Who Feels Insecure in Europe? Predicting Job Insecurity from Background Variables

Along with the increased flexibilization of the labour market in Europe, there has been a change in the permanence and security of employment. Job insecurity is constituted by a subjectively experienced threat of having to give up one's job sooner than one would like. The experience of job insecurity has been linked to decreasing well-being, negative attitudes towards one's job and organization, and reluctance to stay with the organization. The present study investigates what groups experience higher levels of job insecurity than others. Survey data from four European countries (Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden) were used to determine what characterizes individuals who experience high levels of job insecurity. The results show that employees in jobs characterized by manual labour, contingent workers, and to some extent older workers and those with lower levels of education, experience higher levels of job insecurity.

[1]  P. Sloane,et al.  Trade union membership, tenure and the level of job insecurity , 1999 .

[2]  M Guilbert,et al.  Part-time Employment , 1972, Nature.

[3]  Zehava Rosenblatt,et al.  A test of a multidimensional model of job insecurity: The case of Israeli teachers. , 1996 .

[4]  Daniel C. Feldman,et al.  The Impact of Psychological Contract Violations on Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect , 1999 .

[5]  M. Sverke,et al.  No security: a meta-analysis and review of job insecurity and its consequences. , 2002, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[6]  C. Verhaar,et al.  On the mysteries of unemployment: causes, consequences and policies. , 1992 .

[7]  S. Folkman,et al.  Stress, appraisal, and coping , 1974 .

[8]  M. Frese,et al.  Stress at work and psychosomatic complaints: a causal interpretation. , 1985, The Journal of applied psychology.

[9]  C A Heaney,et al.  Chronic job insecurity among automobile workers: effects on job satisfaction and health. , 1994, Social science & medicine.

[10]  W. Schaufeli.  Unemployment and mental health in well- and poorly-educated school-leavers , 1992 .

[11]  H. J. Arnold,et al.  A multivariate analysis of the determinants of job turnover. , 1982 .

[12]  C. Cooper,et al.  International review of industrial and organizational psychology , 1986 .

[13]  E. Kelloway,et al.  Job insecurity and health : The moderating role of workplace control , 1996 .

[14]  G. Mohr.  The changing significance of different stressors after the announcement of bankruptcy: A longitudinal investigation with special emphasis on job insecurity. , 2000 .

[15]  Leonie W. Still.  Part-time versus full-time salespeople: Individual attributes, organizational commitment, and work attitudes. , 1983 .

[16]  M. Sverke,et al.  Exit, Voice and Loyalty Reactions to Job Insecurity in Sweden: Do Unionized and Non-unionized Employees Differ? , 2001 .

[17]  Hans De Witte,et al.  Job Insecurity and Psychological Well-being: Review of the Literature and Exploration of Some Unresolved Issues , 1999 .

[18]  Magnus Sverke,et al.  ALTERNATIVE WORK ARRANGEMENTS Job Stress, Well-being, and Work Attitudes among Employees with Different Employment Contracts , 2000 .

[19]  A. Büssing,et al.  Can Control at Work and Social Support Moderate Psychological Consequences of Job Insecurity? Results from a Quasi-experimental Study in the Steel Industry , 1999 .

[20]  Kathleen Barker,et al.  Contingent work : American employment relations in transition , 2000 .

[21]  M G Marmot,et al.  The health effects of major organisational change and job insecurity. , 1998, Social science & medicine.

[22]  Sidney Dekker,et al.  The effects of job insecurity on psychological health and withdrawal: A longitudinal study , 1995 .

[23]  Yuan Cheng,et al.  Restructuring the Employment Relationship , 1998 .

[24]  Angelo J. Kinicki,et al.  A test of job security's direct and mediated effects on withdrawal cognitions , 1997 .

[25]  P. Warr,et al.  Work, unemployment, and mental health , 1987 .

[26]  Judi McLean Parks,et al.  Fitting square pegs into round holes: mapping the domain of contingent work arrangements onto the psychological contract , 1998 .

[27]  M. Armstrong-Stassen.  Production workers' reactions to a plant closing: the role of transfer, stress, and support , 1993 .

[28]  J. Visser,et al.  Industrial relations in Europe : traditions and transitions , 1996 .

[29]  Ethel Roskies,et al.  Coping with job insecurity: How does personality make a difference? , 1993 .

[30]  Zehava Rosenblatt,et al.  Job Insecurity: Toward Conceptual Clarity , 1984 .

[31]  M. Sverke,et al.  Do New Generations Imply the End of Solidarity? Swedish Unionism in the Era of Individualization , 2000 .

[32]  D. C. Ganster.  Workplace interventions to Prevent stress-related illness : Lessons from research and practice. , 2000 .

[33]  S. Ashford,et al.  Content, Cause, and Consequences of Job Insecurity: A Theory-Based Measure and Substantive Test , 1989 .

[34]  Vivien K. G. Lim,et al.  Job Insecurity and Its Outcomes: Moderating Effects of Work-Based and Nonwork-Based Social Support , 1996 .

[35]  Saija Mauno,et al.  Perceived Job Insecurity: A Longitudinal Study Among Finnish Employees , 1999 .

[36]  Eliahu Levanoni,et al.  Differences in Job Attitudes between Full-Time and Part-Time Canadian Employees , 1990 .

[37]  Magnus Sverke,et al.  A Two-dimensional Approach to Job Insecurity: Consequences for Employee Attitudes and Well-being , 1999 .

[38]  Hans De Witte,et al.  European unions in the wake of flexible production: technical report on the data sets used in a SALTSA project , 2001 .

[39]  M. Sverke,et al.  The Nature of Job Insecurity: Understanding Employment Uncertainty on the Brink of a New Millennium , 2002 .