Quantitative and Qualitative Job Insecurity and Idea Generation: The Mediating Role of Psychological Contract Breach

Abstract

Increased organisational restructuring and downsizing have increased employees' perceptions of job insecurity, i.e., 'the subjective perceived likelihood of involuntary job loss' (Hartley, Jacobson, Klandermans, & van Vuuren, 1991; Sverke & Hellgren, 2002: 43). Apart from anticipation of job loss as such, which is coined as quantitative job insecurity, employees might experience qualitative job insecurity, referring to 'perceived threats of impaired quality in the employment relationship, such as deterioration of working conditions, lack of career opportunities and decreasing salary development' (Hellgren, Sverke, & Isaksson, 1999: 182). Both types of job insecurity have been found to be important stressors, resulting in negative associations with employees' wellbeing (

Do Self-Enhancing and Affiliative Humor Buffer for the Negative Associations of Quantitative and Qualitative Job Insecurity?

“…These items covered one’s job content (e.g., ‘I feel insecure about the content of my job in the future’), career opportunities (e.g., ‘I am insecure about my chances for promotion’) and employment conditions (e.g., ‘I’m afraid I will be relocated in the future’). These items tap into similar aspects as the items of De Witte and colleagues (2010), and have been successfully used in previous studies (e.g., Fischmann et al, 2018; Niesen, Van Hootegem, Handaja, Battistelli, & De Witte, 2018; Van den Broeck et al, 2014). All items were rated on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( totally disagree ) to 5 ( totally agree ).…”

How does hotel employees’ satisfaction with the organization’s COVID-19 responses affect job insecurity and job performance?

“…Researchers (e.g., Frone, 2018;Meyer et al, 2018) claimed that such downsizing could threaten employees and their job quality. Niesen et al (2018) also recognized that organizational restructuring increases employees' job insecurity. COVID-19 may induce a perception of job insecurity in employees.…”

COVID-19: The effects of job insecurity on the job engagement and turnover intent of deluxe hotel employees and the moderating role of generational characteristics

“…It is obvious that, even before COVID-19, modern working environments faced uncertainly due to technological changes, economic fluctuations, and political insecurity, thus unable to guarantee employment stability to all employees ( Etehadi and Karatepe, 2019 ). Organizational restructuring and scale-downs have increased employees’ perceptions of job insecurity—the subjective and unconscious perception of job loss ( Niesen et al, 2018 )—but COVID-19 has aggravated this situation. Job insecurity can spread among employees for two specific reasons ( Mauno et al, 2014 ); First, changes in an organization caused by quantitative job insecurity, such as layoffs, downsizing, and mergers, affect certain groups within the organization, inducing their perceptions of job insecurity, and, Second, certain threats or stressors can be interpreted similarly or collectively by employees of different work units.…”