Linking job insecurity to well-being and organizational attitudes in Belgian workers: the role of security expectations and fairness

The aim of this study was to investigate how perceptions of job insecurity and fairness associate with individual well-being (job satisfaction and general health) and organizational attitudes (organizational commitment and turnover intention), under the condition that the psychological contract as perceived by the employee includes a promise on job security, or not. More specifically, we suggest that (H1) job insecurity is negatively related to individual well-being and organizational commitment and positively related to turnover intentions when job security is expected as part of the psychological contract, (H2) that job insecurity is negatively related to fairness perceptions when job security is expected as part of the psychological contract, (H3) that fairness associates positively with individual well-being and organizational commitment and negatively with turnover intentions and (H4) that the association between job insecurity, individual well-being and organizational outcomes is mediated by fairness under the condition that job security is expected as part of the psychological contract. Thus, we propose a model of mediated moderation. Results based on a sample of Belgian employees (N = 559) supported our hypotheses for organizational outcomes. For individual well-being, the mediation framework was not conditional upon a perceived promise of job security as part of the psychological contract. We conclude that employees' perceptions of job insecurity and fairness are important factors in employees' well-being and their attitudes towards the organization. More importantly, these perceptions can in part be shaped by organizational agents such as managers and supervisors. Additionally, the active utilization of the psychological contract in management strategies seems to have favourable results for the fostering of pro-organizational attitudes among employees.     

Job demands,control and support: Meta-analyzing moderator effects of gender,nationality, and occupation

The job demands-control (-support) model (JDC(S)) remains one of the most influential to HR-related issues of work stress, organizational behavior, and job design. However, despite over 37 years of research, the first meta-analysis of the model was conducted only recently. It examined interrelationships between the model's three workplace characteristics: demand, control and support in order to better understand how employees view relationships between these prominent work dimensions. A rather surprising result was the near-zero demand-control relationship, which was found to be moderated by gender. The current analysis extends our understanding of DCS interrelationships to include examination of nationality and occupation as additional moderating variables. We also build on the initial review by extending moderator analysis to relationships between demand-control-support dimensions and job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion — the two most examined psychological outcomes in primary studies. The present meta-analysis narrows the field of studies to 141 studies (N_{(Individuals)} = 145,424) of Karasek's model which include these outcomes. Our findings show additional patterns of gender moderation, including moderation of the demands-job satisfaction relationship. Additionally, both nationality and occupation moderate every DCS interrelationship, and relationship with job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in some way. Our results offer new understanding as to the boundaries of these relationships, and the JDC(S) model; and invite further theory building and meta-analytic investigation.     

Employee overqualification and manager job insecurity: Implications for employee career outcomes

In this study, we propose that manager job insecurity will moderate the nature of the relationship between perceived overqualification and employee career-related outcomes (career satisfaction, promotability ratings, and voluntary turnover). We tested our hypotheses using a sample of 124 employees and 54 managers working in a large holding company in Ankara, Turkey, collected across five time periods. The results suggested that average perceived overqualification was more strongly, and negatively, related to career satisfaction of employees when managers reported higher job insecurity. Furthermore, employee perceived overqualification was positively related to voluntary turnover when manager job insecurity was high. No direct or moderated effects were found for promotability ratings. Implications for overqualification and job insecurity literatures were discussed.     

Revisiting the Curvilinear Relation Between Job Insecurity and Work Withdrawal: The Moderating Role of Achievement Orientation and Risk Aversion

Although speculation of the curvilinear relations between job insecurity and job‐related behaviors is theoretically appealing, the empirical evidence has been sparse. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the literature on job insecurity and work withdrawal behaviors by reexamining their curvilinear relation, and the effects of achievement orientation and propensity for risk aversion on this U‐shaped relationship. Using samples with both secure and insecure job situations, we hypothesized that job insecurity could have both positive and negative effects on work withdrawal simultaneously; however, one of these effects could dominate the other at different levels of job insecurity. That is, a U shape would best describe such a relationship, since a moderate level of job insecurity would result in the lowest level of work withdrawal. Furthermore, we hypothesized that achievement orientation and propensity for risk aversion moderates this relationship in such a way that the curvilinear relationship is weaker (flattened curve) when the individual's achievement orientation is high, and that the curvilinear relationship is stronger (steep curve) when the individual's propensity for risk aversion is high. Results show that these hypotheses were supported; implications and limitations of the study are discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

One job,one deal…or not: do generations respond differently to psychological contract fulfillment?

This paper investigates generational differences in the relations between psychological contract fulfillment and work attitudes. Data were collected from a sample of 909 employees in the Dutch service sector. Structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the moderating effects of generational differences on the influence of psychological contract fulfillment on affective commitment and turnover intention. The relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and these work outcomes was moderated by generational differences. Furthermore, results indicate that different generations respond differently to different aspects of psychological contract fulfillment, such as career development, job content, organizational policies, social atmosphere and rewards. The study provides evidence that generational differences impact the reciprocal relationship between employer and employee. Results from this study suggest that Baby Boomers and Generation X may be more motivated by social atmosphere, whereas Generation Y may be more motivated by job content and career development. Fair organizational policies are particularly motivating to Generation X, and providing rewards, though more important to Generation Y, seem mostly unrelated to work outcomes. This article is the first to study the moderation of generational differences in the relationships between psychological contract fulfillment and work outcomes.     

时间要求与工作-家庭增益的关系研究

本文基于工作要求-资源模型,从积极组织行为学的视角探讨了时间要求与工作-家庭增益的关系,并实证检验了工作自主性和自我效能在其间的调节效应。结果显示：（1）与资源稀缺理论观点一致,工作时间要求与工作-家庭增益负相关,即个体的时间和精力是有限的,当工作时间要求较高时,较难发生工作对家庭的增益;（2）工作自主性和自我效能的调节作用显著,具有较高工作自主性和自我效能的员工通过提高个人满足多重角色需求的能力和获得积极的情绪溢出来降低工作时间对工作-家庭增益的负向影响。     

Associations between workers' health,and non-standard hours and insecurity: the case of home care workers in Ontario,Canada

This article examines associations between home care workers' health, and non-standard hours and insecurity. Health refers to symptoms of stress and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), non-standard hours refer to part-time and casual hours, and insecurity refers to job and employability insecurity. Data come from our 2002 survey of 532 home care workers (nurses, therapists and personal support workers) in a medium-sized city in Ontario, Canada. Path analysis regression results for the conceptual model show that (1) part-time and casual hours and job insecurity are positively and significantly associated with symptoms of stress, (2) the associations between part-time and casual hours and MSDs are mediated by symptoms of stress, and (3) job and employability insecurity are directly associated with MSDs. Results provide evidence that non-standard hours and insecurity must be addressed in order to improve home care workers' health. We show the detrimental effects of non-standard hours and insecurity on workers' health, and the results have implications for employers, human resource managers, trade unionists and government policy-makers.     

A weekly diary study on the buffering role of social support in the relationship between job insecurity and employee performance

In this article, the authors used a within‐person design to examine the relationship between job insecurity and employee in‐role and extra‐role performance, and the buffering role of time‐varying work‐based support (i.e., supervisor and colleague support) in this relationship. Weekly diary data gathered over the course of three weeks from 56 employees confronted with organizational restructuring and analyzed with a hierarchical linear modeling approach showed that weekly fluctuations in job insecurity negatively predicted week‐level in‐role performance. As predicted, supervisor support moderated the intra‐individual relationship between job insecurity and in‐role performance, so that employees' in‐role performance suffered less from feeling job insecurity during weeks in which they received more support from their supervisor. No relationship between job insecurity and extra‐role performance was observed. This within‐person study contributes to research on job insecurity that has primarily focused on inter‐individual differences in job insecurity and their associations with job performance. Theoretical and practical implications for human resource management are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Effects of workplace bullying on work engagement and health: the mediating role of job insecurity

This study examined the effects of exposure to workplace bullying on work engagement and health problems. It is one of the few studies to treat job insecurity as an explanatory factor of the bullying–outcome relationship. Specifically, we perceive that job insecurity unfolds through an interpersonal process in which negative experiences, such as bullying, make employees feel less valuable in their workplace. By analyzing the data from employees in Korea using the latent factor approach, the tested mediation model explained that exposure to workplace bullying decreased the work engagement of employees and increased their health problems because of their high level of perceived job insecurity. The relationship between bullying and engagement would not be established without the job insecurity variable, thereby suggesting its indirect effect. Given the partial mediating effect of health problems, job insecurity is identified as an additional underlying mechanism that explains why bullying increases health problems. This finding does not contradict the widespread arguments on the health-impairing effect of workplace bullying. This study contributes to the literature and business practices by identifying an important underlying mechanism that helps us understand the association between exposure to workplace bullying and key work outcomes.     

Job Insecurity and the Difficulty of Regaining Employment: An Empirical Study of Unemployment Expectations

It is widely assumed that British workers have become more insecure over he last decade. This paper sets out to establish whether the popular assumption is correct. We examine changes in measures of workers' insecurity using direct measures of their unemployment expectations, using data colleted by the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative (SCELI) in 1986 and by the Skills Survey (SS) in 1997. The paper also investigates how closely subjective measures of insecurity are related to objective measures commonly used as proxies, and analyses how these expectations are determined. It finds that: i. In aggregate job insecurity, measured as the expected risk of job loss, has changed little, while the expected difficulty of regaining employment has fallen over the last decade. ii. Job insecurity has increased among non-manual workers, while it has fallen among non-manual workers, who were traditionally less secure in the first place. iii. Unemployment in the external labour market has a large impact onindividuals' expectations of unemployment and on their expectations of re-employment. vi. There is a strong positive association between a job being temporary and insecurity. It is valid, therefore, to see a possible problem of rising subjective insecurity if there is a rising proportion of temporary workers in the labour force. v. Job tenure and job insecurity follow a U-shaped relationship. vi. The fall in unemployment from 1986 to 1997 would have been predicted to induce a substantial fall in job insecurity, that this fall did not materialise suggests that there has been an upward shift in job nsecurity.     

The mediating role of leader–member exchange: a study of job satisfaction and turnover intentions in temporary work

This paper focuses on turnover intentions in temporary work. Specifically, we analyse whether job satisfaction and leader–member exchange (LMX) play the same role as antecedents of turnover intentions for both temporary and permanent employees. Results from a total‐effects moderation model based on a survey of 593 individuals placed by a temporary work agency suggest that temporary work lessens the impact that high job satisfaction has in terms of reducing turnover intentions. Furthermore, while for permanent employees, high‐quality LMX relationships play a central role in the link between job satisfaction and turnover intentions; for temporary employees, job satisfaction is less important in the formation of high‐quality LMX relationships. Therefore, we contribute to knowledge on turnover intentions in temporary work by showing that within this context, turnover intentions cannot be directly remedied by high job satisfaction and that temporary work inhibits LMX's reinforcing role in the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions.     

How mass layoffs are related to lower job performance and OCB among surviving employees in Chile: an investigation of the essential role of psychological contract

This study aimed to investigate how mass layoffs impact surviving employees in organizations. More specifically, this study ascertained the relationships between mass layoffs and employee work behaviors. It was theorized that mass layoffs will be negatively related to employee performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) through its relationships with job insecurity and psychological contract breach. Moreover, it was expected that perceived manager support would buffer against the negative relations of contract breach with employee performance and OCB. A study among 615 employees in multiple Chilean organizations showed support for the hypotheses: job insecurity and psychological contract breach mediated the relationships between mass layoffs and employee performance and OCB. We also found moderating relationships of manager support, but the relations of breach with performance and OCB were particularly negative when manager support was high, indicating feelings of betrayal among high-support employees in response to contract breach. Moreover, the relation of contract breach with performance was positive for low-support employees, and non-significant for high-support employees. Our study advances understanding of the processes underlying how mass layoffs influence employee behavior in the workplace, through introducing the psychological contract as a way of understanding the relationships.     

Workplace incivility and work engagement: The mediating role of job insecurity and the moderating role of self-perceived employability

Drawing upon the job demand–resource model and the theory of existence, relatedness, and growth needs, we established and checked a model that connects workplace incivility to employee work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, and absorption) through job insecurity. Furthermore, we propose and test self-perceived employability as the boundary condition of this connection. The conclusions of two substudies with time-delay design provided evidence to support theoretical models. Specifically, the conclusions of both studies show that workplace incivility has negative impacts on work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, and absorption) through job insecurity. The results of Study 2 show that self-perceived employability not only weakens the negative influences of job insecurity on work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, and absorption) but also moderates the mediating roles of job insecurity in the relationships between workplace incivility and work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, and absorption). The theoretical and practical implications and limitations are discussed based on the conclusions of the two substudies.     

Job security as a threatened resource: reactions to job insecurity in culturally distinct regions

As downsizing and restructuring have become global phenomena, the impact of job insecurity on employee attitudes has received significant attention. However, research examining the role of cultural dimensions has been largely unexplored. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, we investigated whether the relationships between both quantitative job insecurity (i.e. the perceived threat of job loss) and qualitative job insecurity (i.e. the perceived threat of losing valued job features) and employee attitudes (job satisfaction and turnover intention) differ in culturally distinct regions. This was examined using representative employee samples from two regions of Switzerland which differ in societal practices uncertainty avoidance and performance orientation: the German-speaking (n = 966) and the French-speaking (n = 307) regions. Our research indicates that whereas the relationship between quantitative job insecurity and turnover intention is stronger in the French-speaking region where there is higher societal practice uncertainty avoidance, the relationship between qualitative job insecurity and job satisfaction is stronger in the German-speaking region where there is higher societal practice performance orientation.     

The relationship of leader psychological capital and follower psychological capital,job engagement and job performance: a multilevel mediating perspective

Building on the body of positive organizational behavior research, this study examines the relationships between leader psychological capital, follower psychological capital, job engagement and job performance (task performance and contextual performance). Data were collected in three phases from multiple sources involving 60 leaders and 319 followers from a large telecom company in Taiwan. Hierarchical linear modeling results revealed that leaders' psychological capital was positively related to their job engagement through the mediation of followers' psychological capital. Furthermore, the results indicated that job engagement mediates the relationship between followers' psychological capital and their job performance (task performance and contextual performance). We discuss the implications and limitations of these findings and directions for future research.     

Cognitive job crafting: A possible response to increasing job insecurity and declining professional prestige

Recent research has shown that job crafting, which describes individuals' attempts to craft a job to make it correspond more to personal inclinations, skills, and abilities, can generate significant work and nonwork benefits for individuals. Using the theoretical lens of activation theory, we examined whether professionals are prompted to cognitively craft their jobs in response to the increasing perception of precarisation of their profession, measured in terms of job insecurity and perceived external prestige. We adopted a mixed methods approach among professional accountants operating in Southern Italy and the results indicated the presence of two curvilinear relationships. More specifically, we found that accountants were more likely to engage in cognitive crafting when experiencing moderate levels of job insecurity (rather than high or low) and in the presence of both low and high levels of perceived external prestige (rather than a moderate level). Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Reducing the effects of work–family conflict on job satisfaction: the kind of commitment matters

The way in which organisational commitment influences the relationship between work–family conflict and job satisfaction is a question that has produced contradictory results. We address this issue by developing and testing a model that integrates role conflict theory and major research on organisational commitment, to elucidate the consequences that time‐, strain‐ and behaviour‐based conflict have on job satisfaction. The research is based on data collected among Italian nurses, and the results show that time‐ and strain‐based conflict are negatively related to job satisfaction. In addition, affective commitment moderates the relationship between strain‐based conflict and job satisfaction, whereas normative commitment moderates the relationship between time‐based conflict and job satisfaction. We discuss the implications of these results for theory and practice.     

Work motivation and public service motivation: disentangling varieties of motivation and job satisfaction

Research on motivation in the public sector has used public service motivation (PSM) and self-determination theory (SDT) interchangeably. This paper compares both theories, develops hypotheses pertaining to their assumptions, and empirically tests them in two public offices in Switzerland. We then explore their relationship with job satisfaction as an indicator of predictive validity. We find that SDT and PSM display conceptual differentiation and SDT has a strongest relationship to job satisfaction. However, moderation analysis suggests that employees with high levels of PSM have more stable job satisfaction compared to their low-PSM counterparts.     

Work engagement,psychological contract breach and job satisfaction

This study extends both Social Exchange Theory and the Job Demands–Resources model by examining the link between psychological contract breach (PCB) and work engagement, and by integrating job satisfaction into this exchange relationship. We argue that PCB reflects employees' feelings of resource loss, and that these feelings impact work engagement through their impact on job satisfaction. Levels of employee work engagement can therefore be viewed as reciprocation for the exchange content provided by employers. We conduct structural equation modeling on longitudinal survey data from 191 employees, and our results suggest that the negative effect of PCB on work engagement is mediated by job satisfaction.