Addressing job insecurity improves well-being and productivity.

Result in brief of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project "Micro- and Macro-Level Determinants of Job Insecurity Perceptions: Individual, Organizational and Social Consequences. Multilevel Analysis and Comparisons among European Countries". Official website of EU, CORDIS: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/197288/brief/e

New Insights for the Management of the Job Insecurity-Psychological Wellbeing Relationship

Empirical evidence considers job insecurity as a stressor that leads to poor job-related well-being. With the present study we intend to increase this knowledge by testing how and through what mechanisms job insecurity may give rise to such consequences. In particular, we examined the mediating processes underlying the relationship between job insecurity and emotional exhaustion, as an indicator of psychological well-being and core element of burnout. A total of 322 blue collar workers in Italy are used to test the hypotheses derived from our framework. The results found support for a model in which the effect of job insecurity on exhaustion was mediated by two variables, i.e. breached psychological contract and perceived distributive injustice (three-path mediational model). Employees who were insecure perceived a breach of their psychological contract, which led to distributive injustice perceptions, which in turn increased emotional exhaustion. The tested model provides a theoretical framework that may lead to new insights on the job insecurity-burnout relationship

Too Old to Be a Diversity Hire. Choice Bundling Shown to Increase Gender-Diverse Hiring Decisions Fails to Increase Age Diversity

Past research has shown that people are more likely to make the decision to hire candidates whose gender would increase group diversity when making multiple hiring choices in a bundle (i.e., when selecting multiple team members simultaneously) compared to making choices in isolation (i.e., when selecting a single team member). However, it is unclear if this bundling effect extends to age diversity and the selection of older candidates, as older workers are often the target of socially acceptable negative stereotypes and bias in recruitment, leaving them unemployed for longer than their younger counterparts. Across five preregistered experiments (total N = 4,096), we tested if the positive effect of bundling on diversity of selections extends to older candidates in hiring decisions. We found evidence of bias against older job candidates in hiring decisions but found inconsistent effects of choice bundling on the selection of older candidates across experiments. An effect of bundling was found in two of five experiments, with no meta-analytic effect found across the five studies. Making older candidates more competitive and introducing a diversity statement aimed at increasing their selection both significantly increased older candidate selections, but failed to activate the bundling effect. We discuss the theoretical implications for choice bundling interventions and for age as a diversity characteristic to support the design of interventions that meet the challenges of an aging workforce

When Justice Works: Testing the Uncertainty Management Model among Italian employees”.

Organizational justice can play an important role in buffering the harmful effects of job insecurity on work attitudes and behaviours (e.g. Brockner and Greenberg, 1990). There is widespread empirical evidence of the positive role of organisational justice, building on social exchange theory as theoretical explanation (e.g. Cohen-Charash and Spector, 2001). A limitation of social exchange-based explanations of employee behaviour is that these theories do not specify the conditions under which fairness concerns become important for employees. An alternative model that states accounts for this omission is Uncertainty Management Theory (UMT: Lind and Van den Bos, 2002). According to UMT, people especially rely on justice information when they are confronted with uncertainty: in this condition fairness judgements have a stronger impact on a variety of outcomes. This study tested the Uncertainty Management Model among Italian employees. In accordance with the model, we hypothesize that organizational justice moderates the negative relationship between job insecurity and work attitudes (commitment and satisfaction) and behaviours (performance and organizational citizenship behaviour). We hypothesise that the effects of job insecurity on outcomes will be particularly strong in an unjust job situation. Consequently, high job insecurity together with low organizational justice will be associated with low levels of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, job performance and organizational citizenship behaviours; in turn, negative effects of the job insecurity for work attitudes and behaviours are moderated by high perceived justice. Data will be gathered in an organization of north-east of Italy, including temporary and permanent workers. The results will be presented at the conference

Job Insecurity and Organizational Consequences: How Justice Moderates this Relationship

The experience of job insecurity has been related to several organizational outcomes, both immediate and long-term. However, since the strength of these effects have been found to vary across studies, it is essential to identify factors that could influence the relationships. The current study examines interaction effects between job insecurity and organizational justice (distributive, procedural and interactional) for various organizational consequences (affective organizational commitment, citizenship behaviours and perceived performance), some of which have received little research attention. Data from 248 blue collar workers in the Italian organizational context showed the buffer effects of procedural and interactional justice on affective organizational commitment and citizenship behaviours. However, contrary to expectations, the results also indicated that high organizational justice exacerbated the negative impact of job insecurity on perceived performance. Implications for research on job insecurity and the moderating role of organizational justice are discussed

Job Insecurity and Organizational Consequences: How Justice Moderates this Relationship

The experience of job insecurity has been related to several organizational outcomes, both immediate and long-term. However, since the strength of these effects have been found to vary across studies, it is essential to identify factors that could influence the relationships. The current study examines interaction effects between job insecurity and organizational justice (distributive, procedural and interactional) for various organizational consequences (affective organizational commitment, citizenship behaviours and perceived performance), some of which have received little research attention. Data from 248 blue collar workers in the Italian organizational context showed the buffer effects of procedural and interactional justice on affective organizational commitment and citizenship behaviours. However, contrary to expectations, the results also indicated that high organizational justice exacerbated the negative impact of job insecurity on perceived performance. Implications for research on job insecurity and the moderating role of organizational justice are discussed

The impact of mindfulness on psychosomatic complaints among firefighters: The mediator role of vicarious traumatisation

Firefighters are at risk to develop post-traumatic and psychosomatic symptoms. But in order to face negative health effects they have psychological resources at their disposal, such as mindfulness. This study aims to test the a model by which intrusion predicts general dysphoria in response to mindfulness. Self-report measures were administered to Italian firefighters. Structural equation modelling shown that mindfulness did not directly influence general dysphoria: mediation analyses revealed its meaningful indirect effect via intrusion. The results suggest that mindfulness can lead to reduced symptoms of general dysphoria through low levels of intrusive thoughts

Leadership and Change Mobilization: The Mediating Role of Distributed Leadership

Leading change is an enduring managerial challenge that encompasses individual and collective efforts within an organization. Among the levers that managers can use to foster change, mobilizing activities are considered particularly relevant since they enable leaders to activate the resources and processes necessary for change to actually occur. This study investigates whether individual person- and task-centred orientations to leadership relate to an emphasis on mobilizing change through their effect on distributed leadership. These hypotheses are tested using an international survey involving 459 middle managers from different firms, countries and industries who had implemented a planned organizational change project. The findings reveal that both person-centred and task-centred orientations to leadership relate positively to mobilizing change, and that distributed leadership may explain the relationship between orientations to leadership and mobilizing activities

Proactive personality and training motivation among older workers

Purpose – This paper aims at examining the relationship between proactive personality and training motivation among older workers (aged over 55 years) in a context characterized by the growing ageing of the global population. First, the authors hypothesized that proactive personality predicts the motivation to learn among older workers and that this relationship is mediated by goal orientation. In particular, the authors hypothesized that learning goal orientation may mediate the relationship between proactive personality and learning motivation. Design/methodology/approach – The employees of an Italian bank completed an online questionnaire. AMOS 17 was used to carry out confirmatory factor analysis, and the SPSS macro was used to test the meditational model. Findings – The results confirmed both the hypotheses, demonstrating the influence of proactive personality on training motivation of older workers, as mediated by goal orientation and, in particular, by learning goal orientation. Practical implications – From an applicative point of view, this study may have implications for organizations that aim to increase the employability of older people by encouraging them to undertake more training. In particular, interventions aimed at increasing learning goal orientation could contribute in strengthening proactive personality that, in turn, may affect levels of training motivation. Originality/value – Even if proactive personality has already been found as a predictor of learning motivation, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study demonstrates that the relationship between proactive personality and training motivation is mediated by goal orientation among older workers

Job insecurity, employability and satisfaction among temporary and permanent employees in post-crisis Europe

Earlier studies established that perceived job insecurity is more strongly related to the experiences of permanent employees, and conversely that perceived employability is more strongly related to the experiences of temporary employees. We challenge these results against the background of the 2008/2009 crisis using samples from the 2010 European Social Survey with employees from Continental and Mediterranean Europe. First, we argue that job insecurity has become a structural phenomenon that associates with temporary and permanent employees’ satisfaction in the same fashion, which found overall support. Second, we argue that employability may have become important for all employees, regardless of contract type, which was largely supported. A cause for concern is that the relationship between perceived job insecurity and satisfaction was comparatively stronger than the relationship between perceived employability and satisfaction. This may suggest that employees have not yet fully embraced ideas about employability as the new form of security