Do Job Security Guarantees Work?

We investigate the effect of employer job security guarantees on employee perceptions of jobsecurity. Using linked employer-employee data from the 1998 British Workplace EmployeeRelations Survey, we find job security guarantees reduce employee perceptions of jobinsecurity. This finding is robust to endogenous selection of job security guarantees byemployers engaging in organisational change and workforce reductions. Furthermore, thereis no evidence that increased job security through job guarantees results in greater workintensification, stress, or lower job satisfaction.Job insecurity, job guarantees, linked employer-employee data

Are flexible contracts bad for workers? Evidence from job satisfaction data

If workers can choose between permanent and flexible contracts, compensating wage differentials should arise to equalize on-the-job utility in the two types of contracts. Estimating job satisfaction using the British Household Panel Survey shows that agency and casual contracts are associated with routinely lower satisfaction. This results because the low job satisfaction associated with less job security is not offset by higher compensation or other job characteristics. Job security is sufficiently important that holding constant this one facet of satisfaction eliminates the overall gap in job satisfaction between flexible and permanent contracts

HR performance within Saudi Arabian organisations : is the relationship between 'job security and ill-treatment' and job satisfaction moderated by organisational support : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Business Studies in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

HR performance, particularly employees’ performance, has been well researched in Western countries. However, many Asian countries, including the region of the Arabic Gulf, are still under-researched in relation to this subject. This present study quantitatively investigated employees’ performance in one of the Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia. In addition, it took into consideration the religion (Islam) as well as the cultural characteristics that may affect performance in the workplace. Particularly, the type of society (collectivistic), losing face issue and power distance are the cultural characteristics discussed in this study. Furthermore, the study used four variables, which are considered important in relation to employees’ performance in the Saudi context: job security, ill-treatment (independent variables), perceived organisational support (POS) as a moderating variable and job satisfaction (dependent/outcome variable). The research question for this study is “Is the relationship between job security and ill-treatment, and job satisfaction, moderated by organisational support?” Previous research indicates that relationships between these variables vary in terms of how much they impact employees’ job satisfaction and, therefore, their performance. Some studies suggest that job security increases employees’ job satisfaction which can result in better performance. Others claim that ill-treatment can be a source of job dissatisfaction and lower the quality of job performance as ill-treatment impacts employees physically and psychologically. In addition, POS was found to have positive effects on job satisfaction as a higher level of support from organisations can lead to higher job satisfaction and performance. This cross-sectional, quantitative study used a questionnaire as the data collection method. Measurement scales used in the study were previously used in other studies, which strengthens the internal validity of this study. The 424 participants who completed the survey were Saudi employees who were required to have worked for at least six months for the same employer as full-time employees in Saudi Arabia. Results from this study suggest that, on an individual level, all three variables (job security, ill-treatment, POS) predicted job satisfaction in Saudi organisations. However, the regression analysis showed that job security had the biggest effect on job satisfaction followed by ill-treatment. Also, the moderation analysis revealed that the relationship between job security and job satisfaction was partially moderated by POS. However, POS did not appear to moderate the relationship between ill-treatment and job satisfaction

How have employees fared? Recent UK trends

An analysis of trends over the past decade in earnings, job growth, employment security and working time experienced by UK employees.DTI; EMAR; Great Britain; UK; employment relations research series; Labour Force Survey; labour market; employees; quality of work; job quality; earnings growth; disappearing middle; income inequality; job polarisation; employment security; job security; working time; long hours; temporary work

Job Security Laws and Structural Change in the Japanese Labor Market

There are a number of indications that Japanese job security laws have been relaxed since the end of the 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to establish causality between job security laws and firing costs in the Japanese labor market. The analysis first investigates when and how firing costs changed, and then compares the timing of these changes in firing costs with those of job security laws. The results indicate that gradual changes in firing costs began in about 1992, lagging one or two years behind the bursting of the bubble economy, while job security laws started to change towards the end of the 1990s.Adjustment costs for labor; Gradual switching model; Job security laws

Job Security as an Endogenous Job Characteristic

This paper develops a hedonic model of job security (JS). Workers with heterogeneous JS-preferences pay the hedonic price for JS to employers, who incur labor-hoarding costs from supplying JS. In contrast to the Wage-Bill Argument, equilibrium unemployment is strictly positive, as workers with weak JS-preferences trade JS for higher wages. The relation between optimal job insecurity and the perceived dismissal probability is hump-shaped. If firms observe demand, but workers do not, separation is not contractible and firms dismiss workers at-will. Although the workers are risk-averse, they respond to the one-sided private information by trading wage-risk for a higher JS. With two-sided private information, even JS-neutral workers pay the price for a JS guarantee, if their risk premium associated with the wage-replacement risk is larger than the social net loss from production.job security; hedonic market; implicit contract theory; guaranteed employment contract; severance pay contract; asymmetric information; prudence

Making the Risk of Job Loss a Way of Life: Does it Affect Job Satisfaction?

This study investigates the relationship between job satisfaction and job security in European countries. In doing so, it attempts to take into account the endogenous nature of the job security – job satisfaction relationship after controlling for the various economic and personal characteristics. The results show that, workers in jobs with low likelihood of job termination derive higher utility from work compared to the workers in insecure jobs. This holds even after controlling for endogeneity by using both a conventional IV approach and a selection model. This appears to be the case for both men and women.European Commissio

Perceptions of Job Security in Europe’s Ageing Workforce

Using data from the 2004 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, this paper investigates older workers’ perceptions of job security in eleven countries. We describe cross-national patterns and estimate multilevel models to analyse individual and societal determinants of self-perceived job security in the older labour force. While there are considerable cross-country variations around a median value of 23% of workers aged 50 or older ranking their job security as poor, none of our suggested macro-level variables – labour force participation rate, employment protection legislation, mean level of general social trust, and proportion disapproving of working beyond age 70 – bears statistically significant associations with individuals’ job security. Future research should aim at identifying statistically more powerful indicators of the supposed multilevel relationship between social context and older workers’ perceptions of job security. Moreover, supplementary findings indicate that further attention should be paid to the gender dimension of job insecurity.

Employer Preferences and Social Policy: Business and the Development of Job Security Regulations in Germany since World War I

This article examines the role of business in the historical development of job security regulations in Germany from their creation in the inter-war period to the dawn of the crisis of the 'German Model' in the 1980s. It contrasts the varieties of capitalism approach, which sees business as protagonists, or at least consenters, in the development of job security regulations with a conflict-oriented approach, which sees the labour movement as protagonists and business as antagonists in the development of job security regulations. The empirical analysis is based on primary and secondary sources and shows that at no point in time German employers preferred strict over flexible job security regulations. Quite the contrary, high levels of job security regulations have been forced upon employers by radicalized labour movements in periods of business weakness in the aftermath of both World Wars.job security regulations, Germany, institutional change, varieties of capitalism, power resources, industrial relations

Are flexible contracts bad for workers? Evidence from job satisfaction data

If workers can choose between permanent and flexible contracts, compensating wage differentials should arise to equalize on-the-job utility in the two types of contracts. Estimating job satisfaction using the British Household Panel Survey shows that agency and casual contracts are associated with routinely lower satisfaction. This results because the low job satisfaction associated with less job security is not offset by higher compensation or other job characteristics. Job security is sufficiently important that holding constant this one facet of satisfaction eliminates the overall gap in job satisfaction between flexible and permanent contracts.