Can job insecurity be managed? Evaluating an organizational-level intervention addressing the negative effects of restructuring

Although downsizing and reorganisation are recognised as serious threats to the psychological well-being of employees, intervention strategies for addressing these events are limited. This study evaluated the effects of a participatory organisational-level intervention in which employees and managers chose to address the psychosocial consequences, specifically job insecurity, of restructuring. The intervention was conducted among postal service letter carriers in Denmark and was evaluated based on quantitative and qualitative data. Using interviews (N = 24) and observations, the programme theory of the intervention and to what extent the intervention had been implemented were assessed. Using survey data (N = 238), repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted to test for differences in the development of job insecurity between the intervention group and a comparison group. The results indicate that the intervention group had a significantly smaller increase in one dimension of job insecurity as compared to the comparison group. Therefore, we conclude that employees’ experiencing of job insecurity, which typically follows in the wake of restructuring, can be addressed by planned efforts at the workplace level

The cognitive/affective distinction of job insecurity: Validation and differential relations

Job insecurity as a work-related stressor is well established through three decades of research. It has been related to outcomes such as decreased job satisfaction, organisational commitment and performance as well as increased ill-health and organisational turnover. However, some important conceptual and theoretical issues are still under discussion, with implications for the measurement of the construct. We administered a short version of the measure of job insecurity originally devised by De Witte (2000), which distinguishes between cognitive and affective job insecurity. Data on job satisfaction, commitment, psychological ill-health and emotional exhaustion were also gathered from employees in a variety of South African organisations (N=1925) by means of anonymous surveys. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the cognitive and affective dimensions of job insecurity could be distinguished in this sample of South African employees, and the two dimensions evidenced adequate reliability. Equivalence analyses showed that the measurement properties of the scale were invariant across various demographic groups. The relationships with outcome variables were investigated by means of correlations and regression analyses. Cognitive job insecurity was predictive of all outcome variables, whereas affective job insecurity primarily played a role for emotional exhaustion. Norm data concerning levels of cognitive and affective job insecurity are presented to guide future South African studies.Key words: Job insecurity, job satisfaction, validation, equivalence analysis, factorial invarianc

Compensation profiles among private sector employees in Sweden: Differences in work-related and health-related outcomes

How experiences and perceptions of pay and pay setting relate to employees’ job performance, willingness to remain in the organization, and health has been the subject of much debate. Previous research has typically used a variable-centered approach to investigate associations between different pay-related factors and such outcomes. In contrast, we used latent profile analysis to explore combinations of compensation characteristics (pay level, perceived horizontal pay dispersion, and procedural quality, i.e., transactional leadership and procedural pay-setting justice), combining relevant theories on the subject. Based on a nationally representative sample of private sector employees in Sweden (N = 1,146), our study identified six compensation profiles. Our key findings show, first, that higher levels of pay were generally associated with better performance, lower turnover intention, better self-rated health, and lower work-related exhaustion, especially when combined with perceptions of high procedural quality. Second, in terms of perceived horizontal pay dispersion, the results indicate that pay compression may be associated with beneficial outcomes, particularly when combined with high procedural quality. Third, procedural quality was generally associated with favorable work-related and health-related outcomes, although such positive effects may be contingent upon pay level and perceived horizontal pay dispersion. In conclusion, while pay level, perceptions of horizontal pay dispersion, and procedural quality may all matter for employee outcomes, it is important to consider their combinations

Job Contracts

This chapter considers the distribution of job contracts — in terms of casual jobs, temporary jobs (that is, those of less than a year’s duration), and permanent jobs — across different subgroups of the population. Although the analysis of chapter 5 echoes that of chapter 3, which is cast in terms of regular salaried and wage employment and casual employment, the novelty of chapter 5 is two-fold. First, it explicitly addresses the question of job tenure: while much of the regular salaried and wage employment discussed in chapter 3 may have been permanent employment, some of it may not have been. Second, and more importantly, it addresses the issue of “desirable jobs” using a data set different from the NSS data used in the earlier chapter (that is, unit record data from the Indian Human Development Survey relating to the period 2011–12). The Survey provides details about the job tenure of persons by distinguishing between three types of jobs: casual (daily or piecework), contracts of less than one year duration (hereafter, simply, “contract jobs”), and permanent. The importance of the analysis contained in this chapter is that if one defines job insecurity as workers’ fear of involuntary job loss, job insecurity has negative consequences for employees’ attitudes towards their job, their health, and the quality of their relationship with their employers

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

Political Trust and Job Insecurity in 18 European Polities

Several decades of trust research has confirmed that difficult national economic conditions help explain citizens’ low levels of political trust. But research points to a much less important role for personal economic factors. The latter finding, it is argued here, is a result of flawed survey questions and model misspecification. We actually know very little about the precise economic concerns that may generate low levels of trust and about the mechanisms via which they do so, resulting in a rather thin causal story. This paper seeks to address this lacuna, focusing on an issue of increasing importance in advanced economies: job insecurity. Using individual-level data from 18 European polities at two different time points, the paper finds that job insecurity generates lower levels of trust in politicians, political parties and political institutions and lower levels of satisfaction with democratic performance. Importantly, job insecurity’s effect does not diminish as one moves from specific to more diffuse objects of political trust, as previous research suggests it should. The paper also finds that the effect of job insecurity is exacerbated if citizens have negative perceptions of the performance of the wider economy. Finally, and drawing on the occupational psychology literature, the paper proposes a novel causal mechanism to link job insecurity to political trust. The intuition is that job insecurity violates a ‘psychologicaldemocratic’ trust contract between workers and the state. The mechanism is consistent with the observed results. The paper thus contributes to both the empirical and theoretical debates on the linkages between political trust and economic performance

Work-related stress in a humanitarian context: a qualitative investigation

There is a paucity of research into the subjective stress-related experiences of humanitarian aid workers (HAWs). Most studies investigating stress in HAWs focus on trauma and related conditions or adopt a quantitative approach. This interview-based study explored how HAWs (n=58) employed by a United Nations aligned organisation perceived the transactional stress process. Thematic analysis revealed eight main themes. An emergency culture was found where most employees felt compelled to offer an immediate response to humanitarian needs. Employees experienced a strong identification with humanitarian goals and reported high engagement. The rewards of humanitarian work were perceived as motivating and meaningful. Constant change and urgent demands resulted in work overload. Managing work-life boundaries and receiving positive support from colleagues and managers helped buffer perceived stress, work overload and negative health outcomes. The practical implications of the results are discussed and suggestions made in light of current research and stress theory