Measuring quantitative and qualitative aspects of the job insecurity climate: Scale validation
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a measure of job insecurity climate by: first, testing whether job insecurity climate and individual job insecurity are two separate constructs; and second, investigating the relative importance of individual job insecurity and job insecurity climate in predicting work-related and health-related outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected by questionnaires in a simple stratified random sample of 1,380 white-collar workers in Sweden. The response rate was 56 percent.
Findings
Confirmatory factor analyses showed that job insecurity climate was distinct from individual job insecurity. Four separate ridge regression analyses showed that qualitative job insecurity climate was a significant predictor of demands, work-family conflict, psychological distress, and poor self-rated health and that quantitative job insecurity climate predicted demands and work-family conflict.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on self-reports, which may involve common method bias. The cross-sectional study design limits the possibility to make causal inferences regarding the relationship between job insecurity climate and outcomes.
Practical implications
Future studies may consider measuring job insecurity climate in line with a referent-shift model. Work environment surveys in organizations that include measures of individual job insecurity and job insecurity climate can provide practitioners with a fuller picture of the psychosocial work environment.
Originality/value
The present study adds to previous research by introducing a new approach to measuring and conceptualizing job insecurity climate.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research and The Swedish Research Council. Lena Låstad and Petra Lindfors were supported by Stockholm Stress Center (SSC, Grant No. 2009-1758). This research was carried out as a joint collaboration within the Stockholm Stress Center.
Citation
Låstad, L., Berntson, E., Näswall, K., Lindfors, P. and Sverke, M. (2015), "Measuring quantitative and qualitative aspects of the job insecurity climate: Scale validation", Career Development International, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 202-217. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-03-2014-0047
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited