Job Insecurity Measure Research Articles

Job Insecurity and Future Labour Market Outcomes

This paper uses longitudinal survey data to test the degree to which measures of job insecurity are correlated with changes in labour market status. Three major findings are reported. First, the perceived probability of job loss is only weakly related to both exogenous job separations and subsequent transitions to unemployment and inactivity. Second, while fears of job loss tend to persist across time and job spells, they do so at a highly diminishing rate, suggesting that the impacts on other outcomes (such as psychological well-being) may be quite limited. Third, quit intentions are strongly correlated with both voluntary separations and transitions to alternative employment. The desire to quit, however, does not appear to diminish greatly across successive employment spells.

Job Insecurity and Future Labour Market Outcomes

This paper uses longitudinal survey data to test the degree to which measures of job insecurity are correlated with changes in labour market status. Three major findings are reported. First, the perceived probability of job loss is only weakly related to both exogenous job separations and subsequent transitions to unemployment and inactivity. Second, while fears of job loss tend to persist across time and job spells, they do so at a highly diminishing rate, suggesting that the impacts on other outcomes (such as psychological well-being) may be quite limited. Third, quit intentions are strongly correlated with both voluntary separations and transitions to alternative employment. The desire to quit, however, does not appear to diminish greatly across successive employment spells.

Comparisons of Performance and Job Insecurity in Union and Nonunion Sites of a Manufacturing Company

ABSTRACT Layoffs and employment changes caused by current economic conditions have significant effects on employee work behavior and emotions as well as organizational outcomes. We examined the relationships between measures of job insecurity, organizational commitment, turnover, absenteeism, and worker performance within a manufacturer in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A positive relationship was found between job insecurity and intentions to turnover, and a small negative correlation was found between measures of job insecurity and organizational commitment. Unobtrusive observations of union and nonunion performance over 4 months showed that nonunion production workers were on-task more frequently, although on-task behavior was high for both. Productivity and quality measures of different factories favored nonunion locations. Although comparisons between sites were constrained by a quasi-experimental design, repeated behavioral and outcome measures within sites showed differential effects when the company announced a plant closing in another state. Job insecurity appeared to be an establishing operation that produced differential effects between union and nonunion sites as well as among individual employees within sites.

Cross‐cultural development of an abridged job insecurity measure

AbstractUsing four samples from the United States and China, we developed two theoretically based abridged job insecurity (JI) scales to address researcher concerns with the length of the original 57‐item scale. These two scales contained all the components of the scale originally developed and validated by Ashford et al., 1989. Our abridged scale has 37 items (18 items for job features, 16 items for total job, and 3 items for powerlessness). We further developed a bare‐bones scale with only 25 items (10 items for job features, 12 items for total job, and 3 items for powerlessness). Results show that the content and construct validities of both the abridged and the bare‐bones scales are highly similar to the original JI scale. Our results provide support for the use of either the abridged or the bare‐bones JI scales. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Validation and Measurement of Perceived Environmental Threat as an Antecedent to Job Insecurity

The Perceived Environmental Threat scale was designed to measure perception of environmental sources of threat to an individual's job. A total of 276 managers responded to a survey to test the psychometric characteristics. Analysis supported the internal reliability and factor structure and anticipated correlations were observed with two measures of job insecurity. The Perceived Environmental Threat scale also demonstrated convergent validity as scores correlated positively with those on Anticipated Organizational Change which, generally, did not correlate significantly with trust, commitment, or role ambiguity, variables with which it was not expected to be related. The evidence was generally supportive of the overall psychometric properties, offering academic researchers and managers a useful means of evaluating perceived environmental threat.

Comparison of a multidimensional and a global measure of job insecurity: predicting job attitudes and work behaviors.

This paper examined the multidimensional formulation of job insecurity theory described by Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt in 1984. They held that job insecurity is multidimensional and is comprised of two principle threats, (1) threat to the job and (2) threat to job features. To date, there has been no empirical test comparing the predictive value of the separate dimensions of job insecurity on the outcome variables commitment, trust, and job search behavior. A total of 276 managers completed surveys of their job insecurity using both multidimensional and global measures of job insecurity. Regression analysis suggested that the job threat dimension better explains outcome attitudes and behaviors than the job features dimension. Further, contrary to earlier reports, the global measure of job insecurity explained more variance in two out of three outcome variables investigated here. Implications for job insecurity measurement and theory are discussed.

COMPARISON OF A MULTIDIMENSIONAL AND A GLOBAL MEASURE OF JOB INSECURITY: PREDICTING JOB ATTITUDES AND WORK BEHAVIORS

This paper examined the multidimensional formulation of job insecurity theory described by Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt in 1984. They held that job insecurity is multidimensional and is comprised of two principle threats, (1) threat to the job and (2) threat to job features. To date, there has been no empirical test comparing the predictive value of the separate dimensions of job insecurity on the outcome variables commitment, trust, and job search behavior. A total of 276 managers completed surveys of their job insecurity using both multidimensional and global measures of job insecurity. Regression analysis suggested that the job threat dimension better explains outcome attitudes and behaviors than the job features dimension. Further, contrary to earlier reports, the global measure of job insecurity explained more variance in two out of three outcome variables investigated here. Implications for job insecurity measurement and theory are discussed.

No security: A meta-analysis and review of job insecurity and its consequences.

Meta-analytic techniques were used to estimate how job insecurity relates to its postulated outcomes. Consistent with the conceptual framework, the results indicate that job insecurity has detrimental consequences for employees' job attitudes, organizational attitudes, health, and, to some extent, their behavioral relationship with the organization. Moderator analyses suggest that these relationships may be underestimated in studies relying on single-item measures of job insecurity and that the behavioral consequences of insecurity are more detrimental among manual, as compared with nonmanual, workers. Recommendations made for future research include utilization of multidimensional measures, consideration of a broader spectrum of outcomes and moderators, and use of longitudinal designs.

Worker Perceptions of Job Insecurity in the Mid-1990s: Evidence from the Survey of Economic Expectations

This paper analyzes the probabilistic measures of job insecurity that have recently become available through the nationwide Survey of Economic Expectations (SEE). Since 1994, employed SEE respondents have been asked questions eliciting their subjective probabilities of job loss in the coming year and their expectations of a good outcome should they lose their current job and have to engage in job search. The responses of 3600 persons interviewed from 1994 through early 1998 are analyzed here. It is found that workers vary considerably in their perceptions of job insecurity, with most workers perceiving little or no risk but some perceiving moderate to high risk. Expectations of job loss tend to decrease markedly with age, but so do expectations of a good outcome should job search become necessary. The net result is that composite job insecurity tends not to vary at all with age. Subjective probabilities of job loss tend to decrease with schooling and subjective probabilities of good search outcomes tend to increase with schooling; hence composite job insecurity tends to decrease with schooling. Perceptions of job insecurity vary little by sex. Perceptions of job insecurity vary substantially by race, the main differences being that subjective probabilities of job loss among blacks tend to be nearly double those of whites. Self-employed workers see themselves as facing less job insecurity than do those who work for others. Workers tended to perceive less job insecurity in 1996 and 1997 than in 1994 and 1995. Expectations within groups are heterogeneous, the covariates (age, schooling, sex, race, employer, year) collectively explaining only a small part of the sample variation in worker expectations. Moving beyond descriptive analysis, the paper connects the empirical findings to modern theories of the labor market. A competing-risks formalization of job separations by the two routes of job loss and voluntary quits is used to draw conclusions about workers' expectations of exogenous job destruction in the year ahead. The theory of job search is used to interpret the empirical finding that the distribution of search-outcome expectations is symmetric and quite dispersed.

Can Control at Work and Social Support Moderate Psychological Consequences of Job Insecurity? Results from a Quasi-experimental Study in the Steel Industry

A quasi-experimental field investigation was conducted with blast furnace workers from two German steel companies. Of the 180 workers participating in the study 123 blast furnace workers at comparable work places were taken into the analysis. 48 blast furnace workers of a company offering only highly insecure employment ("Experimental Group", EG) and 75 from a company with no job insecurity ("Control Group", CG) were compared by means of perceived job insecurity, three aspects of well-being and strain (job satisfaction, irritation/strain, psychosomatic complaints), five facets of social support, and five facets of control at work. First, statistical comparisons confirm the strong difference in job security between EG and CG by means of perceived job insecurity and though the validity of the independent variable. Moreover, for the EG comparisons show no substantive increase in psychosomatic complaints or job strain but diminished job satisfaction, they also indicate reduced collective control, hope for control, and reduced perceived alternatives on the labour market, less support from supervisors and more support from friends. Second, the results were differentiated by moderated regression analysis with respect to the five facets of social support and five components of control at work. Results indicate moderation effects and several main (additive) effects for the social support and control at work variables, however the moderation effects are not homogeneously distributed among the three dependent variables and in addition their interpretation as buffering or coping effects is ambiguous. In total, control at work turns out to be the most influencing resource with respect to the stress from job insecurity. The results are discussed for example with respect to the role of resources in the unemployment process and with regard to several methodological questions like the advantage of objective measures of job insecurity or a theory-driven differentiation of moderator variables and moderator assumptions.

THE EFFECTS OF SELF-ESTEEM AND PERSONAL CONTROL ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOB INSECURITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

129 employees of an Australian manufacturer completed measures of job insecurity, self-esteem, personal control and psychological well-being. Using hierarchical regression analysis, it was shown that the personal attributes of self-esteem and personal control moderated the impact of job insecurity on psychological well being, as predicted, with low self-esteem and external control employees being significantly more adversely affected by insecurity than their high self-esteem and internal control counterparts.

Union Influence on Local Union Leaders' Perceptions of Job Insecurity: An Empirical Test

AbstractAlthough recent studies have demonstrated that union workers value job security, little research exists about what causes these perceptions and how unions might affect them. In this study, a job insecurity measure is developed and analysed using a sample of union members. The results indicate that the relationships between union variables and individual perceptions of insecurity depend on the organizational level at which threats occur (e.g. arbitrary supervision or organizational decline). Furthermore, for higher source‐level threats, union members are often sensitive to the wage‐employment trade‐off in that, if they perceive their union to effectively raise wages, they have higher levels of job insecurity. However, work rules do not appear to have much effect on reducing job insecurity perceptions.