engleski

Dealing with job insecurity: Does a resourceful work environment make a difference?

Job insecurity – a perceived threat of involuntary job loss – has been affiliated to the list of the most severe work stressors. Despite its well-established severity, disproportionately less is known about how we can reduce this problematic phenomenon and alleviate its negative consequences. In response, this study probes: (1) work environmental antecedents of job insecurity ; (2) work environmental moderators of the effects of job insecurity on employees’ wellbeing and (3) mediators of main and moderating effects of work environmental variables. Uniting the Conservation of Resources Theory and psychological climate model, we propose that a resourceful work environment (i.e., high levels of job challenge, role harmony, leader support and co-workers’ cooperation) will reduce job insecurity due to its positive effects on occupational self-efficacy and/or alleviate negative outcomes of job insecurity on employees’ wellbeing due to its positive effects on perceived control. Data were collected among a large sample of Croatian white-collar employees working in the private sector. Participants completed on-line questionnaire three times spaced approximately six months apart (N1=1867 ; N2=1977 ; N3=1852). The hypothesised mediation and mediated moderation models were tested longitudinally via structural equation modelling. The results of the cross-lagged panel analyses did not provide support for the main and moderating effects of psychological climate dimensions. In contrast, we found reversed negative cross- lagged effect of job insecurity on employees’ perceptions of the work environment. In particular, job insecurity predicted decrease in cooperation among co-workers after one year. Accordingly, the results of the present study do not shed a light on the means to encounter job insecurity. However, they do reveal another relevant, yet understudied outcome of this work stressor.

job insecurity ; psychological climate ; occupational self-efficacy ; perceived control ; Conservation of Resources theory

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