| dc.description.abstract | Job insecurity is a well documented correlate to the organisational change activities of contemporary working life. Job insecurity refers to a state in which employees experience their jobs as being threatened, combined with a sense of powerlessness to do something about this threat (Ashford, Lee, & Bobko, 1989). The thesis considered job insecurity as a perceptual phenomenon, i.e. job insecurity was measured as an experiential phenomenon. Furthermore, the perception of job insecurity was considered in a stress perspective. The overall aim was to develop a specific and stringent model of job insecurity. The model was then tested as a prediction model for possible adverse outcomes in terms of employee health and safety. The thesis consists of four empirical papers. Although the papers represent individual studies, they are also connected by the fact that key findings from Study I, II, and III represent building blocks in the job insecurity model presented and tested in Study IV. The four papers aimed at the following objectives. Study I aimed at looking at the association between organisational change and employees work motivation. Study II examined how occupational safety (in terms of employee risk taking behaviour) was related to the affective components of job insecurity. Study III addressed the issue of communication and the measurement of organisational communication in relation to change, and finally in Study IV, the aim was to specify a parsimonious model of job insecurity, and to examine this as a prediction model for employee health and safety.
The results of Study IV supported the specified job insecurity model. In terms of predictions, the model was in line with previous research in that job insecurity was more strongly related to mental health complaints as compared to physical health complaints (the model failed to predict physical health complaints). What is more, and in line with Probst and Brubaker’s (2001) assumptions and findings, the model identified a link between perceived job insecurity and negative safety outcomes, i.e. risk taking behaviour. The purpose behind this model development was to present a specification of mechanisms that has been suggested in previous research, from antecedents, via the perception of job insecurity, and to stress related outcomes. In terms of being a specification, the model represents a further pinpointing of central areas for prevention of, or reduction of job insecurity. | nb_NO |
