All Insecure, All Good? Job Insecurity Profiles in Relation to Career Correlates

Nele De Cuyper, Anahí Van Hootegem, Kelly Smet, Ellen Houben and Hans De Witte
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Nele De Cuyper: Research Group for Work, Organization and Personnel Psychology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Anahí Van Hootegem: Research Group for Work, Organization and Personnel Psychology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Kelly Smet: Research Group for Work, Organization and Personnel Psychology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Ellen Houben: Research Group for Work, Organization and Personnel Psychology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Hans De Witte: Research Group for Work, Organization and Personnel Psychology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 15, 1-16

Abstract: Felt job insecurity is commonly seen as a stressor that is tied to a specific segment of employees and which implies overall negative outcomes. We challenge this view based on the new career rhetoric that assumes that felt job insecurity is widespread, although not necessarily problematic; rather, on the contrary, that felt job insecurity may promote career growth and development. Accordingly, our first aim concerns the distribution of felt quantitative and qualitative job insecurity, and our second aims concerns the connection between profiles and career correlates (i.e., perceived employability, individual and organizational career management). We used two samples of Belgian employees (N1 = 2355; N2 = 3703) in view of constructive replication. We used Latent Profile Analysis to compile profiles of felt quantitative and qualitative job insecurity and linked those profiles to career outcomes. Our results are similar across samples: five profiles were found, from relatively secure to relatively insecure (aim 1). The more secure profiles reported more favorable career outcomes than the less secure profiles (aim 2). This provided overall support for the common view. We connect these findings to what we see as the main risk, namely the potentially growing divide based on felt job insecurity and the relatively large group of employees in insecure profiles.

Keywords: career; employability; job insecurity; Latent Profile Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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