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

Abstract

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 influence of self-leadership strategies, psychological resources, and job embeddedness on work engagement in the banking industry

“…In practice, based on the COR theory, accumulation of different job and personal resources benefit both individual and organisation through sustained engagement (Kotzé, 2018). Obtaining and retaining of a job and personal and psychological resources assist individuals in creating a sense that they are capable of meeting challenges and guarantee continuous engagement (Gawke et al, 2017; Sender et al, 2017). This is consistent with the findings of Kotzé (2018) and Tabaziba (2015), who identified several personal resources, including optimism, self-efficacy, and positive thinking, as antecedents of engagement.…”

Conservation of Resources in the Organizational Context: The Reality of Resources and Their Consequences

“…This within-country diversity has also been tested combining several cultural dimensions. For instance, in the individualist Swiss culture (Sender et al 2017), the fear of job loss depended on the level of uncertainty avoidance, but not homogeneously. In the German-speaking part of the country (low on uncertainty avoidance), prospects of downsizing or restructuring related to the fear of losing valued job features.…”

“…As presented above, most COR-based cross-cultural studies adopt Hofstede's taxonomy and definitions. Following Sender et al (2017), we propose combining more than one dimension to reflect the cultural complexities of the resource dynamic process. The study of the interactions between uncertainty avoidance and individualism could thus shed additional light on the conservation process in the context of differing states of national welfare (resource passageways).…”

A Meta-Analysis of Job Insecurity and Employee Performance: Testing Temporal Aspects, Rating Source, Welfare Regime, and Union Density as Moderators

“…Job insecurity has been studied across the globe, and while the consequences associated with it have generally been found to be detrimental across national contexts, the strength of associations varies. It has been argued that part of this variance may be ascribed to differences between the societal contexts wherein these reactions occur [22,24,89,90]. Such differences include, but are not limited to, characteristics of national culture, labor legislation, social security, welfare expenditure, and labor market characteristics such as unemployment rates [91,92].…”