On the scarring effects of job insecurity (and how they can be explained)

Witte, Hans De

doi:10.5271/sjweh.3545

Cited by 27 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Thus, job insecurity (e.g. [3][4][5]) and financial insecurity (e.g. [6][7][8]) have negative effects on many aspects of people's physical, mental and psychosocial health, including even direct effects on mortality when health is fragile [9] or it leads to suicidal behaviors [10], as well as affects family [11] and partner relationships.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job insecurity, financial threat and mental health in the COVID-19 context: The buffer role of perceived social support

Salgado

2020

Preprint

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The social distancing, confinement and quarantine adopted since March 2020 to confront the COVID-19 pandemic have affected multiple vital areas, and specially work, business and productive activities. Prior research has highlighted the relation between perceptions of risk in employment and its concomitant financial risk with a myriad of consequences for people's well-being and health. In order to analyze the potential negative consequences of temporary layoffs, downsizing or closure of companies and businesses, and the consequent insecurity about the continuity of employment, the aim of this study is twofold. Firstly, to analyze the relations between the perceptions of job insecurity and financial threat and overall mental health during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of the Chilean adult population. And secondly, to identify the potential buffer effect of perceived social support on this relation. To analyze this, we carried out a cross-sectional study on a non-probabilistic sample aimed at a general Chilean adult population. The results show that both perceptions of job insecurity and financial threat are associated with a decline in perceived mental health. Additionally, results indicate a moderate buffer effect of perceived social support relative to the size of the social network. Thus, in relation to job insecurity and financial threat, the network size mitigates the association of both with the decline in perceived mental health. The theoretical and applied scope of these findings are analyzed, and their challenges and limitations are discussed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job insecurity, financial threat and mental health in the COVID-19 context: The buffer role of perceived social support

Salgado

2020

Preprint

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“…The findings show that job insecurity tends to decrease the likelihood of OCB (Reisel, Probst, Chia, Maloles & König, ) and to increase CWB (Van den Broeck, Sulea, Vander Elst, Fischmann, Iliescu & De Witte, ). However, research on the processes through which job insecurity exerts its impact on behaviors is scarce and mainly focused on just one explanation, neglecting the possible interplay of manifold mediators in the same relationship (De Witte, ). Therefore, the second aim of this study is to provide multiple theoretical explanations for the behavioral consequences associated with job insecurity, taking into consideration the potential importance of alternative mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job insecurity and discretionary behaviors: Social exchange perspective versus group value model

Piccoli

Witte

Reisel

2016

Scandinavian J Psychology

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This study examines the relationship between job insecurity and discretionary behaviors, that is, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB), with the purpose to extend knowledge on the theoretical explanations for these outcomes. Considering the employment relationship with the organization, two different perspectives are suggested and compared in a multiple mediator model, in order to understand the reasons for discretionary behaviors. We draw upon social exchange theory as the basis of psychological contract perceptions and we rely on the group value model to explain organizational justice evaluations. A total of 570 blue-collar workers in Italy participated in our survey. The results show that job insecurity is indirectly related to OCB and CWB through psychological contract breach and organizational injustice. Both mediational mechanisms have equivalent strength in explaining the relationships, namely, they are complementary processes in accounting for both behaviors. These findings suggest that employees' behaviors in job insecure contexts are driven not only by concerns related to the exchange of resources with the organization, but also by evaluations about their value as important members of the group.

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“…However, workers being asked or forced to perform less work activities because their job has been deemed unessential, will arguably experience high levels of job insecurity during lockdown. That is, they are likely to have an overall concern about the continued existence of their job in the future which may lead to various short-and long-term undesirable outcomes (De Witte, 2016). We therefore make the following prediction: H3: Employees who are not working during lockdown, or have strongly reduced work hours, will experience more job insecurity, compared to those who are still performing a high percentage of their work activities.…”

Section: Relations Between Work Left During Lockdown and Work Perceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is anyone else feeling completely unessential? Meaningful work, identification, job insecurity, and online organizational behavior during a lockdown in the Netherlands

Ouwerkerk

Bartels

2020

Preprint

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A survey among Dutch employees (N = 408) investigated how a lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic affected work perceptions. Results demonstrate that employees who are not working during lockdown, or have strongly reduced work hours, perceive their job as contributing less to the greater good, identify less with their organization, and experience more job insecurity, compared to those who are still performing a high percentage of their work activities. Moreover, the longer employees were in lockdown, the weaker their greater good motivations and the more job insecurity they experienced. Additionally, we investigated the relations of work perceptions with prosocial and deviant online organizational behaviors of employees who were still working. Identification with colleagues and perceiving positive meaning in one’s job emerged as significant predictors of online organizational citizenship behavior directed at other individuals (OCB-I), whereas organizational identification predicted such behavior directed at the organization (OCB-O). Moreover, indicative of a job preservation motive, increased job insecurity was related to more online OCB-O, as well as more deviant online behaviors directed at others in the form of cyberostracism and cyberincivility. Based on these findings, we discuss practical lessons for future lockdowns to minimize negative consequences for organizations and employees.

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On the scarring effects of job insecurity (and how they can be explained)

Cited by 27 publications

References 23 publications

Job insecurity, financial threat and mental health in the COVID-19 context: The buffer role of perceived social support

Job insecurity, financial threat and mental health in the COVID-19 context: The buffer role of perceived social support

Job insecurity and discretionary behaviors: Social exchange perspective versus group value model

Is anyone else feeling completely unessential? Meaningful work, identification, job insecurity, and online organizational behavior during a lockdown in the Netherlands

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