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APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL REVIEW, 2008, 57 (2), 272–303

doi: 10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00312.x

Who Suffers More from Job Insecurity?


CHENG
Original
META-ANALYSIS
Blackwell
Oxford,
Applied
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PsychologyOFLtd
Publishing JOB INSECURITY
Association for Applied Psychology, 2008

A Meta-Analytic Review
Grand H.-L. Cheng
University of Queensland, Australia

Darius K.-S. Chan*


The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

The present meta-analysis examined the tenure, age, and gender differences in
the relationship between job insecurity and its job-related and health-related
consequences. A total of 133 studies, providing 172 independent samples, were
included in the analysis. Our results basically replicated Sverke et al.’s (2002)
meta-analytic findings with an updated methodological approach and a larger
database. The main differences between our findings and Sverke et al.’s are
that the negative association between job insecurity and job performance was
significant and that the relationship between insecurity and job involvement
was smaller in our study. The moderator analysis also indicated that: (1) the
positive association between job insecurity and turnover intention was
stronger among employees with shorter tenure than those with longer tenure,
and was stronger among younger than older employees; (2) the negative effect
of insecurity on its health outcomes was more severe among employees with
longer tenure than those with shorter tenure, and was more severe among
older than younger employees; (3) the relationship between insecurity and the
criterion variables was similar across gender. Results are discussed with refer-
ence to Hulin’s (1991) theory of job adaptation and Greenhalgh and Rosen-
blatt’s (1984) job dependence perspective.

La présente méta-analyse étudie les différences de statut (titulaire ou non),


d’âge et de genre dans la relation entre l’insécurité de l’emploi et ses con-
séquences relatives au travail et à la santé. Un total de 133 recherches,
comprenant 172 échantillons indépendants, a été inclu dans l’analyse. Nos
résultats, obtenus avec une approche méthodologique actualisée et sur une plus
grande base de données, sont pour l’essentiel congruents avec ceux de la méta-
analyse de Sverke et al. (2002). Les différences principales entre nos résultats

* Address for correspondence: Darius Chan, Department of Psychology, The Chinese


University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. Email: dchan@cuhk.edu.hk
The paper is based in part on the first author’s masters thesis, under the supervision of the
second author, submitted to the Chinese University of Hong Kong. We would like to thank
Dr Robert Haccoun, the action editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 International Association of Applied


Psychology. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ,
UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
META-ANALYSIS OF JOB INSECURITY 273
et ceux de Sverke et al. sont les suivantes: d’une part, entre l’insécurité de
l’emploi et la productivité la relation est significativement négative, d’autre
part la relation entre l’insécurité de l’emploi et l’engagement au travail est
moindre dans notre étude. L’analyse indique aussi que: (1) la relation positive
entre l’insécurité de l’emploi et l’intention de le quitter est plus forte parmi les
employés ayant un contrat à courte durée contrairement à ceux ayant un
contrat à plus longue durée et est plus forte parmi les employés les plus jeunes;
(2) l’effet négatif de l’insécurité sur la santé est plus important parmi les
employés ayant un contrat de longue durée que pour ceux ayant un contrat
de plus courte durée, ce qui est aussi le cas pour les employés les plus âgés; (3)
le genre n’a pas d’effet sur la relation entre l’insécurité et les variables choisies.
Les résultats sont discutés en référence à la théorie de l’adaptation au travail
de Hulin (1991) et la perspective de dépendance au travail de Greenhalgh et
Rosenblatt (1984).

INTRODUCTION
Job insecurity has received a considerable amount of research attention in
recent years (Sverke, Hellgren, & Naswall, 2002). Numerous organisations
worldwide have undergone downsizing (Armstrong-Stassen, 2004) to reduce
expenditure and raise their effectiveness (Burke & Nelson, 1998). According
to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (2001), a total of 21,345
mass layoffs events occurred there in 2001. Forty-three per cent of the
organisations surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management
(2001) reported that they had carried out layoffs, with reductions in 10 per
cent and 13 per cent of their locations’ workforces in 2000 and 2001, respec-
tively. Long-term employment has become rare. More and more job oppor-
tunities are temporary or contract-based (Sparks, Faragher, & Cooper, 2001).
All these changes have led to a heightened sense of job insecurity among
the workforce worldwide (Hartley, Jacobson, Klandermans, & van Vuuren,
1991).
The purpose of the present meta-analysis was to examine how three demo-
graphic variables of employees, namely, organisational tenure, age, and gender,
moderated the relationship between job insecurity and its job-related and
health-related consequences. We argue that it is important to examine these
moderating effects for four reasons. First, after 25 years of job insecurity
research, little is known about who would suffer more from job insecurity
than others. Specifically, as described below, there are conflicting views and
inconsistent findings on how organisational tenure, age, and gender may
moderate the effects of job insecurity on its outcomes. The present meta-
analysis will help fill this gap in the job insecurity literature.
Second, investigating the moderating effects of demographic variables
helps advance our understanding of the underlying psychological processes
of job insecurity and is essential for theoretical development in this field. For
instance, Sverke and his colleagues (2002) examined how occupational status

© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 International Association of Applied


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274 CHENG AND CHAN

moderates the relationship between job insecurity and its consequences. The
results shed light on how job dependence, which is reflected by occupational
status, moderates the effect of job insecurity on its outcomes (discussed
below). In the present study, through examining the moderating effects
of tenure, age, and gender, we tested predictions drawn from the theory of
job adaptation (Hulin, 1991) and the job dependence perspective (Green-
halgh & Rosenblatt, 1984) on how different employees may react to job
insecurity.
Specifically, Hulin’s (1991) theory of job adaptation suggests how organ-
isational commitment and job involvement may moderate the relationship
between job insecurity and its consequences. While organisational tenure
was not included in the original formulation of Hulin’s theory, it has con-
sistently been found to be associated with organisational commitment and
job involvement (Brown, 1996; Mathieu & Zajac, 1990). It is reasonable to
conceptualise the moderating effects of tenure by referring to the theory of
job adaptation. In a similar vein, Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt’s (1984) job
dependence perspective predicts how occupational mobility and economic
insecurity may moderate the relationship between job insecurity and its
consequences. While age and gender were not included in Greenhalgh and
Rosenblatt’s original idea, these two demographic variables are associated
with occupational mobility and economic insecurity (Kuhnert & Vance,
1992; Rosenblatt, Talmud, & Ruvio, 1999). We thus argue that the moder-
ating effects of age and gender can be conceptualised with reference to the
job dependence perspective. In other words, there is theoretical basis for
proposing these moderating effects.
Third, understanding who would suffer more from job insecurity merits
examination because of its practical implications. A sense of insecurity has
a negative impact on employees’ health and elicits withdrawal cognitions
such as turnover intention (Sverke et al., 2002). Health problems and volun-
tary turnover of employees are detrimental to organisational effectiveness
and are costly to organisations (Ramlall, 2003; Sagie, Birati, & Tziner, 2002;
Sparks et al., 2001). It is essential for organisations to know if certain
employees suffer more from job insecurity than others (Probst, 2000; Sparks
et al., 2001).
Fourth, the previous meta-analysis of job insecurity by Sverke et al.
(2002) revealed that there were large variations in the effect sizes of the
relationship between job insecurity and its outcomes. However, some of
these variations were not explained by the moderators identified by
Sverke et al. (i.e. type of measure and occupational status). The present
meta-analysis, using a larger database and different meta-analytic proce-
dures, attempted to extend Sverke et al.’s findings by examining whether
organisational tenure, age, and gender would account for some of these
variations.

© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 International Association of Applied


Psychology.
META-ANALYSIS OF JOB INSECURITY 275

Definition and Conceptualisation of Job Insecurity


Davy, Kinicki, and Scheck (1997) defined job insecurity as an employee’s
“expectations about continuity in a job situation” (p. 323). Similarly, van
Vuuren and Klandermans (1990) defined job insecurity as an individual’s
“concern about the future permanence of the job” (p. 133), and Heaney,
Israel, and House (1994) defined the construct as an individual’s “percep-
tion of a potential threat to continuity in his or her current job” (p. 1431).
All in all, researchers have generally regarded job insecurity as “an overall
concern about the continued existence of the job in the future” (Sverke et
al., 2002, p. 243; see also De Witte, 1999), and it is often assessed in terms
of respondents’ perceived probability of job loss (e.g. Mohr, 2000).
Job insecurity is a job stressor (Ashford, Lee, & Bobko, 1989; Probst, 2002;
Sverke et al., 2002), which not only brings about negative psychological and
physical health (Crandall & Perrewe, 1995; Quick & Tetrick, 2003), but also
negative job-related reactions. According to the theory of job adaptation (Hulin,
1991), employees would attempt to alleviate job dissatisfaction through various
job adaptation responses. For instance, employees may withdraw themselves
from the stressor by being less satisfied with the job and less committed to
the organisation, and having a stronger intention to leave the organisation
(Davy et al., 1997; Probst, 2000, 2002). In fact, the meta-analysis conducted
by Sverke and his colleagues (2002) showed that job insecurity was negatively
related to job satisfaction, organisational commitment, trust, and job involve-
ment, and was positively related to turnover intention. In addition, job
insecurity was negatively related to psychological and physical health.

The Relationship between Job Insecurity and its


Consequences
Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984) identified a number of factors that may
moderate the relationship between job insecurity and its consequences. Spe-
cifically, they suggested that social support, job dependence, and individual
differences like work orientation may moderate the effect of job insecurity.
Job insecurity may be particularly stressful to those who lack social support
and/or tend to rank work high in their lives. Job dependence is a function
of occupational mobility (the perceived likelihood of finding a similar job
in another organisation) and economic insecurity (the perceived inability to
meet living expenses if losing the current job). According to Greenhalgh and
Rosenblatt’s job dependence perspective, employees who are highly depend-
ent on their current jobs should suffer more from and react more strongly
to job insecurity.
Sverke et al.’s (2002) meta-analysis examined the moderating effects of
type of measure of job insecurity and occupational status of employees on

© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 International Association of Applied


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276 CHENG AND CHAN

the relationship between job insecurity and its consequences. They found
that the negative effect of job insecurity on job satisfaction, trust, and per-
formance was stronger when job insecurity was captured by multiple-item
than by single-item measures. Furthermore, the negative impact of job insecu-
rity on performance and turnover intention was more profound among manual
employees (blue-collar workers) than non-manual employees (white-collar
workers, professionals, and managers). Sverke et al. argued that manual
employees react more strongly to insecurity because these employees gener-
ally have lower levels of education and skills, and are more dependent on
their current jobs.
However, Sverke et al. (2002) showed that type of measure and occupa-
tional status did not moderate the relationship between job insecurity and
its health-related outcomes. This has raised two questions. First, as revealed
by Sverke et al., the effect sizes of the relationship between job insecurity
and its health-related outcomes varied greatly across studies. There should
be other moderating factors accounting for these variations, which were not
captured by type of measure and occupational status. Second, the finding
that occupational status did not moderate the impact of job insecurity on
psychological and physical health left a question about whether job depend-
ence moderates the relationship between job insecurity and its health-related
consequences (see Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984). In this light, we pro-
posed to examine other factors which may account for the variations in the
relationship between job insecurity and its consequences.

The Moderating Effects of Organisational Tenure


and Age
Organisational tenure and age are closely related. Employees with longer
tenure are likely to be older than those with shorter tenure. The moderating
effect of age, if any, should be consistent with that of tenure. However, it is
also important to examine the moderating effects of tenure and age separately.
According to Cohen (1991), tenure and age seem to capture different mean-
ings. Specifically, age is associated with both career issues and psychological
issues in one’s life events. It has implications not only on one’s status in the
organisation but also on one’s non-work aspects such as family and social
life. On the contrary, tenure mainly captures career issues with fewer effects
upon life events. As described below, age indicates one’s occupational
mobility (a career issue) and economic insecurity (related to family obliga-
tions). While tenure mainly reflects career issues, it seems to be associated
with some specific aspects of career issues (e.g. organisational commitment
and job involvement) that may not be captured by age. That is, the moder-
ating effects of tenure and age on the relationship between job insecurity
and its outcomes may be manifest through different psychological processes.

© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 International Association of Applied


Psychology.
META-ANALYSIS OF JOB INSECURITY 277
One perspective on the moderating effects of organisational tenure and
age on the impact of job insecurity is that the association should be stronger
among employees with longer tenure than those with shorter tenure, and
be stronger among older than younger employees. Organisational tenure is
positively related to organisational commitment (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990),
which is positively associated with job involvement (Brown, 1996). Employ-
ees with longer tenure are typically more committed to their organisations,
and are identified more with and invest more in their jobs than employees
with shorter tenure. They should then have greater negative reactions to job
insecurity (Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt, 1984; Kuhnert & Palmer, 1991;
Mathieu & Zajac, 1990). In fact, Probst (2000) found that only among
employees who were highly involved in their jobs, were high job insecurity
perceptions related to lower level of psychological well-being than low job
insecurity perceptions. Similarly, Allen, Freeman, Russell, Reizenstein, and
Rentz (2001) reported that the association between job insecurity and turn-
over intention was stronger among employees highly involved in their jobs
than the less involved employees.
Older employees may also react more strongly to job insecurity than their
younger counterparts. Age reflects occupational mobility and economic
insecurity, which are the two indicators of job dependence (see job dependence
perspective; Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984). Compared with their younger
counterparts, older employees perceive a lower level of occupational mobil-
ity, and should thus be more dependent on their current jobs and react more
strongly to job insecurity (Kuhnert & Vance, 1992). Furthermore, older
employees generally have more family obligations than younger employees
(Finegold, Mohrman, & Spreitzer, 2002; Kuhnert & Vance, 1992). With
more family obligations, older employees may be more sensitive to economic
insecurity and thus be more vulnerable to job insecurity. In fact, Kuhnert
and Vance (1992) found that there was a stronger relationship between job
insecurity and well-being among employees with a lower level of occupa-
tional mobility than those with a higher level of occupational mobility.
Similarly, Finegold et al. (2002) reported that job insecurity had a more
negative impact on organisational commitment and turnover intention
among older employees than younger employees.
However, an opposite view on the moderating effects of organisational
tenure and age on the impact of job insecurity is that the association should
be stronger among employees with shorter tenure than those with longer
tenure, and be stronger among younger than older employees. First, let us
examine the tenure effect. According to Hulin’s (1991) theory of job adapta-
tion, employees engage in job adaptation (e.g. having a stronger intention
to leave the organisation) in order to relieve stressful job situations, such
as a sense of job insecurity. Although the range of job adaptation
responses is potentially broad, the choice is usually limited by individual

© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 International Association of Applied


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278 CHENG AND CHAN

and organisational contingencies. Depending on the situation, employees,


particularly those who value their jobs, would choose the potentially
adaptive cognitions and behaviors that are most likely to reduce job stress
(Roznowski & Hulin, 1992). Because work withdrawal simply jeopardises
the employment and exacerbates the stressor (Probst, 2000), one can expect
that compared to those with shorter tenure, employees with longer tenure
would be less likely to engage in work withdrawal as a way of adaptation
because these employees are usually more involved in their jobs. In other
words, employees with shorter tenure should react more strongly to job
insecurity than those with longer tenure.
Regarding the age effect, younger employees may also react more
strongly to job insecurity than their older counterparts. Kuhnert and Vance
(1992) reported that under the threat of job loss, older employees reported
better well-being than did younger employees. These authors attributed this
finding to the difference in attitudes toward job loss between younger and
older employees. As suggested by De Witte (1999), older employees may
simply consider job loss as an earlier retirement, and thus suffer less from
job insecurity than younger employees.

The Moderating Effect of Gender


Gender has also been suggested as a moderator of the association between
job insecurity and its consequences. Rosenblatt and her colleagues (1999)
reported that the negative effect of job insecurity on female employees’
work attitudes was stronger than on male employees’ attitudes. These
authors argued that men typically have a higher occupational mobility than
women, and thus the threat of job loss should be less distressing to men (see
job dependence perspective; Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984).
On the contrary, De Witte (1999) found that job insecurity was negatively
related to male employees’, but not female employees’, well-being. Tradi-
tionally, it is believed that men regard themselves as the “breadwinner” of
their families (Bernard, 1981), while women consider financial matters as
their secondary responsibility (Conger, Lorenz, Edler, Simons, & Xiaojia,
1993). Male employees may thus suffer more from job insecurity than
female employees because male employees are more aware of the possible
negative consequences of job loss (De Witte, 1999). According to the job
dependence perspective (Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984), people who are
economically insecure, or worry that they cannot meet living expenses if
they lose their current job, are vulnerable to job insecurity.
In sum, one view on the moderating effect of gender is that the threat of
job loss should be less distressing to men than to women because men
usually have higher occupational mobility. However, an opposing view would
argue that men are more vulnerable to job insecurity than women because

© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 International Association of Applied


Psychology.
META-ANALYSIS OF JOB INSECURITY 279
they are more sensitive to economic insecurity. Both views have received
empirical support and it is unclear whether men would suffer more from
and react more strongly to job insecurity than women.

The Present Study


The present meta-analysis was thus designed to examine the moderating
effects of organisational tenure, age, and gender on the relationship between
job insecurity and its job-related and health-related consequences.1 Follow-
ing Sverke et al. (2002), we included job satisfaction, organisational
commitment, turnover intention, work performance, trust, and job involve-
ment as the job-related criterion variables. Furthermore, we included
psychological health and physical health as the health-related criterion
variables.

METHOD

Literature Search, Inclusion Criteria, and


Coding Procedure
The search for published studies involved both computer and manual
methods. The keywords for our search were job security and job insecurity,
and the time frame was 1980 to 2006. The computer-based search was
conducted on PsycINFO, ABI/INFORM, Social Science Citation Index
and Medline. The issue-by-issue manual search was conducted on 15
academic journals, namely, Academy of Management Journal, Anxiety,
Stress and Coping: An International Journal, Applied Psychology: An
International Review, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psy-
chology, Human Relations, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Man-
agerial Psychology, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology,
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Journal of Organizational
Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Psychological Bulletin, Social
Science and Medicine, Stress Medicine (Stress and Health), and Work and
Stress.
In addition to published papers, we also tried to include dissertations and
unpublished studies. We searched for dissertations shown in Dissertation
Abstracts International for the current meta-analysis. We also contacted

1
Other potential moderating factors like mood dispositions (Roskies, Louis-Guerin, &
Fournier, 1993) and social support (Lim, 1996) were not included because these factors have
not been examined in a sufficient number of primary studies or cannot be aggregated meaning-
fully for meta-analysis.

© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 International Association of Applied


Psychology.
280 CHENG AND CHAN

prominent scholars in the area of job insecurity and asked them for their
unpublished studies of job insecurity, if any. Twelve scholars responded to
our request.2 Moreover, we inspected the reference lists of the studies
obtained and review papers on job insecurity (e.g. Sverke & Hellgren, 2002;
Sverke et al., 2002) to locate additional studies.
To be included in the current meta-analysis of job insecurity, studies must
be in English3 and measure the subjective experience of job insecurity (e.g.
perceived likelihood of job loss) of employed people. Moreover, they must
report zero-order correlation or other statistics that can be transformed into
a correlation coefficient (e.g. the t-value; see Hunter & Schmidt, 1990)
between individual employees’ job insecurity and at least one of the crite-
rion variables of interest (i.e. job satisfaction, organisational commitment,
turnover intention, psychological health, physical health,4 work perform-
ance, trust, and job involvement). Articles that used multiplicative com-
posites to measure job insecurity were excluded5 (unlike Sverke et al., 2002).
For longitudinal studies, only the first-wave data were considered. Some
papers provided data from the same or overlapping samples, so preference
(in descending order) was given to the one allowing us to test the moderat-
ing effect, including more criterion variables, involving a larger sample and
published most recently.
A total of 133 studies were included in the current analysis (121 published
studies and 12 dissertations;6 all marked with an asterisk in the References
section). These studies provided 172 independent samples, with 132,927
employees involved. The number of independent samples included in our
study was 86 more than that included in Sverke et al. (2002).

2
We thank Marjorie Armstrong-Stassen, Julian Barling, Ronald Burke, Hans De Witte,
Leon Grunberg, Johnny Hellgren, John Kammeyer-Mueller, Ulla Kinnunen, Saija Mauno,
Sarah Moore, Tahira Probst, and Magnus Sverke for their replies.
3
Based on the results of Egger, Zellweger-Zahner, Schneider, Junker, Lengeler, and Antes
(1997) and Juni, Holstein, Sterne, Barlett, and Egger (2002), Dickersin (2005) concluded that
one does not necessarily assume that publication practices are language related. It seems to be
equally likely for both non-English studies and English studies to report statistically significant
results. On the other hand, we should note that excluding non-English studies might have
reduced the number of samples in our analysis.
4
Indicators like anxiety and psychological distress were considered as the indicators of
psychological health such that absence of anxiety and psychological distress implied good
psychological health. Physical symptoms like headache and back pain were considered as
indicators of physical health such that absence of physical symptoms implied good physical health.
5
Evans (1991) noted that it is inappropriate to include the multiplicative composite in
bivariate correlational analysis. Analysis addressing the simple bivariate relationship between
the multiplicative composite and criterion variables is subject to scaling effect and may thus give
rise to spurious results. Meta-analysing such correlations may lead to problematic conclusions.
6
The unpublished studies provided by other researchers did not meet our inclusion criteria
and, hence, were not included in the analysis.

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Psychology.
META-ANALYSIS OF JOB INSECURITY 281
Two raters, who were psychology graduate students, coded the 172 in-
dependent samples included in the analysis. Specifically, for each independ-
ent sample, raters coded its sample size, the reliabilities of job insecurity and
each criterion variable, and the uncorrected effect sizes that indicate the
relationship between job insecurity and the criterion variables. Raters also
recorded the potential moderators, i.e. mean organisational tenure, mean
age, and gender composition (percentage of males) of each sample.7 Over 90
per cent of the initial coding decisions were consistent. Any inconsistencies
were resolved by discussion among the raters and the authors.
For samples not reporting the reliability of a multi-item measure of a
certain variable, the sample size–weighted mean reliability of the multi-item
measure of that variable across the samples was used as the substitute (see
e.g. Judge & Ilies, 2002; Shaw, Wild, & Colquitt, 2003; Sverke et al., 2002).
For studies using a single-item measure for a certain variable, when the
corresponding reliability was missing we followed the procedure proposed
by Williams, McDaniel, and Nguyen (2006). Specifically, we estimated the
sample size–weighted mean reliability of single-item measures of each vari-
able and used this estimate as the substitute (but see Sverke et al., 2002).
The mean reliabilities of multi-item measures of job insecurity, job satisfac-
tion, organisational commitment, turnover intention, psychological health,
physical health, work performance, trust, and job involvement were .77, .79,
.80, .76, .84, .81, .72, .82, and .74, respectively. The mean reliabilities of
single-item measures of these variables were .46, .48, .40, .44, .34, .30, .34,
.48, and .49, respectively.
Effect sizes like the t-value were transformed into Pearson’s correlation
coefficients. For samples reporting effect sizes between job insecurity and
multiple measures of a criterion variable (e.g. correlations between job in-
security and anxiety as well as distress), we computed a single estimate when
standard deviations of these variables and the intercorrelations among these
variables were available (Hunter & Schmidt, 1990). A simple average was
instead computed when such information was not offered (cf. Martinussen
& Bjornstad, 1999).

7
Some may question the validity of testing the moderating effect of individual-level variables
such as organisational tenure and age in a meta-analysis. It is because the unit of analysis in a
meta-analysis is samples, not individuals. Mean tenure and mean age of samples are used,
and within-sample variances in tenure and age are not captured. However, we argued that our
predictions were all drawn from theories (our discussions about the moderating effects of
organisational tenure, and the moderating effects of age and gender were based on the theory
of job adaptation and the job dependence perspective, respectively). In addition, it is a common
practice to examine the moderating effects of demographic variables such as organisational
tenure, age, and gender in meta-analysis (e.g. Chapman, Uggerslev, Carroll, Piasentin, & Jones,
2005; Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, & van Engen, 2003; Griffeth, Hom, & Gaertner, 2000;
Riketta, 2002).

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Psychology.
282 CHENG AND CHAN

Meta-Analytic Procedures
Hunter and Schmidt’s (1990) meta-analytic method was employed to estimate
the “true” correlations (corrected effect sizes) between job insecurity and its
consequences. Each observed correlation was corrected for measurement
error by taking the reliabilities of job insecurity and the criterion variables
into account, and weighted by sample size and degree of artifact correction
(Hunter & Schmidt, 1990; see e.g. Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topol-
nytsky, 2002; but see Sverke et al., 2002). A 95 per cent confidence interval
was constructed for the association between job insecurity and each criterion
variable to test if each of these associations was non-zero. The 75 per cent
rule and the credibility interval of each relationship were used to examine
the presence of moderators (Hunter & Schmidt, 1990; Whitener, 1990; see
e.g. Zhao & Seibert, 2006).
For the identification of moderators, we referred to the results of Hunter
and Schmidt’s (1990) subgroup analysis.8 According to Hunter and Schmidt,
the main criterion for the identification of moderators is whether the corrected
effect sizes of subgroups differ substantially (e.g. Judge & Ilies, 2002; Meyer
et al., 2002). Following Brown (1996), Mathieu and Zajac (1990), and
Sverke et al. (2002), we conducted a t-test for small samples (Winer, Brown,
& Michels, 1991) to test for the differences in corrected correlations across
subgroups. We also applied the Bonferroni method to control for Type I
errors.
It is a common practice to break down continuous variables into categories
to test moderating effects in subgroup analysis (Steel & Kammeyer-
Mueller, 2002). Following previous operationalisations of time frames of
organisational tenure (e.g. Gould & Hawkins, 1978; Mount, 1984) and age
(e.g. Gould, 1979; Rush, Peacock, & Milkovich, 1980), and previous
meta-analyses such as Cohen (1991, 1993) and Griffeth, Hom, and
Gaertner (2000), in our subgroup analysis samples with mean organisa-
tional tenure equal to or longer than 9 years were regarded as being of

8
The correlation between organisational tenure and age in our database was quite high
(r = .69, p < .001). However, we did not run a multiple weighted least square (WLS) regression
(Hedges & Olkin, 1985; Steel & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2002; Viswesvaran & Sanchez, 1998),
which takes multicollinearity into account, to examine the moderating effects of tenure, age,
and gender because there were only a handful of studies reporting all three pieces of informa-
tion about tenure, age, and gender composition. On the other hand, we ran a simple WLS
regression as a reference to subgroup analysis for the identification of moderators. Note that
subgroup analysis, which involves splitting studies into subgroups, may be less powerful to
detect continuous moderators than WLS regression (Steel & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2002). Sample
size and degree of artifact correction were used as the weight in the regression analysis. The
corrected effect sizes were regressed on tenure, age, and gender composition, respectively. The
Bonferroni adjustment was applied.

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META-ANALYSIS OF JOB INSECURITY 283
longer organisational tenure. And samples with mean age equal to or higher
than 40 were regarded as older. Note that a subgroup analysis was not
run for the relationship between job insecurity and certain variables
when there were fewer than three samples in at least one of the subgroups.

RESULTS
The estimated true (corrected) correlations, the confidence intervals, the
percentages of variance accounted for by artifacts, and the credibility
intervals are summarised in Table 1. Results showed that job insecurity was
negatively related to job satisfaction (rc = −.43), organisational commitment
(rc = −.35), work performance (rc = −.21), trust (rc = −.49), and job involvement
(rc = −.20), and was positively related to turnover intention (rc = .32). In
addition, job insecurity was negatively related to psychological health
(rc = −.28) and physical health (rc = −.23). That the confidence intervals
of these relationships excluded zero suggested that these associations were
significantly different from zero. The amount of variance of all these relation-
ships accounted for by artifacts was less than 75 per cent. Furthermore, the
credibility intervals of these relationships were large. These results suggested
that these relationships were subject to certain moderating effects.

The Moderating Effect of Organisational Tenure


Organisational tenure moderated the relationship between job insecurity
and turnover intention (Table 2). Subgroup analysis showed that this
relationship was stronger among employees with shorter tenure (rc = .41) than
employees with longer tenure (rc = .24). Organisational tenure also moder-
ated the relationship between job insecurity and physical health (Table 2).
Subgroup analysis revealed that the association between job insecurity and
physical health was more profound among employees with longer tenure
(rc = −.30) than employees with shorter tenure (rc = −.22). The moderating
effect of organisational tenure on the relationships between job insecurity
and job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and psychological health
was non-significant.9

The Moderating Effect of Age


Subgroup analysis showed that age moderated the effects of job insecurity
on turnover intention, psychological health, and physical health (Table 3).

9
The results of simple WLS regression were consistent with those of subgroup analysis for
tenure, age, and gender.

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Psychology.
284

Psychology.
TABLE 1
The Relationship between Job Insecurity and its Consequences
CHENG AND CHAN

95% CI 95% CI 80% CV 80% CV % due to


Criterion variable N k r SE lower upper rc SD lower upper artifacts

Job Satisfaction 76260 94 −.32 .01 −.35 −.30 −.43 .18 −.66 −.21 19.90
Organisational Commitment 38650 83 −.26 .02 −.30 −.23 −.35 .24 −.65 −.05 12.01
Turnover Intention 25669 49 .22 .01 .19 .25 .32 .14 .14 .50 32.87
Psychological Health 72339 77 −.20 .01 −.22 −.18 −.28 .12 −.43 −.12 22.92
Physical Health 56934 44 −.16 .01 −.18 −.13 −.23 .13 −.40 −.06 16.50
Work Performance 3752 15 −.16 .03 −.22 −.11 −.21 .13 −.37 −.05 35.63
Trust 4152 16 −.35 .02 −.40 −.31 −.49 .18 −.72 −.26 40.16
Job Involvement 3034 6 −.15 .03 −.21 −.09 −.20 .08 −.31 −.10 33.78

Note: N = sample size; k = number of sample; r = uncorrected mean correlation; SE = standard error of r; CI = confidence interval; rc = estimated true correlation; SD
= standard deviation of r; CV = credibility interval; % due to artifacts = percentage of variance accounted for by artifacts.

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META-ANALYSIS OF JOB INSECURITY 285
TABLE 2
Subgroup Analysis of the Moderating Effect on the Relationship between Job
Insecurity and its Consequences: by Organisational Tenure

Criterion variable Tenure N k r SE rc SD t df

Job Satisfaction Shorter 6813 14 −.24 .02 −.31 .12 .47 38


Longer 11408 25 −.27 .03 −.34 .19
Organisational Commitment Shorter 4982 19 −.27 .04 −.36 .16 1.47 47
Longer 15658 28 −.23 .03 −.28 .24
Turnover Intention Shorter 2804 9 .28 .02 .41 .00 5.69** 16
Longer 10482 17 .18 .02 .24 .12
Psychological Health Shorter 1337 4 −.21 .03 −.27 .04 1.70 6
Longer 10515 17 −.25 .01 −.31 .04
Physical Health Shorter 1604 6 −.14 .02 −.22 .03 5.17** 11
Longer 5500 9 −.22 .02 −.30 .03

Note: Subgroup analysis was not run for the relationships between job insecurity and work performance,
trust, and job involvement because in these relationships there were fewer than three samples in at least one
of the subgroups. Shorter: Mean organisational tenure of the sample < 9; Longer: ≥ 9. ** p < .01 (after
Bonferroni adjustment).

TABLE 3
Subgroup Analysis of the Moderating Effect on the Relationship between Job
Insecurity and its Consequences: by Age

Criterion variable Age N k r SE rc SD t df

Job Satisfaction Younger 31183 33 −.32 .02 −.42 .17 .25 60


Older 21098 30 −.30 .02 −.41 .19
Organisational Commitment Younger 12679 29 −.21 .02 −.28 .15 .89 44
Older 9120 27 −.19 .04 −.23 .24
Turnover Intention Younger 3513 14 .26 .02 .36 .07 2.59# 23
Older 6324 16 .20 .03 .26 .15
Psychological Health Younger 27008 21 −.16 .02 −.24 .12 2.49# 45
Older 32943 29 −.24 .01 −.32 .12
Physical Health Younger 24104 15 −.12 .02 −.19 .12 2.53# 32
Older 25226 17 −.20 .02 −.30 .13
Work Performance Younger 2847 9 −.15 .04 −.19 .11 1.50 11
Older 722 4 −.19 .06 −.25 .03

Note: Subgroup analysis was not run for the relationships between job insecurity and trust, and job
involvement because in these relationships there were fewer than three samples in at least one of the
subgroups. Younger: Mean age of the sample < 40; Older: > = 40. # p < .10 (after Bonferroni adjustment).

The relationship between job insecurity and turnover was more profound
among younger employees (rc = .36) than older employees (rc = .26). The
effect of job insecurity on psychological health was stronger among older
employees (rc = −.32) than younger employees (rc = −.24), and that on
physical health was also stronger among older employees (rc = −.30) than

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286 CHENG AND CHAN

TABLE 4
Subgroup Analysis of the Moderating Effect on the Relationship between Job
Insecurity and its Consequences: by Gender

Criterion variable Gender N k r SE rc SD t df

Job Satisfaction Male 9758 6 −.37 .02 −.60 .08 .12 11


Female 6885 7 −.39 .03 −.61 .16
Psychological Health Male 18387 10 −.25 .02 −.38 .12 .87 18
Female 9898 8 −.22 .03 −.34 .11
Physical Health Male 17422 5 −.22 .01 −.33 .13 .34 9
Female 9419 4 −.20 .01 −.30 .13

Note: Male-only samples were compared with female-only samples. Subgroup analysis was not run for the
relationships between job insecurity and organisational commitment, turnover intention, work performance,
trust, and job involvement because in these relationships there were fewer than three samples in at least one
of the subgroups. The Bonferroni adjustment was applied.

younger employees (rc = −.19). On the other hand, the associations


between job insecurity and job satisfaction, organisational commitment,
and work performance did not differ between younger employees and older
employees.

The Moderating Effect of Gender


Subgroup analysis revealed that the relationship between job insecurity and its
consequences among males was comparable to that among females (Table 4).
Specifically, the difference in the relationship between job insecurity and job
satisfaction across gender was non-significant. The difference in the effect
of job insecurity on psychological health and physical health across gender
was also non-significant.

DISCUSSION
The present meta-analytic study revealed a significant relationship between
job insecurity and its consequences. Results showed that job insecurity was
negatively related to job satisfaction, organisational commitment, psycho-
logical health, physical health, work performance, trust, and job involve-
ment, and was positively related to turnover intention. The estimates of the
main effects found in our study were generally comparable to those reported
in Sverke et al.’s (2002) study. One notable discrepancy between our results
and Sverke et al.’s results was that the estimate of the association between
job insecurity and work performance was found to be significant in our
study but not in Sverke et al.’s study. Another notable discrepancy was that

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META-ANALYSIS OF JOB INSECURITY 287
the estimate of the association between job insecurity and job involvement
found in our study was much lower than that reported in Sverke et al.’s
study (rc = −.20 vs. rc = −.37). The discrepancy in the estimates of the main
effects could be attributed to the fact that our database was more up to date
than Sverke et al.’s. Furthermore, as described in the Method section, our
meta-analytic procedures were different from theirs in a number of ways.
The present study also revealed that organisational tenure and age
moderated the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intention.
Furthermore, tenure and age moderated the relationship between job in-
security and its health-related outcomes. On the other hand, gender did not
moderate the relationship between job insecurity and its consequences.

The Moderating Effects of Organisational Tenure and


Age on the Relationship between Job Insecurity and its
Job-related Outcomes
The relationship between job insecurity and turnover intention was found
to be stronger among employees with shorter tenure than employees with
longer tenure. This is in line with the arguments of the theory of job adap-
tation (Hulin, 1991). According to the theory of job adaptation, employees
would attempt to engage in cognitions and behaviors which are most effec-
tive to alleviate stressful job situations. Turnover seems to be a good choice
for employees with shorter tenure to escape from job insecurity because
these employees have a smaller psychological investment in their organisa-
tions (see Brown, 1996; Cohen, 1991; Mathieu & Zajac, 1990). On the other
hand, employees with longer tenure, who value their jobs more, avoid
engaging in withdrawal cognitions and behaviors because work withdrawal
simply makes their employment more vulnerable (Probst, 2000).
With reference to Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt’s (1984) job dependence
perspective, older employees, who have lower levels of perceived occupa-
tional mobility and are more sensitive to economic insecurity, should be
more dependent on their current jobs and thus should react more strongly
to job insecurity (Finegold et al., 2002; Kuhnert & Vance, 1992). However,
our results showed that the association between job insecurity and turnover
intention was actually more profound among younger employees. Younger
employees are less dependent on their current jobs (Kuhnert & Vance,
1992), and turnover may be a readily available option for them to handle
the existing stressful job-insecure situation (see also the theory of job adap-
tation; Hulin, 1991). Hence, when facing job insecurity, younger employees
have a stronger intention to leave their organisation than older employees.
Sverke et al. (2002) showed that the influence of job insecurity on turn-
over intention was stronger among manual employees than non-manual
employees. They argued that under the threat of job loss, manual employees

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288 CHENG AND CHAN

have a stronger turnover intention because these employees have lower


occupational mobility and are thus more dependent on their current jobs.
Further research is called for addressing the discrepancy between Sverke
et al.’s results and our results, which shows that younger job-insecure employees,
who are less dependent on their jobs, have a stronger turnover inten-
tion. One possibility for this discrepancy is that unlike occupational status,
age not only reflects occupational mobility but also economic insecurity.
Compared with older employees, younger employees have fewer family obli-
gations (Finegold et al., 2002; Kuhnert & Vance, 1992). With fewer family
obligations, younger employees may be less worried about the financial
situation of being jobless, and are thus more inclined to leave the current
job-insecure organisation.
Our results revealed that organisational tenure and age did not moderate
the impact of job insecurity on job satisfaction, organisational commitment,
and work performance. Compared to job satisfaction, organisational com-
mitment, and work performance, turnover intention has a special implica-
tion for coping with job insecurity (Davy et al., 1997). As discussed above,
compared to having lower levels of job satisfaction, organisational commit-
ment, and work performance, leaving the stressful job-insecure organisation
(having a high level of turnover intention) seems to be a more effective way
for employees to cope with job insecurity, particularly for those with shorter
tenure and younger age (usually having a smaller psychological investment
in their jobs and a lower level of economic insecurity). Hence, there are
moderating effects of organisational tenure and age on the relationship
between job insecurity and turnover intention, but not on the relationships
between job insecurity and job satisfaction, organisational commitment,
and work performance.

The Moderating Effects of Organisational Tenure and


Age on the Relationship between Job Insecurity and its
Health-related Outcomes
The negative association between job insecurity and health was found to be
stronger among employees with longer tenure than employees with shorter
tenure. Employees with longer tenure are generally more involved in their
jobs and more committed to their organisations than those with shorter
tenure (Brown, 1996; Cohen, 1991; Mathieu & Zajac, 1990). Hence, these
employees are more vulnerable to the threat of job loss (Probst, 2000).
In a similar vein, the negative association between job insecurity and
health was found to be more severe among older employees than younger
employees. This is consistent with the predictions of Greenhalgh and Rosen-
blatt’s (1984) job dependence perspective, which suggests that job insecurity
is particularly stressful to individuals who are highly dependent on their

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META-ANALYSIS OF JOB INSECURITY 289
jobs. Older employees suffer more from job insecurity because they are less
likely to perceive themselves as being able to find comparable jobs in other
organisations and are thus highly dependent on their jobs (Kuhnert &
Vance, 1992). Another possible reason for older employees being highly
dependent on their jobs is that they generally have more family obligations
and are more sensitive to economic insecurity (Finegold et al., 2002; Kuhnert
& Vance, 1992). Note that Sverke et al. (2002) found that occupational
status, which reflects job dependence, did not moderate the relationship
between job insecurity and its health-related outcomes. Perhaps occupa-
tional status is only related to occupational mobility but not amount of
family obligations and economic insecurity. Further studies may address
this speculation.

The Moderating Effect of Gender


We predicted that gender might moderate the relationship between job
insecurity and its consequences. Traditionally, females are expected to
have lower occupational mobility than males (Rosenblatt et al., 1999), while
males are more likely to regard themselves as the “breadwinner” of their
families (De Witte, 1999). Our results did not show any gender difference in
the effect of job insecurity. One possible reason is that more and more
females are committed to their jobs (Bradley, 1997) and the difference in
work orientation between males and females is becoming small (Hakim,
1996). Another possible reason is that job opportunities for females have
been creeping up slowly towards those of males (Bradley, 1997). That is, the
occupational mobility of females may have become comparable to that of
males. And it has been increasingly common for the woman to be the pri-
mary “breadwinner” of the family. According to the United States Census
Bureau (2004), there are more and more females who are earning as much
as, if not more than, their spouse (or partner). Taken together, job insecu-
rity seems to be equally dissatisfying and stressful to both males and
females.

Limitations and Further Research Directions


It is important to note that our estimates of the relationship between job
insecurity and its consequences were subject to the following biases. First,
we did not have any unpublished studies in our database, despite our effort
to collect such papers. We did try to include as many dissertations as
possible. We also carried out the funnel plots (Sterne, Becker, & Egger, 2005)
and they appeared roughly symmetrical. Nevertheless, future meta-analysis
of job insecurity should try to include unpublished studies to reduce publi-
cation bias. Second, the reliabilities coded were Cronbach’s alpha which

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290 CHENG AND CHAN

fails to account for stability and transient errors (Schmidt, Le, & Ilies,
2003). As a result, the population correlations would be underestimated.
Third, because the mean reliabilities used as substitutes were less variable
than the actual reliability values which were missing, the population
variance would be underestimated. Fourth, we could not correct for indirect
range restriction (Hunter, Schmidt, & Le, 2006; Schmidt, Oh, & Le,
2006). To the extent that the measures were subject to indirect range
restriction, population correlations would be underestimated and SDs
would be overestimated.
We did not run multiple regression analysis to investigate the unique
moderating effects of organisational tenure and age on the relationship
between job insecurity and its consequences. Because organisational tenure
is closely related to age, one may instead conclude from our results that
when facing job insecurity, older employees who typically have longer tenure
have a lower level of turnover intention and have more health problems
than younger employees (who typically have shorter tenure). Further primary
studies should examine the relative importance of the unique moderating
effects of tenure and age. This is important for clarifying the differential
effects of these two variables.
As discussed above, organisational tenure and age seem to capture differ-
ent meanings and influence the association between job insecurity and its
consequences through different processes. Organisational tenure reflects job
involvement and organisational commitment (Brown, 1996; Mathieu &
Zajac, 1990) while age captures occupational mobility and economic insecu-
rity (Kuhnert & Vance, 1992). However, the present study did not address
whether organisational commitment and job involvement really account for
the tenure difference in the relationship between job insecurity and its
consequences. It also did not reveal whether occupational mobility and
economic insecurity really account for the age difference in the relationship
between job insecurity and its consequences.
Future research should be conducted to examine if the moderating effect
of organisational tenure on the association between job insecurity and its
consequences is mediated by organisational commitment and job involve-
ment. For instance, the positive association between job insecurity and turn-
over intention may be more profound among employees with lower levels
of organisational commitment and job involvement. And the moderating
effect of organisational tenure may become negligible after organisational
commitment and job involvement have been controlled for. Similarly,
further studies should be conducted to examine if occupational mobility and
economic insecurity mediate the moderating effect of age on the impact of
job insecurity. For example, perceived occupational mobility and economic
insecurity may predict the negative association between job insecurity and
well-being that this association is more negative among employees with

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META-ANALYSIS OF JOB INSECURITY 291
lower occupational mobility and higher economic insecurity. The moderating
effect of age may become negligible after occupational mobility and eco-
nomic insecurity are held constant.
Finally, echoing Sverke et al. (2002), we call for future research focusing
on the following issues concerning with the effect of job insecurity. In this
study, we meta-analysed bivariate correlational data. Correlational studies
can only reveal association but not direction of causality. The claims we
have made on the “causal relationship” between job insecurity and its job-
related correlates and health-related correlates are solely based on past dis-
cussion and research on job insecurity, in which job insecurity is typically
considered as a stressor (Ashford et al., 1989; Probst, 2002; Sverke et al.,
2002). More longitudinal research is called for investigating the role of job
insecurity on its job-related correlates and health-related correlates (e.g.
Heaney et al., 1994; Hellgren, Sverke, & Isaksson, 1999).
The scope of our study was limited to which kinds of employees suffer
more from and react more strongly to job insecurity. We did not examine
how the relationship between job insecurity and its consequences varies
across different types of measure (see Sverke & Hellgren, 2002). Probst
(2003; Borg & Elizur, 1992) argued that it is important to distinguish
cognitive (e.g. perceived likelihood of job loss) and affective (e.g. worry
about job loss) measures of job insecurity. Furthermore, consistent with
Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt’s (1984) discussion, Hellgren et al. (1999;
Ashford et al., 1989) distinguished quantitative (i.e. threat to the continuity
of the job itself) from qualitative (i.e. threat to the continuity of important
job features) aspects of job insecurity. Future meta-analysis of job insecurity
may focus on how the type of measure, with reference to these two concep-
tualisations of dimensions of job insecurity, influences the association
between job insecurity and its consequences. However, perhaps more pri-
mary studies reporting the effect size of the relationship between qualitative
aspects of job insecurity and its outcomes are needed before the proposed
meta-analysis can be conducted.

Concluding Remarks
The present study confirms the negative impact of job insecurity on employees.
More importantly, it also reveals that different types of employees suffer
from and react to job insecurity in different ways. Under the threat of job
loss, younger employees and employees with shorter tenure tend to have a
stronger intention to leave their organisations. Older employees and
employees with longer tenure, on the other hand, are more affected in terms
of their physical and psychological health. Organisations should take differ-
ent measures to help their employees to deal with job insecurity. Otherwise,
both employees and organisations will suffer.

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292 CHENG AND CHAN

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