity and innovative behavior using a variable-centered and a person-centered approach.

The fierce market competition environment makes employees feel insecure at work. While it is difficult for enterprises to provide employees with a sense of security, they have to rely on employees' innovative behavior to seek competitive advantage. Therefore, this study focuses on how employees engage in innovative behavior when they face job insecurity. Using a variable-centered approach, this study aims to examine the mediating effects of intrinsic and impression management motivation in the relationship between quantitative and qualitative job insecurity and innovative behavior, including proactive and reactive innovative behavior. In addition, a person-centered approach is used to investigate whether it is possible to distinguish different combinations of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity, and examine the effect of these job insecurity profiles on motivation and innovative behavior. We used 503 data sets collected via the Credamo platform in China into the data analysis. The study found that quantitative job insecurity affects proactive and reactive innovative behavior through impression management motivation and that qualitative job insecurity affects proactive and reactive innovative behavior through intrinsic and impression management motivation. In addition, three job insecurity profiles were identified: balanced high job insecurity, balanced low job insecurity, and a profile dominated by high quantitative job insecurity, all of which have significantly different effects on motivation and innovative behavior. This study contributes to provide new insights into the relationship between job insecurity and innovative behavior and compensate for the limitation of the traditional variable-centered approach that cannot capture heterogeneity within the workforce.

Taking gains from trade (more) seriously: the effects of consumer perspective on free trade in contemporary Japan

Abstract Why do people's preferences towards trade liberalization fluctuate? And why do we observe the eventual return of public support towards free trade? The traditional literature in international political economy has typically calculated individuals' preferences based on their comparative advantage as income-earners, which arises from their specific or general skill level or employment status. What needs to be taken into account, however, is that their economic preferences are constructed based upon their intertwined identities as both income-earners and consumers. We designed and conducted an experiment in Japan (2015) that would impartially elicit answers regarding respondents' daily consumption patterns or (and) employment concerns rather than deliberately or artificially informing them of the potential benefits or harms of trade liberalization. The results display that consumer priming offsets negative impacts arising from employment priming. The consumer effect reduces individuals' concerns on income level or employment when they are exposed to consumer and employment primings simultaneously. Furthermore, our subgroup analyses reveal that the consumer effect remains even among those experiencing economic fragility such as low income or job insecurity. This suggests that potential losers have incentives to support free trade by appreciating consumer benefits.

FACTORS INFLUENCING JOB-QUIT AMONG NEWSPAPER JOURNALISTS IN PAKISTAN

A survey was conducted on 446 newspaper journalists working in Karachi, who do journalism in Sindhi, Urdu, and English languages, to understand the reasons for their job quitting. The findings revealed that low salaries, job insecurity, and inconvenient administrative policies are why journalists leave their profession permanently. Additionally, a statistical test showed that the most significant issue is journalists receiving uncompetitive salaries, especially in Sindhi language newspapers. Furthermore, journalists working in the English language press tend to be pessimistic about their future in journalism. In contrast, Urdu language journalists are concerned about the threat to their lives, which is also a leading cause of job quitting. Keywords: Job leaving factor, newspaper journalist, administrative policy.

Forest Dwellers’ livelihoods and attitudes towards relocation: insights from Buxa Tiger Reserve, India

ABSTRACT Local communities are relocated from protected areas to lessen human activities that jeopardize biodiversity conservation. Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) has a large number of people living in the core tiger habitat area and the relocation programmes introduced have not achieved the goal of complete relocation of people. Using both quantitative household data and qualitative and sustainable livelihood framework, this study aimed to assess the livelihood conditions of the forest villagers and understand factors influencing their attitudes towards relocation from the core area of the BTR. The results of binary logistic regression show that the age of the household head, education of the household head, family size, elderly dependency, forest dependency, income from ecotourism and forest department work, degradation of the nearby forest, and frequency of human-wildlife conflicts are the key determinants factors influencing the household decision to relocation. The study observed that most of the households were reluctant to relocate because of the low compensation amount, job insecurity and emotional bonding with the place where they feel happy and comfortable. In contrast, the non-availability of proper infrastructure facilities, lack of work, problems of human-wildlife conflicts, and children's education have appeared to be the key factors of alacrity to relocate.

Job Insecurity and Company Behavior: Influence of Fear of Job Loss on Individual and Work Environment Factors.

The purpose of this research is to analyze to what extent job insecurity is related to different factors related with quality of work life. Specifically, it refers to the individual (work-family balance, job satisfaction, labor and professional development, motivation at work, and well-being at work) and work environment (conditions and environment and safety and health at work) dimensions of the construct. The sample group consisted of 842 workers (375 men and 467 women), aged between 18 and 68 years, from Bahía de Banderas, Mexico. Pearson correlation coefficients between the different variables were carried out, as well as MANOVA and ANOVA analyses and a linear regression analysis. The results showed that workers with low job insecurity obtained higher scores in work-family balance, job satisfaction, labor and professional development, motivation at work, well-being at work, conditions and environment, and safety and health at work, in relation to workers with moderate and high insecurity. The regression analysis confirmed that individual factors explain 24% and environmental factors 15% of job insecurity. This article makes an approximation to the phenomenon of job insecurity in the Mexican context, where the relationship of this variable with quality of work life is verified.

Addressing the Burnout and Shortage of Nurses in the Philippines.

Burnout among Filipino nurses poses a significant threat to an understaffed Philippine healthcare system, leading to resignations, change of profession, and migration to other countries, thereby exacerbating the shortage in the local nursing sector. While workplace mental health programs and interventions can help alleviate burnout, it is crucial to address the structural factors contributing to burnout among Filipino nurses, such as low salaries, delayed benefits, understaffing, overwork, and job insecurity. Therefore, mobilizing existing resources and improving policies are critical steps that need to be taken to effectively address burnout among nurses. Measures such as increasing salaries, timely provision of benefits, and filling vacant government regular positions can contribute to improving the working conditions for nurses in the Philippines. Moreover, by undertaking these measures, the Philippines can advance just working and living conditions for nurses, while also mitigating the challenges posed by the shortage of nurses within its healthcare system.

The Benefits and Limitations of Contingent Faculty Unionization: A Comparison of a Union and Non-Union Institution

While union membership has declined over the last several decades, there has been a recent surge in union organizing among contingent faculty—non-tenure-track faculty who tend to experience low wages and job insecurity. Based on interviews with 100 contingent faculty at two large public research universities—one where contingent faculty are unionized, and one where they are not—this article demonstrates that contingent faculty at the unionized institution experience higher job satisfaction, greater job security, and higher wages than those at the non-unionized university, but that the union still faces some limitations in improving contingent faculty jobs.

Contribution of Occupational Risk Factors to Lifespan Inequalities across Socio-Occupational Groups in France

Background and aim: Occupational risk factors can mediate the effect of socioeconomic status on mortality; however, the reduction in social disparities in mortality that could be achieved by modifying employment and working conditions has been under-studied. Our aim was to quantify the role of occupational risk factors (lack of job control, job insecurity, and unemployment; and in men only: occupational physical activity (OPA)) in producing socio-occupational inequalities in lifespan among the French population. Methods: We reviewed the literature on 75 occupational risk factors and selected four of them with a robust all-cause mortality effect size. We used the Health and Career Path survey (SIP-2006) to estimate differential exposures in each French socio-occupational group (SOG) by sex. Then, using the life tables published by The French Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies and developing a method based on population attributable fractions, we estimated loss in life expectancy attributed to workplace exposures by SOG and sex. Results: Based on life expectancy estimated at age 35 and depending on SOG, from one to three years of life lost for men, and from 0.6 to two years for women are attributed to a combination of high OPA, low job control, job insecurity, and unemployment compared to those who had low OPA, high job control, no concerns about job loss and were employed. The difference in life expectancy at age 35 between senior executives and manual workers would have been reduced from 6.3 to 4.4 years for men and from 3.2 to 2.2 years for women if socio-occupational exposures had been set at the theoretical minimum level for the four risk factors. Conclusions: Our results, although based on a limited number of workplace factors due to large data gaps, show that improving employment and working conditions would substantially lessen social inequalities in life expectancies.

Sustainable Employability: Precariousness, Capabilities, and Functioning of Special Education Teachers in Namibia

Institutions cannot ignore the need for the sustainable employability of people. This study aimed to investigate the sustainable employability of special education teachers from the perspective of employment precariousness, capabilities, and functioning (flourishing and intention to leave) of special education teachers in Namibia. Using a cross-sectional survey design, teachers (n = 200) across seven Namibia regions took part in this study. The Precarity Position Profile, Capability for Work Questionnaire, Flourishing at Work Questionnaire, and Intention to Leave Questionnaire were administered. The results showed that precarious employment was negatively associated with the capability set and with flourishing (emotional, psychological, and social well-being) and positively associated with intention to leave. Low job insecurity and the capability set were associated with emotional well-being. Moreover, low job insecurity, professional development, and the capability set were associated with psychological well-being. Furthermore, precarious work conditions, job insecurity, low professional development, and low scores on the capability set were associated with low social well-being. Precarious work conditions and low scores on the capability set were associated with teachers’ intentions to leave. Two dimensions of precarious employment, namely salary and precarious work conditions, indirectly affected teachers’ emotional, psychological, and social well-being via the capability set.

호텔 종사원의 개인-환경 적합성이 직무열의와 조직성과에 미치는 영향 연구: 직무불안정성의 조절효과를 중심으로

Understanding the suitability of how consistent employees are with their jobs and organizations while performing their duties can be a means to cope with various situations in advance and come up with measures. Thus, this study conducted the empirical analysis to verify the effects of person-environment fit(job, organization) on work engagement, and also to understand the effects of work engagement and organizational performance, targeting the employees working for five-star hotels in Seoul. In the results, the person-organization fit and person-job fit of person-environment fit had significantly positive(+) effects on work engagement. The work engagement had significantly positive(+) effects on organizational performance. Therefore, in the results of verifying the moderating effects of job insecurity on the relation between person-environment fit and job engagement, there were significant moderating effects between the group with high job insecurity and the group with low job insecurity on the relation between person-job fit and job engagement.

Demographic Influences on Perceived Stressors of Construction Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Construction work is one of the most stressful occupations in the world, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this reality. This research conducted a detailed investigation on the perceived stressors of different demographic groups among construction workers. Empirical data were collected using a structured questionnaire in the Chinese construction industry. The empirical data were processed using both an independent sample t-test and an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings indicated that male workers reported greater workloads than did females. Married workers experienced more pandemic fear and job insecurity, and they were more sensitive to the poor working environment. Highly-educated workers were inclined to be more satisfied with organizational pandemic responses, and had lower job insecurity and role ambiguity, but they experienced heavier workloads. In addition, the differences in work experience and age were statistically significant with regards to job insecurity. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by giving a comprehensive understanding of demographic influences on perceived stressors among construction workers. It also provides valuable insights to identify sensitive demographic groups and promote their health and wellbeing during and after the pandemic.

Gıda Güvencesi Düzeyi Sınıflandırılmasında Kullanılan Önemli Göstergelerin Random Forest Yöntemine Göre Belirlenmesi

Seasonal agricultural workers are the most disadvantaged group of work forces in terms of poverty even though they are significant contributors to the agricultural economy in Turkey. The objectives of this study were to determine the food security status of seasonal agricultural workers and to determine the most important variables in the classification of household food security status for the seasonal agriculture workers. Responses of seasonal apricot workers in Malatya to 18 questions of the Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) were analyzed using the Random Forests (RF) algorithm (n = 65). Results indicated that 55.4% of households suffered from food insecurity, where 7.7% of them with moderate hunger and 13.8% of them with severe hunger. The area under curve value of the RF model was estimated at 0.846 as the classification accuracy. The question “running out of food before having money to buy more” was the most important variable in the classification of the food security groups. Seasonal agricultural workers are prone to food insecurity and poverty due to low income and job insecurity in Turkey and in the world. Therefore, it is important to implement social aid programs to solve food insecurity issue in risk groups like seasonal agricultural workers.

Deconstructing Job Insecurity: Do its Qualitative and Quantitative Dimensions Add Up?

Despite substantial interest in job insecurity as a severe workplace stressor, the way in which its qualitative and quantitative dimensions co-occur is not fully understood. As a result, the variety of their combinations and potentially differential effects that they produce remain underexplored. The current study aimed to address this gap in two ways. First, we hypothesized that quantitative job insecurity would manifest in a cumulated form along with qualitative job insecurity but not vice versa. Second, we aimed to test whether different combinations of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity differentially reflect in employees’ occupational characteristics and health and well-being outcomes.Latent profile analyses were conducted on two different samples of employees (N = 1077 and N = 608). The findings from both samples supported a three-profile solution of qualitative and quantitative job insecurity resulting in the balanced low, balanced high, and qualitative job insecurity dominant profiles. As expected, the probability of temporary and part-time employment was the highest in the balanced high (i.e., cumulated) job insecurity profile. Moreover, both the balanced high and the qualitative job insecurity dominant profiles were linked to significantly lower mental health and well-being than the low job insecurity profile, suggesting that substantially detrimental effects may occur even if experiencing qualitative job insecurity only.

Barriers and enablers to health service access amongst people with diabetes: An exploration of the perceptions of health care staff in regional Australia.

Healthcare staff are in a unique position of understanding client experiences, physiological impacts of client behaviour, the local healthcare system and the physical environment in which the services operate. Their perspectives may provide insights into the feasibility and effectiveness of existing models of diabetes care and suggestions for improvements to models of care (MoC). The objective of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of healthcare staff delivering care for people with diabetes at the request of an existing healthcare service. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 healthcare staff from three community health centres in one region of Victoria, Australia, in 2018. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were subject to qualitative content analysis and, subsequently, emerging themes were classified at individual, relationship, community and societal levels of the social-ecological model (SEM). Perceived barriers of access to health services using the current MoC included a lack of public transport, low socioeconomic status, job insecurity (resulting in an inability to take time away from work) and inflexible appointment times, all of which negatively impact diabetes management. Perceived enablers included having a co-located, multidisciplinary team, a holistic approach to diabetes management and motivation resulting from improvement in diabetes-related health outcomes. The findings indicate that there is potential to improve the service in this region by adopting a more integrated, team-focused and accessible MoC.

Assessment of the impact of lifestyle and psychosocial working conditions on older employees’ work ability

Objective. The purpose of this article was to assess the impact of selected elements of lifestyle, psychosocial working conditions and general mental health on older employees’ ability to work. Methods. Employees (N = 1067) aged 50–65 years (M 54.8, SD 3.95) responded to a questionnaire on demographics, lifestyle characteristics, general mental health (general health questionnaire), psychosocial job characteristics (job content questionnaire) and work ability (work ability index [WAI]). A logistic regression model was used to assess the impact of the selected factors on work ability. Results. Older employees were characterized by good (44.4%) and moderate (36.4%) work ability. The average WAI scores were significantly higher among employees who did not smoke, consumed the recommended daily intake of vegetables, drank enough water, ate breakfast every morning, cut down on sweets and were on a vegetarian diet. Good physical (no sick leave) and mental health, high level of job control, low job insecurity and use of over-the-counter drugs were found to be the strongest predictors of WAI scores. Conclusions. The results of the research indicate that most of the determinants of work ability identified at work are impacted, thus giving the opportunity to conduct some occupational health and preventive programmes in the workplace.

Cumulative impact of high job demands, low job control and high job insecurity on midlife depression and anxiety: a prospective cohort study of Australian employees

ObjectiveThere is a lack of evidence concerning the prospective effect of cumulative exposure to psychosocial job stressors over time on mental ill-health. This study aimed to assess whether cumulative exposure...

Qualitative Investigation of the Influential Factors behind Unsafe Trucking Behaviors in India

India ranks first in the global fatalities rate related to traffic accidents. India’s trucking industry is highly unorganized compared with that in developed countries, as a result of which drivers do not get professional recognition in society. Low income, job insecurity, high-fatigue conditions, and continuous exposure to external environmental conditions cause job dissatisfaction, and the majority of traffic accidents in India are caused by driver negligence. This study aims to systematically examine the underlying factors that cause drivers’ unsafe behavior from the following four assessment levels: personal, professional, organizational, and external factors. A purposeful sampling-based survey method was employed to collect the data. The findings of this study were compared with the opinions of the experts and results from previous studies in the literature. The study results found that the contribution of professional and organizational factors to unsafe behavior is greatest compared with external and personal factors. The study concludes with recommendations for reducing drivers’ risk through planned driving schedules, ensuring social security through welfare schemes, and improving driving performance through proper training programs for preventing and minimizing damage caused by accidents, and recommends policy-based measures to trucking companies and regulatory bodies for minimizing accident occurrence.

All-cause mortality and the time-varying effects of psychosocial work stressors: A retrospective cohort study using the HILDA survey.

We investigated the effect of time-varying psychosocial work stressors on mortality using data from a longitudinal cohort of working Australians by examining association between job control, job demands, job insecurity, unfair pay overtime and all-cause mortality. We examined whether gender modified these relationships. Over 20,000 participants from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey with self-reported repeated exposure measures were followed for 15 years. Survival analysis models with baseline hazard specified by the Weibull distribution were used to examine the association between psychosocial work stressors over time and mortality. Low job control (HR=1.39; 95% CI: 1.06-1.83) and job insecurity (1.36; 1.06-1.74) were associated with increased risk of mortality. High job demands (1.01; 0.75-1.34) and effort-reward unfairness (1.20; 0.90-1.59) were not associated with mortality. The effect of job insecurity was attenuated (1.20; 0.93-1.54) after controlling for sociodemographic and health risk factors. Male participants exposed to low job control and job insecurity had an 81% and 39% increase risk of mortality, respectively. Long-term exposure to low job control and low job security is associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality. Effects were largely restricted to males and persisted after adjustments for sociodemographic and health characteristics. The lack of effects observed for females may have been due to the small number of deaths in females. Awareness of implications of the adverse effects of psychosocial work stressors on health and mortality in workplaces, and interventions to improve job control and job security could contribute to better health and wellbeing, reducing the effect of psychosocial work stressors on mortality.

Trends in Work Conditions and Associations with Workers' Health in Recent 15 Years: The Role of Job Automation Probability.

Job automation and associated psychosocial hazards are emerging workplace challenges. This study examined the trends in work conditions and associations with workers’ health over time in jobs with different automation probabilities. We utilized data from six waves of national questionnaire surveys of randomly selected 95,762 employees between 2001 and 2016. The Job Content Questionnaire, the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, and the Self-Rated Health Scale were applied, and working time was self-reported. Automation probability was derived for 38 occupations and then categorized into three groups. Trends in work conditions and the associations between automation probability, work conditions and health were examined. We observed a 7% decrease in high automation probability jobs, an overall increase in job demands for and prevalence of shift work, and a decrease in job control. Workers with high automation probability jobs had low job demands, low job control and high job insecurity. Low automation probability was associated with burnout in logistic regression models. The odds ratio of job insecurity, long working hours, and shift work relating to health was higher in the later years of the surveys. In conclusion, there has been a decrease in high automation probability jobs. Workers employed in jobs with different levels of automation probability encountered different work condition challenges.

Neither studying nor working: free time as a solution?

ABSTRACT This article analyses the importance of free-time activities in building the identity of Spanish young people who neither study nor work. The initial point is that the situation of unemployment, inactivity and precarious work that affects many young people leads to changes in the construction of their identity. Low employment and job insecurity accentuate the loss of centrality of paid work in their life project, and the use of free time reflects the traits that identify them in a specific context. The relationship between free time and training and/or working time was therefore investigated using a qualitative methodological strategy to analyse the structure, meaning and content of free time according to young people’s situation in relation to education and employment, their gender and their region of residence. The results suggest that the symbolic centrality of working time persists alongside changes in the meaning and content of free time.