Job insecurity and its antecedents

The purpose of the present study was to investigate some antecedents of job insecurity. A survey was administered to one hundred and one voluntary participants in a healthcare facility (incl. nurses, food service workers, etc). The relationships between job insecurity and its antecedents, severity of threat, powerlessness, performance ambiguity, and procedural justice were examined. The relationships between powerlessness and its antecedents, performance ambiguity and procedural justice, were also tested. Mediation by powerlessness in the relationships between performance ambiguity and job insecurity and between procedural justice and job insecurity was investigated. Four interactions were examined between severity of threat and locus of control, between severity of threat and powerlessness, between locus of control and powerlessness, and between severity of threat and anxiety. It was found that all antecedents were significantly related to job insecurity. Performance ambiguity and procedural justice were significantly related to powerlessness. Neither of the two mediations was significant. All of the interactions were significant except the one between severity of threat and powerlessness. However, the relationships in the other interactions were the opposite of what was expected. The discussion of these unexpected findings concludes the paper.