Meta-analytic techniques were used to estimate how job insecurity relates to its postulated outcomes. Consistent with the conceptual framework, the results indicate that job insecurity has detrimental consequences for employees' job attitudes, organizational attitudes, health, and, to some extent, their behavioral relationship with the organization. Moderator analyses suggest that these relationships may be underestimated in studies relying on single-item measures of job insecurity and that the behavioral consequences of insecurity are more detrimental among manual, as compared with nonmanual, workers. Recommendations made for future research include utilization of multidimensional measures, consideration of a broader spectrum of outcomes and moderators, and use of longitudinal designs.

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Cet article porte sur la nature de l’insécurité au travail et traite de données aussi bien conceptuelles que méthodologiques en rapport avec notre compréhension de ses conséquences. Une revue de littérature débouche sur le constat qu’il est nécessaire de faire appel à nombre de travaux théoriques et empiriques pour cerner la nature de l’insécurité au travail, développer des mesures psychométriquement valides de ses différents aspects et parvenir à des conclusions pertinentes sur les effets de l’insécurité. L’insécurité au travail est d’abord définit comme une source de stress multidimensionnelle relevant de l’expérience subjective. Ensuite, les nombreux aspects de l’insécurité au travail peuvent avoir des conséquences divergentes ou du moins être différentiellement reliés à des variables dépendantes potentielles telles que les attitudes relatives au travail, la performance professionnelle, la santé physique, le bien‐être mental ou les symptômes de stress induits par le travaìl. Puis, étant donné que la plupart des recherches sur l’insécurité au travail ont été transversales, il reste à effectuer beaucoup d’investigations avant que nous sachions comment, ou si, l’insécurité contribue à modifier ces variables, Enfin, on peut imaginer nombre de facteurs susceptibles d’avoir un impact sur les relations entre l’insécurité au travail et ses retombées possibles. Pour améliorer la compréhenions de ce qu’est l’insécurité au travail et de ce qu’elle peut impliquer pour l’individu, il est indispensable de prendre en compte ces données dans des recherches aussi bien théoriques qu’empiriques. This paper focuses on the nature of job insecurity and addresses conceptual as well as methodological issues affecting our understanding of its consequences. A review of the literature suggests that a great deal of theoretical and empirical work is needed to capture the nature of job insecurity, develop psychometrically sound measures of the different aspects, and arrive at valid conclusions regarding the effects of insecurity. First, job insecurity is defined as a subjectively experienced stressor which may be divided into different dimensions. Second, the multiple aspects of job insecurity may have divergent consequences or at least be differentially related to potential outcomes such as work‐related attitudes, job performance, physical health, mental well‐being, and job‐induced stress symptoms. Third, given that most studies on job insecurity have been cross‐sectional, a lot of work remains before we know how, or if, insecurity contributes to changes in such outcomes. Fourth, there are a number of plausible factors that may moderate the relationships between job insecurity and its potential outcomes. Addressing these issues in theoretical as well as empirical work is necessary, we argue, to improve the understanding of both what job insecurity is and what it may imply for the individual.

Employability is believed to be a crucial concept concerning employees' job security. This study investigates whether factors associated with human capital and the dual labour market predict perceived employability. Two national representative Swedish samples are used, representing economic recession (1993, N ¼ 4952) and prosperity (1999, N ¼ 6696). Employability was perceived as higher during prosperity, but human capital factors as well as dual labour market factors predicted perceived employability, irrespective of the time period. These findings indicate that the understanding of employability is enhanced by considering both structural and individual dimensions.

SummaryAlthough research suggests that job insecurity is associated with impaired employee wellbeing, there is insufficient empirical evidence to draw any causal inferences since most studies are cross-sectional and thus do not control for previous levels of health symptoms. We used longitudinal questionnaire data to investigate the direction of the relationship between job insecurity and health complaints. After controlling for prior levels of mental and physical health complaints and five other variables that could potentially confound the results (gender, age, organizational tenure, family status, and education), the results of latent variable modelling showed that the cross-lagged effect of job insecurity on mental health complaints, one year later, was significant whereas the reversed effects of mental and physical health complaints on subsequent insecurity were non-significant. However, there was no significant cross-lagged effect of job insecurity on physical health complaints. The results provide empirical support for the theoretical notion that job insecurity leads to health complaints, and imply that prior levels of health should be taken into consideration in order to explain the relative effect of perceived job insecurity on the physical and mental health of the workforce.

Previous research has shown that job insecurity is linked to a range of performance outcomes, but the number of studies exploring this relationship is still limited and the results are somewhat mixed. The first aim of this study was to meta-analytically investigate how job insecurity is related to task performance, contextual performance, counterproductive work behavior, creativity, and safety compliance. The second aim was to test two method-related factors (cross-sectional vs. longitudinal associations and self- vs. supervisor-ratings of performance) and two macro-level indicators of social protection (social welfare regime and union density) as moderators of these associations. The results show that job insecurity was generally associated with impaired employee performance. These findings were generally similar both cross-sectionally and longitudinally and irrespective of rater. Overall, the associations between job insecurity and negative performance outcomes were weaker in welfare regimes characterized by strong social protection, whereas the results concerning union density produced mixed results. A majority of the findings confirmed the negative associations between job insecurity and types of employee performance, but future research is needed to elaborate on the effects of temporal aspects, differences between ratings sources, and further indicators of social protection in different cultural settings in the context of job insecurity.

Exit, voice, loyalty, or neglect as employee responses to organizations in decline have been investigated in several studies. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether employability moderates the effects of job insecurity on exit, voice, loyalty and neglect. The results, based on questionnaire data from white-collar workers in Sweden (N = 725), indicate that individuals who are high in employability may have greater opportunities for gaining control over their working life. Job insecurity was found to be associated with increased exit as well as with decreased voice and loyalty, although these effects were stronger among individuals who perceived themselves to be employable. Thus, instead of making employees more likely to use voice in times of uncertainty, employability appears to primarily induce vocational mobility.

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