Explaining the Relation Between Job Insecurity and Employee Outcomes During Organizational Change: A Multiple Group Comparison

• Author: Désirée Schumacher,Bert Schreurs,Hans De Witte,Hetty Van Emmerik
• Published date: 01 September 2016
• Date: 01 September 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21687

Human Resource Management, September–October 2016, Vol. 55, No. 5. Pp. 809–827

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21687

Correspondence to: Désirée Schumacher, Maastricht University School of Business and Economics, Department

ofOrganization and Strategy, Tongersestraat 53, 6211 LM Maastricht, the Netherlands, Phone: +31 43 388 3697,

Fax: +31 43 388 4893, E-mail: d.schumacher@maastrichtuniversity.nl

alike and form a challenge for human resource

managers. Not surprisingly, job insecurity, and

how HR managers should deal with these feel-

ings of insecurity in the context of organizational

change, has received growing attention (Baillien

& De Witte, 2009; De Witte, 2005; DiFonzo &

Bordia, 1998; Fugate et al., 2012; Oreg, Vakola,

& Armenakis, 2011; Pfeffer, 2007; Schreurs, van

Emmerik, Günter, & Germeys, 2012).

Job insecurity can be defined as an employee’s

feeling or an overall concern that his or her job is

at risk or that an employee is likely to face involun-

tary job loss in the near future (Grunberg, Moore,

& Greenberg, 2006). In recent years, researchers

Employees are often exposed to organiza-

tional change initiatives, such as mergers

or restructurings (e.g., Bernerth, Walker,

& Harris, 2011; Fugate, Prussia, & Kinicki,

2012). Organizations initiate and imple-

ment such changes for various reasons. However,

many of these change efforts fail to deliver the

desired results (Dawson, 2003). Although not

always successful, what seems to be true for most

organizational changes is that change creates

substantial feelings of insecurity among employ-

ees (Ivancevich, Schweiger, & Power, 1987;

King,2000). These feelings of insecurity can have

deleterious effects on employees and organizations

EXPLAINING THE RELATION

BETWEEN JOB INSECURITY AND

EMPLOYEE OUTCOMES DURING

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: A

MULTIPLE GROUP COMPARISON

DÉSIRÉE SCHUMACHER, BERT SCHREURS,

HETTYVANEMMERIK, AND HANS DE WITTE

We develop and test a mediation model linking job insecurity to affective com-

mitment and psychosomatic complaints via two distinct theoretical mecha-

nisms: fairness and energy depletion. Analyses were based on 6,268 Belgian

bank employees facing organizational change. Results from structural equation

modeling showed that fairness and exhaustion partially mediated the associa-

tion of job insecurity with affective commitment and psychosomatic complaints,

respectively. Multiple group analysis showed that the relation between job inse-

curity and fairness gradually decreased across the three change stages, and that

the exhaustion process was most prominent amid the change. Implications and

directions for future research are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: mergers, change—organizational, stress, commitment, research

methods and design, structural equation modeling

810 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2016

Human Resource Management DOI: 10.1002/hrm

There is compelling

evidence that, to most

people, job insecurity

is a stressor that

relates negatively to

various job-related

and health-related

outcomes.

on uncertainty management theory (UMT; Van

den Bos & Lind, 2002) and COR theory (Hobfoll,

1989; Hobfoll & Freedy, 1993), we expect that the

proposed mechanisms are conditional upon the

change stage. More specifically, we expect that the

fairness process is more prominent among respon-

dents who are at the beginning of a change period,

while the energy depletion process is more promi-

nent among respondents who are at later stages

of the change process. Understanding how these

explaining mechanisms differ across change stages

may reveal valuable insights for time-sensitive HR

interventions and change practices, and assist HR

and change managers in deciding when (at what

change stage) to address fairness or energy deple-

tion concerns.

In the following section, we first establish

our baseline hypotheses about the relationship

between job insecurity and employee outcomes.

We then identify two coinciding but theoreti-

cally distinct mechanisms—fairness and energy

depletion—that may describe why and how

job insecurity translates into negative conse-

quences for employees. Hence, we decided to

first present empirical evidence on the direct

effects of job insecurity prior to discussing more

extensively the theoretical rationale as to why

job insecurity associates with employee out-

comes. In doing so, we devote most attention

to areas where our knowledge is limited: pos-

sible mediators in the relationship between job

insecurity and job-related and health-related

outcomes. Next, we describe the survey design

used in this study to collect data from 6,268

Belgian bank employees undergoing a merger.

Finally, we describe the results of this study and

its implications for research, employees, and

organizations.

Job Insecurity and Employee Outcomes

Job insecurity is a cause for concern: It is an

invasive work stressor with profound negative

consequences for both the individual and the

organization (De Witte, 1999; Sverke etal., 2002).

With reference to individual outcomes, there is

abundant evidence for the idea that job insecurity

associates with poorer health and well-being (for

meta-analyses, see Cheng & Chan, 2008; Sverke

etal., 2002). Job insecurity relates to, for exam-

ple, increased psychological distress, anxiety, and

depression (Roskies, Louis-Guerin, & Fournier,

1993); recovery need (Schreurs, van Emmerik,

Notelaers, & De Witte, 2010); and psychosomatic

complaints (Ashford, Lee, & Bobko, 1989); and

to objective indicators of poor health, such as

medically certified sickness absence (Kinnunen,

Mauno, Natti, & Happonen, 1999).

have gained a good understanding of the conse-

quences of job insecurity. By now, there is compel-

ling evidence that, to most people, job insecurity

is a stressor that relates negatively to various job-

related and health-related outcomes (for meta-

analysis results, see Cheng & Chan, 2008; Sverke,

Hellgren, & Näswall, 2002). In contrast, much less

is known about possible mechanisms linking job

insecurity to job-related and health-related out-

comes and about how they operate over time.

Time, or the different stages of a change, may

influence employee attitudes and behavior (e.g.,

Kim, Hornung, & Rousseau, 2011). For example,

while the beginning of a change might elicit feel-

ings of threat and denial, later stages of change

may promote anger, frustration, and hostility

(Noer, 2009). These changes in employee feel-

ings and the subsequent attitudes arise because

they are susceptible to situational or contextual

variables particular to the different stages of a

change (Choi, 2011). Therefore, understanding

and exploring potential processes or

mechanisms and how they function

in different change stages is impor-

tant to HR managers, as it provides

directions as to how organizations

can deal with the negative effects of

job insecurity.

The present study aims at con-

tributing to the understanding of

the job insecurity–employee out-

comes relationship by address-

ing two important research issues

that have received relatively little

attention. First, we draw on social

exchange theory (Blau, 1964) and

conservation of resources (COR)

theory (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll & Freedy, 1993) to

propose that job insecurity affects employee out-

comes via two coinciding but distinct processes.

The first explaining mechanism, the fairness

process, is assumed to affect job-related out-

comes, such as affective commitment. The second

explaining mechanism, the energy depletion pro-

cess, is assumed to explain the relationship with

health-related outcomes, such as psychosomatic

complaints.

Second, we contribute to the human resource

management (HRM) field by investigating the

importance of these mechanisms in different

stages of the organizational change process.

Human resource (HR) managers play a crucial role

not only in initiating but also in sustaining orga-

nizational change (Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank, &

Ulrich, 2013). Dealing with the negative effects

of job insecurity, therefore, has become a perpet-

ual challenge for HR or change managers. Based