Beyond individual job insecurity: A multilevel examination of job insecurity climate on work engagement and job satisfaction

To address the recent call for investigations of job insecurity as a collective construct-namely, job insecurity climate-this study developed and tested a multilevel model of consequences of job insecurity climate. Specifically, we examined the association of job insecurity climate with employees' perceived organizational obstruction, which, in turn, relates to their work engagement and job satisfaction. In the current study, cross-sectional data were collected from a sample of 357 full-time Taiwanese employees in 42 work units. Using multilevel structural equation modeling analyses to test our hypotheses, we found that job insecurity climate was positively related to employees' perceived organizational obstruction. We also found that job insecurity climate had a negative indirect association with employees' work engagement and job satisfaction through the perceived organizational obstruction. Our results shed light on the relationship between job insecurity climate and employee outcomes beyond individual job insecurity and the psychological mechanism through which job insecurity climate relates to employee work engagement and job satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Automated summary

This study examined the impact of job insecurity climate on employee outcomes, finding a positive association between job insecurity climate and employees' perceived organizational obstruction, which in turn had a negative indirect relationship with employees' work engagement and job satisfaction. This sheds light on the psychological mechanisms through which job insecurity climate affects employee outcomes.