Do core self-evaluations and coping style influence the perception of job insecurity?

Abstract

Over the last few decades, increased flexibility and lack of stability in employment has made job insecurity a work stressor that affects more and more employees. Since worrying about potential job loss (quantitative job insecurity) or possible loss of valued job features (qualitative job insecurity) constitutes a subjective perception, it has been claimed that personality factors may be decisive for job insecurity perceptions. Furthermore, the perception of a stressor, in this case job insecurity, could be argued to be dependent on appraisals of available coping resources. This study investigates whether core self-evaluations predict job insecurity perceptions, and whether coping mediates this relationship, in a two-wave data set from a Swedish sample of white-collar workers (N = 425). The results show that core self-evaluations had a negative total effect on both qualitative and quantitative job insecurity. Core self-evaluations were positively related to problem-focused coping but not to emotion-focused coping. However, there was no mediating effect of coping style on the association between core self-evaluations and job insecurity.

Work locus of control and sense of coherence as antecedents of job insecurity

“…Although we did not investigate environmental variables in our sample, biographical variables (none of which reached statistical significance), work locus of control and sense of coherence explained 20% of the variance in both cognitive and affective job insecurity. In their investigation of the effects of core self-evaluations and coping on perceptions of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity, Låstad et al (2014) found that these variables predicted 7% of the variance in quantitative, and 11% of the variance in qualitative job insecurity in a longitudinal analysis. In a much larger sample from financial institutions in South Africa, Bosman et al (2005) found the addition of work locus of control (additional to demographics) to predict 14% of the variance in job insecurity 1 .…”

“…Regarding biographical antecedents, Kinnunen and Nätti (1994) found perceived unemployment risk to correlate with gender, age, and level of education. Låstad, Berntson, Näswall and Sverke (2014) showed age to correlate with qualitative job insecurity, while Kinnunen et al (1999) also suggest that men experience higher job insecurity than women. In terms of the outcomes of job insecurity, age has been shown to be significant, in that older employees are worse affected (Cheng & Chan, 2008).…”

“…Although there is overlap in terms of the locus of control construct, Låstad et al (2014) have illustrated that core self-evaluation may be one such variable.…”

“…Lee, Bobko and Chen (2006) have also shown organisationally based self-esteem to relate negatively to job insecurity. Recently, Låstad et al (2014) illustrated that core selfevaluations had a direct negative relation to both qualitative and quantitative dimensions of job insecurity. Meta-analytic results confirm that an internal locus of control relates to lower job insecurity (Keim et al, 2014).…”

Job Security Across Europe

“…Thus, in this article we deal with three groups of job security predictors: background characteristics, job characteristics, and organizational characteristics, as defined by Ištoňová and Fedáková (2015) and based on a literature review primarily on the topic of job insecurity. The background characteristics that appear to be the most relevant predictors of job (in)security are age, gender, and education, according to papers by Näswall and De Witte (2003), Munoz de Bustilloand and de Pedreza (2010), Ito and Brotheridge (2007), Låstad et al (2014), and Kirves et al (2011). Previous experience of unemployment is a significant predictor of perceived job security in the future workplace (De Witte, 1999).…”