Job security is a very important factor influencing the quality of the work. Job security has become a burning issue since the 1990s. Many occupation groups are the most vulnerable to job insecurity. Insecure workers are mostly in jobs with temporary contracts and short job tenure (Green, 2003, p.2). Employees of the foreign-owned firms remain especially unsecured because of the low-wage economies. Jobs of short and uncertain duration are usually of low quality (Sverke, Hellgren & Naswall, 2006, p.4).
The issue of job insecurity has become more and more popular in press reports and political debates since 1990. The level of job insecurity rises with the level of unemployment. When people do not have an opportunity to have a well-paid job with appropriate working conditions, they have to work at those firms where workers are needed without paying attention to the workers’ needs and interests. There are a lot of reasons of the rise of the job insecurity scale. In the United states changes at the work places are caused with the competition to other countries’ models of capitalism with competitive labour markets and volatile product markets which relax the government’s employment protection (Green, 2003, p.4). Another important reason for increasing job insecurity is the arrival of new technologies. The human labour force is ousted with machines and its value is underestimated with the development of new technologies. As the result, job security has become less attainable in the industrialized world compared to the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, which are famous for high employment rates, stable growth and low inflation (Green, 2003, p. 5). Job insecurity has become an attribute of modern capitalism. Job insecurity is the main source of job dissatisfaction and ill health.
There are perceptions of job insecurity described in a wide range of works. The main one is the perceptions of the risk of job loss. The fear of unemployment is caused by many objective factors such as industry employment growth, a temporary job contract, the local labour market environment and the previous unemployment experience. According to the data of 2001 provided by Green in his research paper, most people think that they are very likely to lose their job (very likely – 38.1% and quite unlikely – 4.9%) (Green, 2003, p.12). The notion of job insecurity refers not only to the uncertainty of the employment but also to the continuity of certain job dimensions of the job namely the opportunities for development and promotion. Hence, according to the multidimensional point of view, job insecurity includes the threat of discontinuity of employment as well as the threat of losing important and desirable job dimensions (Mauno, Leskinen &Kinnunen, 2001, p.920). Borg uses a three-item scale in his affective job insecurity scale. These items are: “The thought of losing my job troubles me”, “The thought of losing my job worries me”, and “The
thought of losing my job scares me” (Staufenbiel & Konig, 2011, p.3). As for his cognitive job insecurity scale, he measures it with the four-item scale: “My job is secure”, “In my opinion, I will keep my job in the near future”, “In my opinion, I will be employed for a long time in my present workplace”, and “My workplace is secure in every respect”(Staufenbiel & Konig, 2011, p.3). According to Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt, job insecurity is best measured as the interaction of several components. There are three main components: the importance of and threat to various job features, the importance of and threat to a job itself, and powerlessness to prevent a loss (Ashford, Lee & Bobko,1989, p. 810). All these three components are assessed according to a measure composed of subscales. The complete measure is called the Job Insecurity Scale (JIS).
References List
- Ashford, S., Lee, C. & Bobko, P. (1989). Content, Causes, and Consequences of Job Insecurity: a Theory-Based Measure and Substantive Test. Web.
- Green, F. (2003). The Rise and Decline of Job Insecurity.
- Mauno, S.,Leskinen, E. & Kinnunen, U. (2001). Multi-wave, multi-variable models of job insecurity: applying different scales in studying the stability of job insecurity.
- Staufenbiel, T. & Konig, C. (2011). An Evaluation of Borg’s Cognitive and Affective Job Insecurity Scales. Web.
- Sverke, M., Hellgren, J. & Naswall, K. (2006). Job Insecurity: A Literature Review. Web.