Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to add to the understanding of the qualitative job insecurity, i.e. the insecurity about the continuity of valued job aspects in future. Specifically, the paper examines whether qualitative job insecurity is related to counterproductive work behavior (CWB), both directed to the organization (i.e. CWB-O) and other individuals at work (i.e. CWB-I), and whether frustration of the basic psychological needs of autonomy, belongingness and competence, as defined in self-determination theory, may account for these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
– The hypothesis were examined using structural equation modeling in heterogeneous sample of Romanian employees.
Findings
– Results support the hypotheses showing that feeling insecure about one's valued job aspects associates with high levels of need frustration and, therefore, also with both CWB-O and CWB-I. While each of the accounted for the associations of qualitative insecurity and CWB-O, only frustration of the need for autonomy explained its detrimental association with CWB-I.
Originality/value
– This study is innovative, as it integrates and extends three different fields and has high practical relevance. The authors detail qualitative job insecurity, an increasing, but understudied job stressor. The authors extend research on the antecedents of CWB by focussing on environmental factors. The authors develop need satisfaction, as integrative theoretical underlying mechanism.
This study aims to further knowledge on the mechanisms through which job insecurity is related to negative outcomes. Based on appraisal theory, two explanations-perceived control and psychological contract breach-were theoretically integrated in a comprehensive model and simultaneously examined as mediators of the job insecurity-outcome relationship. Different categories of outcomes were considered, namely work-related (i.e. vigour and need for recovery) and general strain (i.e. mental and physical health complaints), as well as psychological (i.e. job satisfaction and organizational commitment) and behavioural coping reactions (i.e. self-rated performance and innovative work behaviour). The hypotheses were tested using data of a heterogeneous sample of 2413 Flemish employees by means of both single and multiple mediator structural equation modelling analyses (bootstrapping method). Particularly, psychological contract breach accounted for the relationship between job insecurity and strain. Both perceived control and psychological contract breach mediated the relationships between job insecurity and psychological coping reactions, although the indirect effects were larger for psychological contract breach. Finally, perceived control was more important than psychological contract breach in mediating the relationships between job insecurity and behavioural coping reactions. This study meets previous calls for a theoretical integration regarding mediators of the job insecurity-outcome relationship.
The aim of the present study was to investigate how organizational communication and participation influence job insecurity and its relationship with poor work-related well-being. The results of a cross-sectional study of 3881 employees from 20 organizations in Flanders and Brussels (Belgium) showed that organizational communication and participation were negatively related to job insecurity. Furthermore, with one exception, the interaction terms between job insecurity and either organizational communication or participation did not contribute in explaining variance in the outcome variables (i.e. work engagement and need for recovery).
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