Negative Effects Of Job Insecurity Research Articles

Rethinking job insecurity research: Challenging the homogeneous, linear, and negative effects of job insecurity

AbstractThe rise of artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of work, making a discussion on job insecurity both timely and imperative. In this commentary, I critically examine several assumptions presented in Klug et al.'s lead article and propose alternative avenues to advance the field. First, I argue for a nuanced understanding of job insecurity by distinguishing between cognitive and affective dimensions, as well as between quantitative and qualitative aspects. By avoiding oversimplification, we can better capture the complex experiences of job insecurity. Second, I challenge the prevailing notion of job insecurity as solely a hindrance stressor with uniformly negative consequences. Instead, I emphasize its potentially motivating effects under certain conditions and advocate for exploring its curvilinear effects on outcomes. Third, I advocate for the adoption of competing theoretical frameworks to enrich our understanding of job insecurity's implications across multiple levels, especially focusing on outcomes at the team, unit, and organizational levels. Finally, I call for more intervention studies aimed at mitigating job insecurity at its sources and improving the well‐being outcomes of job‐insecure employees. To sum, I highlight the importance of challenging conventional assumptions and fostering innovative approaches in job insecurity research.

When and why job-insecure flight attendants are reluctant to behave pro-environmentally

ABSTRACT As firms consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in establishing a corporate strategy and allocating capital investment, environmental sustainability is deemed increasingly important in the travel and tourism sector. In line with this trend, we aim to identify the work stressors that affect employees’ pro-environmental behavior (PEB). Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, we propose that employees’ perception of job insecurity serves as a major job stressor hindering task-related and proactive PEB. We further predict that interpersonal stressors exacerbate the negative effect of job insecurity on PEB through decreased work engagement. To test these propositions, we administer two-wave surveys three months apart to 222 South Korean flight attendants. While we observed no direct relationship between job insecurity and task-related and proactive PEB, job insecurity had a significant indirect effect on these two forms of PEB through work engagement. The deleterious effects of job insecurity on work engagement and the two forms of PEB were aggravated when flight attendants reported high levels of supervisor incivility.

The Effects of Job Insecurity Perceived by the Younger Generation on Psychological Well-Being and Life Satisfaction in the COVID Era

This study examined the negative effects of job insecurity perceived by the younger generation in the unexpected environment of a pandemic by comparing them with the older generation. Based on total 581 persons obtained from the empirical research. The hypotheses were identified through structural equation modeling. The study showed a significant negative effect of perceived job insecurity on psychological well-being and life satisfaction. This result is consistent with previous studies that reported that the perception of instability or insecurity about employment status reduces an individual’s emotion/sentiment and life satisfaction. Moreover, life satisfaction was found to significantly increase when psychological well-being increased and that the negative effect of perceived job insecurity on psychological well-being was stronger among the younger generation. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Mental Health of Tourism Employees Post COVID-19 Pandemic: A Test of Antecedents and Moderators.

Many people are experiencing a lack of confidence in the security of their employment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly employees in the tourism sector, which has caused adverse effects on their mental health. These adverse effects involve the management of stress, anxiety and depression, that may arise from the demands of the industry. However, few studies have explored how insecurity in the workplace and financial pressure from families affects mental health and can intervene in these relationships. In this study, the aim was to investigate job insecurity as an antecedent of employees' mental health and family financial pressures as a moderator using a sample of 475 hotel and travel industry employees. The theoretical background of the study was built upon the theories of resource conservation and effort-reward imbalance. The participants completed an online survey that measured job insecurity, family financial pressure, depression, anxiety, and stress. The collected data were subjected to PLS-SEM data analysis. The findings of this study reveal that job insecurity had a significant influence on depression, anxiety, and stress among tourism employees, and family financial pressure worsened the negative consequences of job insecurity on mental health. This research highlights the significance of addressing the mental health of employees in the tourism sector after the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the crucial role played by family financial pressures. The findings of this study highlight the importance of addressing job insecurity in the tourism industry and its impact on employees' mental health. This could involve implementing policies and practices that enhance job security, such as providing more stable work schedules, better benefits packages, and greater opportunities for professional development. The results also underscore the need to take into account the role of family financial pressure in moderating the impact of job insecurity on mental health. Practitioners and policymakers in the tourism industry should consider ways to alleviate financial pressure on employees and their families, such as offering assistance programs, flexible work arrangements, and supportive company policies.

More or less job performance in an insecure job? A study on the relationship between job insecurity and in-role and extra-role performance.

To gain insight into the complex relationship between job insecurity and in-role and extra-role performance. Autonomous work motivation is investigated as a mediator in this relationship. The quality of the employee-supervisor relationship (LMX) is investigated as a moderator between job insecurity and autonomous work motivation. Cross-sectional data was collected by online surveys among 206 Dutch and Belgian employees. Multiple regression analyses were performed to test the hypotheses. Job insecurity was negatively associated with both in-role and extra-role performance. Autonomous work motivation mediated the negative relationship between job insecurity and in-role and extra-role performance. LMX did not moderate the negative relationship between job insecurity and autonomous work motivation. Organizations need to prevent job insecurity and limit the negative consequences of job insecurity for sustaining employees' autonomous work motivation and job performance.

POS and Psychological Empowerment as Moderating Variables on the Effect of Job Insecurity on Employee Performance in Islamic Banks

Abstract. Employee performance in a company is an important component. The occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused employees to feel job insecurity due to the rise of layoffs in various sectors. This will indirectly affect the performance of employees in a company so that the performance of the company will decrease. For this reason, perceived organizational support and psychological empowerment are needed to reduce the negative effect of job insecurity on employee performance. This study aims to examine the effect of job insecurity on employee performance with perceived organizational support and psychological empowerment as moderating variables. This study uses descriptive quantitative research methods. Data were collected using a questionnaire via google form and distributed to employees who work at Bank Syariah Indonesia, Bank Muamalat, and Bank Madina Syariah. The questionnaire collected was 252 and analyzed using MRA (Moderate Regression Analysis) to test the hypothesis with the SPSS version 24 application. Research shows that there is a negative influence between job insecurity on employee performance, perceived organizational support could moderate the relationship between job insecurity and employee performance, and psychological empowerment is not able to moderate the effect of job insecurity on employee performance. Keywords: Employee performance; job insecurity; moderating role; perceived organizational support, psychological empowerment

An Investigation of the Moderating Effects of National Culture Values on the Interaction Between Job Insecurity and Employability on Employee Outcomes

This study investigated the combined effects of national culture and perceptions of employability on relationships between job insecurity and work and non-work outcomes for individual employees. Data from 28,674 participants in 35 nations were obtained from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey. Results showed that nation-level differences in individualism/collectivism (I/C), uncertainty avoidance (UA), and masculinity/femininity (M/F) accounted for variation in the degree to which perceptions of employability buffered the negative effects of job insecurity on job satisfaction, work engagement, and subjective well-being. Among more collectivist cultures, employability did less to minimize the effects of job insecurity on job satisfaction than in more individualistic cultures. Employability also had a weaker effect on buffering the consequences of job insecurity for job satisfaction and work engagement when cultural uncertainty avoidance was higher. And across all three outcome measures, higher levels of job insecurity combined with lower perceptions of employability were consistently more detrimental to individuals in more masculine cultures. Results support the prevailing theory regarding the mechanisms underlying the effects of job insecurity on individuals and suggest several important practical implications for managing a global workforce.

An Examination of the Effects of Job Insecurity on Counterproductive Work Behavior Through Organizational Cynicism: Moderating Roles of Perceived Organizational Support and Quality of Leader-Member Exchange.

Job insecurity can trigger cynical attitudes and ultimately lead to harmful behaviors in organizations under the current fast-changing business environment. Drawing on psychological contract theory, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between job insecurity and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) by focusing on the mediating role of organizational cynicism and moderating roles of perceived organizational support (POS) and leader-member exchange (LMX). The data used for the analysis came from a survey that targeted tourism-related industries in South Korea, and 296 responses were finally analyzed. We analyzed reliability, correlation, and mediation, and conducted confirmatory factor analysis, regression analysis, and moderation analysis using SPSS PROCESS macro v. 3.5, with AMOS v. 25.0. The key findings of this study are as follows. First, we found that job insecurity was positively related to CWB. Second, organizational cynicism mediated the relationship between job insecurity and CWB. Third, POS and LMX intensified the negative effects of job insecurity and organizational cynicism, affecting CWB. These results imply that employees with a high level of POS and LMX are likely to have opportunistic behaviors (e.g., abuse, absences, sabotage) by abusing the support and trust from their organizations. The implications for research and practice, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

How to minimize job insecurity: The role of proactive and reactive coping over time

Job insecurity is no longer a temporary setback but an experience that many workers endure for prolonged periods of time during their career. While there is much research on the behaviors that may help workers to cope with the negative consequences of job insecurity (i.e., reactive coping), insight into behaviors that may help workers to minimize or even prevent the experience of job insecurity itself is still minimal (i.e., proactive coping). Yet, such insight is crucial to advance our knowledge on the dynamics of job insecurity and may offer an alternative strategy to help workers manage the experience of job insecurity during their career. Hence, in this 5-wave weekly survey study among 266 workers, we view the experience of job insecurity as an ongoing process that may fluctuate over time and investigated whether proactive coping (career planning, scenario thinking, career consultation, networking, and reflecting) could help workers to minimize their future job insecurity. Multilevel path analyses showed that weekly proactive coping behaviors were either unrelated or positively (rather than negatively) related to job insecurity in the following week, indicating that positive outcomes of proactive coping may need more time to establish. Additionally, we explored whether coping behaviors that are proactive in theory could also function as reactive coping behaviors (i.e., could buffer the negative consequences of job insecurity). Results showed no buffering effects, indicating that theoretically proactive coping behaviors did not function reactively. We discuss that prolonged proactive coping efforts are needed in contemporary careers, despite the short-term discomfort.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT, JOB INSECURITY AND JOB INVOLVEMENT AND MEDIATION EFFECTS OF POSITIVE EMOTION

This study aimed to investigate the effects of job insecurity on organizational commitment and Job Involvement respectively and the mediation effects of positive emotion thereto. The hypotheses this research addressed are (1) Job insecurity has no significant effect on organizational commitment; (2) Job insecurity has a significant negative effect on Job Involvement; (3) Organizational commitment has a significant positive effect on Job Involvement. (4) Positive emotion failed to reduce the negative effect of job insecurity on organizational commitment and Job Involvement respectively. The results show that, the powerlessness in job insecurity is a key factor affecting organizational commitment and Job Involvement. And the powerlessness in job insecurity not only affects organizational commitment and Job Involvement but also affects Job Involvement through organizational commitment.

Exploring the Relationship between the Fear of Covid-19, Job Insecurity, Employee Well-Being, and Job Involvement in Flight Personnel

The aviation industry has recently experienced several difficulties due to Covid-19. Especially flight personnel (pilots and cabin crews), who worked under the health-threatening effects of Covid-19, either lost their jobs or were faced with a dramatic decrease in their incomes. The aim of this research is to understand the impact of the fear of Covid-19 on the well-being of flight personnel, to reveal the mediating role of job insecurity on this relationship, and to observe the moderating role of job involvement on the relationship between job insecurity and well-being. The study was conducted with pilots (N=111) and cabin crew members (N=45) who worked for different airlines in Turkey. The total sample size was 154 participants. The results showed that job insecurity played a mediating role as fear of Covid-19 began to have a less significant impact on employee well-being. In addition, the analysis of the moderating role of job involvement showed that high job involvement exacerbates the negative effect of job insecurity on flight personnel's well-being. The results are discussed in relation to the organizational and human resources management practices in airline companies.

The Negative Effect of Job Insecurity in the Virtuous Cycle Between Trust in the Organization, Subjective Well-Being, and Task Performance in the Current Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity Context.

Over the past decade, job insecurity referring to the employees’ perceived threat to the continuity and stability of employment as it is currently experienced has become a hot topic. A general assumption, supported by the findings, is that job insecurity causes far-reaching negative consequences for the employee health and well-being, attitudes toward organization and the job, and behaviors at work. However, the focus on behavioral outcomes, especially on employee performance at work, is still scant. Moreover, the literature remains fragmented concerning the impact of job insecurity on employee trust in the organization and how the trust influences employee subjective well-being (SWB), which in turn affects employee performance. Consequently, the link between job insecurity and SWB needs more investigation. Trying to narrow the gap, the paper aims at revealing the linkage between job insecurity, trust in the organization, SWB, and task performance. Quantitative data were collected in Lithuania. As predicted, the results revealed that job insecurity had a negative impact on trust in the organization and employee SWB. In case of linkage between job insecurity and task performance, the hypothesis was rejected. In general, these findings affirmed that job insecurity was a hindrance stressor, which needed to be considered when managing human resources in the current volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity context.

The impact of changes in job security on mental health across gender and family responsibility: evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study.

While there is strong evidence that job insecurity leads to mental distress, little is known about how gender and parental responsibilities may exacerbate this relationship. Examining their contribution as potential effect modifiers may provide insights into gender inequalities in mental health and inform gender-sensitive labour policies to ameliorate the negative effects of job insecurity. Our study addresses this gap by examining the longitudinal association between job insecurity and mental health across different configurations of gender and parental responsibilities. Our sample includes 34,772 employed participants over the period of 2010-2018. A gender-stratified fixed-effect regression was used to model the within-person change over time in mental health associated with loss of job security, and effect modification by parent-partner status (e.g. childfree men, partnered father, etc.). Loss of job security was associated with a moderate decrease in mental health functioning for partnered fathers, partnered mothers, and childfree men and women ranging between a reduction in MCS-12 by 1.00 to 2.27 points (p < 0.05). Lone fathers who lose their job security experienced a higher decrease in mental health functioning at -7.69 (95% CI -12.69 to -2.70), while lone mothers did not experience any change. The effects of job insecurity on mental health is consistent across gender and parent-partner status with the exception of lone fathers and lone mothers. Future studies should investigate the effects of policies that may reduce mental distress in the face of the threat of job loss such as reducing wait time for payment of unemployment benefits.

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.

How to minimize job insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic

Job insecurity has become a major theme for most workers in our new, COVID-19-induced, world of work. While prior research indicates how workers can cope with the experience of job insecurity in order to mitigate its negative consequences (i.e., reactive coping), little research offers insights into preventive measures workers can use to minimize the further development of job insecurity. Therefore, this study investigates whether proactive coping (i.e., future-oriented coping that tries to detect and proactively manage stressors before they can fully develop) can help workers manage their future job insecurity experience. Additionally, to clarify the difference between proactive and reactive coping, this study explores whether theoretically proactive coping behaviors can also function reactively to buffer the negative consequences of job insecurity. Multilevel path modelling results based on weekly data of 266 workers over a 5-week period indicate that proactive coping is generally related to an increase of job insecurity, instead of the expected decrease. Regarding the reactive functioning of proactive coping behaviors, the results indicate no buffering effect in the relationship between job insecurity and its consequences. The discussion elaborates on possible explanations for these results and the (in)difference between proactive and reactive coping.

Consequences of job insecurity for hospitality workers amid COVID-19 pandemic: does social support help?

ABSTRACT Using a time-lagged field survey, the current study examined the psycho-economic effects of job insecurity among hospitality workers during the recent pandemic of COVID-19. The study also examined social support as a buffering agent against the harmful effects of job insecurity. Data were collected from employees (N = 272) working in numerous hotels, restaurants, and travel agencies across Pakistan. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to test the study’s hypotheses. The results suggested that job insecurity was negatively related to self-esteem and positively related to economic deprivation. In addition, social support significantly moderated the effects of job insecurity on mental health, self-esteem, economic self-efficacy and life satisfaction such that the negative effects of job insecurity were stronger when social support was low. The results for economic deprivation, however, were contrary to the expectations, whereby job insecurity had a strong positive effect on economic deprivation in case of high social support.

Boosting innovation in uncertain condition to grow an economic income: The role of flexible working arrangements

Due to the current financial instability worldwide, maintaining business growth requires continuous breakthroughs and innovations. It means that millennials, the current majority of the workforce, need to be innovative instead of feeling insecure about their jobs in this uncertain economic condition. Job insecurity prevents millennials from performing innovative work behavior (IWB) because employees tend to avoid time-consuming activities to generate creative ideas when they are insecure about their jobs. Thus, this study examines the negative effect of job insecurity on innovative work behavior. Given the importance of innovative work behavior, it is worth to find possible ways to minimize the negative effect of job insecurity on IWB. Therefore, this study tried to explore whether flexible working arrangement (FWA) could buffer the negative impact of job insecurity on innovative work behavior. The results showed that the negative effect of job insecurity on IWB would be reduced when the FWA is high. In other words, the negative effect of job insecurity on IWB in low FWA condition (r = -.37; p < .01) became insignificant in high FWA condition (r = -.01, n.s.).

Job insecurity and innovative work behaviour: A moderated mediation model of intrinsic motivation and trait mindfulness.

Research has disregarded the processes and boundary conditions associated with the effects of job insecurity on innovative work behaviour. Combining the job demands-resources and the self-determination perspectives, the present study develops and tests a first-stage moderated mediation model that identifies intrinsic motivation as a key mechanism accounting for a negative effect of job insecurity on innovative behaviour and trait mindfulness as a buffer against the detrimental impact of job insecurity on intrinsic motivation and, indirectly, innovative work behaviour. Two time-lagged studies-a two-wave study of 138 employees from Canadian firms and a three-wave study of 157 employees from US firms-were conducted to test the hypothesized model. Supporting our predictions, intrinsic motivation mediated a negative relationship between job insecurity and innovative work behaviour. Moreover, high levels of trait mindfulness were observed to attenuate the negative relationship of job insecurity with intrinsic motivation and, indirectly, innovative behaviour. These findings contribute to the literature by disclosing the processes linking job insecurity with impaired work outcomes and help to elucidate how and when employee can keep their innovative potential alive in spite of insecure work conditions.

Job Insecurity, Debt Burdens, and Individual Health

Job insecurity exerts negative effects on self‐reported health. Using the Spanish Survey of Household Finances for 2011–2014, this paper asks whether and to what extent debt burdens enhance these detrimental health effects. To address potential endogeneity problems surrounding this question, the paper adopts Deb and Trivedi’s (Econometrics Journal, 9, 307–331, 2006) econometric approach. The results show that the negative effect of job insecurity on self‐assessed health is exacerbated if the individual is over‐indebted. Moreover, the role of over‐indebtedness differs between types of debt, with non‐mortgage debts causing larger health losses than mortgage debts. Thus, concerns about job insecurity should not be decoupled from concerns about increasing household indebtedness, and policy measures intended to improve individual welfare should consider both phenomena together.

The promise of flexicurity: Can employment and income security mitigate the negative effects of job insecurity?

Flexicurity is an integral part of the EU Employment Strategy. Flexicurity promises that it is possible to simultaneously provide organisations with greater flexibility and offer workers the necessary level of security. This is achieved by replacing job security, which stems from a permanent employment contract, with employment and income security. The aim of this article is to present an individual-level investigation of the relationships between various elements of flexicurity, examining how they affect psychological well-being and job satisfaction. A heterogeneous sample of 432 adults employed under various types of employment arrangements participated in the study. The results showed that the type of employment arrangement was the main predictor of perceived job insecurity. Moreover, perceived job insecurity mediated the relationship between employment arrangement and psychological outcomes. Finally, employment and income security failed to mitigate the negative effect of job insecurity. The promise of flexicurity is therefore called into question.