And they all worked happily ever after, or? : how administrative employees at "New NTNU" perceive the fusion, and their experience of qualitative job insecurity

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects that experiencing qualitative job insecurity during a fusion has on an individual’s health, in a sample of administrative employees at “New NTNU”. The variables were chosen based on previous empirical Research on mostly quantitative job insecurity, and in this study they were tested up against the variable qualitative job insecurity. A multiple regression analysis and ANOVA were conducted to explain the relationship between the variables and how they affected the experience of qualitative job insecurity and stress. The variable that best predicted if the employee would experience qualitative job insecurity was the self-reported level of effort and reward imbalance. The institution the employee belong to also played a significant role in predicting if the employee would experience qualitative job insecurity in this study. The most shocking and unexpected result in this study was that 34,5% of the respondents had thought about or considered changing their job or work place since the fusion had started. From the qualitative analysis it became clear that management plays a larger role in the experience of qualitative job insecurity than this study has acknowledged. The results of this study will hopefully contribute to convince managers that it is important to make it a priority to help reduce the experience of qualitative job insecurity among employees during a change process.