Job insecurity and job satisfaction: The interactively moderating effects of optimism and person-supervisor deep-level similarity

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine optimism and how facets of subordinates’ psychological characteristics, such as their attitudes and personalities, are similar to their direct supervisors’ (as person-supervisor deep-level similarity or P-S deep-level similarity) in order to understand their interactions with job insecurity in predicting employee job satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical study had been conducted. Sample firms in this study consist of eight state-run electric power companies and 16 licensed chemical companies in central Hubei Province in China. In total, 368 valid samples were included in the analyses (with a valid return rate of 73 percent). All constructs were rated on a five-point Likert-type response scale. In order to diminish the possibility of common method biases, the authors used participants’ dyad supervisors to rate P-S deep-level similarity and P-S guanxi. The authors tested the hypotheses by implementing hierarchical linear regression.

Findings

The results show that when certain demographic variables (e.g. age, gender, education, post, employment type, income proportion, position) and P-S guanxi are controlled, optimism and P-S deep-level similarity significantly interact with job insecurity to predict job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is bolstered when job security increases among those who report a high level of both optimism and P-S deep-level similarity.

Originality/value

Researchers have found that job insecurity has negative effects on job satisfaction (Sverke et al., 2002). But there is a lack of understanding about the mechanism of how job insecurity affects job satisfaction. In this study, the authors found that optimism and P-S deep level similarity could jointly moderate the relation (and direction) between job insecurity and job satisfaction. The work illustrates how positive traits (such as optimism) and psychological factors (such as P-S deep-level similarity) could affect employee job satisfaction with different levels of job insecurity.

Citation

Zheng, X., Diaz, I., Tang, N. and Tang, K. (2014), "Job insecurity and job satisfaction: The interactively moderating effects of optimism and person-supervisor deep-level similarity", Career Development International, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 426-446. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-10-2013-0121