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The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible role of job insecurity climate as a moderator in the relationship between leader–member exchange (LMX) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).

Questionnaire data were collected from 466 employees working in 14 organizations from both the private and public sector. Following the core tenets of social exchange theory and occupational stress theories, the authors argue that ideally job insecurity is studied as a climate-level construct, given the fact that intra-group social exchange processes strongly influence the formation of employee perceptions about specific aspects of their work context (e.g. job insecurity).

In line with one of the hypotheses, multi-level analyses revealed that LMX is significantly and positively related to OCBs. In addition, the authors found support for a negative moderation effect, such that LMX has a less strongly positive relationship with extra-role behaviors that are beneficial to the organization when job insecurity climate is high.

The study contributes to the limited empirical scholarly research on job insecurity climate and its correlates. Management and HR professionals in working organizations are advised to focus on preventive measures (e.g. to invest in the professional development of their employees, that is focus on employability enhancement, in order to reduce job insecurity) as well as on participation-based interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between individual job insecurity and job insecurity climate over time.

Data were collected among readers of a Flemish Human Resources magazine. The data collection was repeated three times, resulting in a longitudinal dataset with information from 419 employees working in Flanders. A cross-lagged design was used in which both individual job insecurity and job insecurity climate were modeled at all times and reciprocal relationships between these constructs could be investigated.

The results showed that perceptions of individual job insecurity were related to perceiving a climate of job insecurity six months later. However, no evidence was found for the effect of job insecurity climate on individual job insecurity. This suggests that job insecurity origins in the individual’s perceptions of job insecurity and subsequently expands to include perceptions of a job insecurity climate at the workplace.

First, the data used in this study were collected solely by self-reports, which could have introduced a common method bias to the study. Second, as with all non-experimental studies, the possibility that a third variable could have affected the results cannot categorically be ruled out.

Managers and human resource practitioners who wish to prevent job insecurity in organizations may consider focussing on individual job insecurity perceptions when planning preventive efforts.

By investigating the relationship between individual job insecurity and job insecurity climate over time, this study contributes to the understanding of job insecurity, both as an individual and a social phenomenon.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The present study adds to previous research by introducing a new approach to measuring and conceptualizing job insecurity climate.