Psychological climate predicting job insecurity through occupational self-efficacy
| Pages | 360-380 |
| Published date | 04 March 2019 |
| Date | 04 March 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-05-2017-0163 |
| Author | Jasmina Tomas,Darja Maslić Seršić,Hans De Witte |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Psychological climate predicting
job insecurity through
occupational self-efficacy
Jasmina Tomas and Darja MaslićSeršić
Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, and
Hans De Witte
Research Unit Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Professional Learning,
KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium and
Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University,
Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesized mediation model that specifies psychological
climate dimensions as antecedents of job insecurity, while accounting for occupational self-efficacy.
Stemming from the conservation of resources theory, the authors hypothesize that job challenge, role
harmony, leader support and co-worker cooperation negatively relate to job insecurity due to its positive
correlation with occupational self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected with a sample of 329 white-collar employees from
the ICT sector who were employed full-time and for a period of at least six months in their current
organization. All hypotheses were tested via structural equation modeling using the bootstrap method to test
the significance of indirect effects.
Findings –Among the four work environment domains, only jobchallenge had a significant contributionin
explaining job insecurity variance.This relationship was fully mediatedby occupational self-efficacy.
Research limitations/implications –The cross-sectional research design limits the ability to make
causality inferences, while the convenience sampling method limits the generalizability of findings.
Practical implications –The study results indicate that well-designed (i.e. challenging, autonomous and
important) job tasks may be advantageous in organizational interventions aimed at reducing job insecurity
due to their potential to strengthen employees’efficacy beliefs.
Originality/value –The study results contribute to current knowledge regarding the relative importance of
work environment antecedents of job insecurity, as well as the prominent role played by occupational
self-efficacy in explaining some of these relationships.
Keywords Quantitative, Job insecurity, Psychological climate, Occupational self-efficacy,
Conservation of resources theory
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Job insecurity –a perceived threat of involuntary job loss (Sverke et al., 2002) –has been
identified among the most severe work stressors (De Witte, 2005). Its negative effects have
been previously demonstrated on a broad spectrum of individual and organizational
outcomes (e.g. job satisfaction, mental health and turnover intention) ( for meta-analyses,
see Cheng and Chan, 2008; Sverke et al., 2002; for a review of longitudinal effects, see
De Witte et al., 2016) and recent large scale studies indicate that the number of job insecure
employees in Europe includes several million people (cf. De Witte, 2005).
One of the most “harmful ingredients”of job insecurity concerns a feeling of uncertainty
about what might happen with one’s current job in the future. This feature makes job
insecurity a particularly cumbersome stressor to cope with, where not knowing whether job
loss will actually occur makes it difficult for an employee to take concrete actions and
prepare for the future (e.g. by starting to look for another job) (Smet et al., 2016). For this
reason, research aimed at understanding the job insecurity antecedents that might be
Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 2, 2019
pp. 360-380
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-05-2017-0163
Received 30 May 2017
Revised 23 November 2017
6 May 2018
Accepted 4 July 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
360
PR
48,2
utilized for preventing or reducing the experience of job insecurity is important for
promoting employees’well-being. Despite its potential benefit, such research still represents
an understudied area. To illustrate, the majority of studies included in Keim et al.’s (2014)
meta-analysis on the antecedents of job insecurity examined variables that are either
beyond the scope of influence (e.g. employees’age and education) or represent rather stable
personality traits (e.g. locus of control).
In response, the present study aims to investigate job insecurity antecedents in the realm
of the employee’s work environment (WE) and the mechanism underlying these
relationships. We believe that knowledge about whether and how diverse WE variables
predict job insecurity represents a promising avenue through which this harmful stressor
might be reduced. Specifically, WE antecedents are susceptible to change and anchored to
the work context, both features that make them directly applicable in organizational
interventions and policies. The existing research encourages this line of reasoning by
demonstrating significant relationships between several WE dimensions (e.g. organizational
communication, role ambiguity, role conflict) and job insecurity (cf. Keim et al., 2014).
However, these studies have neglected two relevant issues that might provide a more
complete understanding of the role of WE in perceptions of job insecurity.
The first issue addresses the question concerning the relative contribution of diverse WE
variables in predicting job insecurity. In this regard, none of the existing studies departed
from a theoretically grounded model of WE, which would have enabled a simultaneous
analysisof variables representingdistinct WE domains. Instead,most of these studies focused
on a single domain (e.g. role characteristics), while at the same time omitting to account for
other important domains (e.g. job characteristics) (e.g. Ashford et al., 1989). In response, the
present study utilized the psychological climate (PC) model derived from theseminal work of
James and colleagues(e.g. James et al., 2008; James and James, 1989).According to this model,
PC represents a molar construct composed of four dimensions: job challenge and autonomy,
role stress and lack of harmony, leader support and facilitation and work-group cooperation,
warmth and friendliness. Each dimension subsumes a comprehensive set of WE variables.
The second issue pertains to the question of how WE variables relate to job insecurity.
Although this topic has been alluded to in several studies (e.g. Vander Elst et al., 2010),
empirical inquiry into mediators of the relationships between WE dimensions and job
insecurity is still limited (e.g., see Richter et al., 2018; Smet et al., 2016). In response, we
introduce occupational self-efficacy as a potential mediator of the relationships between PC
dimensions and job insecurity.
To summarize, the present study aims to contribute to the current literature in two ways.
First, the PC framework enables an all-encompassing and theoretically driven investigation of
WE antecedents of job insecurity by allowing for a simultaneous consideration of four distinct
domains (i.e. jobs, roles, leaders and work-groups) that reflect how employees cognitively
organize the most salient WE variables (James et al., 2008). Accordingly , the study examines the
relative importance of diverse WE antecedents of job insecurity. We believe this knowledge will
allow for a more accurate understanding that realistically reflects the multivariate nature of
WEs. Second, the present study offers a unique contribution to the literature by placing the
focus on occupational self-efficacy as the mediator of the relationships between dimensions of
PC and job insecurity. Although the specific mediating links between these variables have not
been examined to date, they may prove to be relevant in further developing theory and effective
interventions designed to reduce job insecurity perceptions.
Psychological climate
PC is defined as an individual’s psychologically meaningful cognitive representation of
relatively proximal WE attributes (Parker et al., 200 3). James and James (1989)
conceptualized PC as a set of four higher-order factors that were empirically derived
361
PC predicting
job insecurity
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