Validation and measurement of perceived environmental threat as an antecedent to job insecurity

The Perceived Environmental Threat scale was designed to measure perception of environmental sources of threat to an individual's job. A total of 276 managers responded to a survey to test the psychometric characteristics. Analysis supported the internal reliability and factor structure and anticipated correlations were observed with two measures of job insecurity. The Perceived Environmental Threat scale also demonstrated convergent validity as scores correlated positively with those on Anticipated Organizational Change which, generally, did not correlate significantly with trust, commitment, or role ambiguity, variables with which it was not expected to be related. The evidence was generally supportive of the overall psychometric properties, offering academic researchers and managers a useful means of evaluating perceived environmental threat.     

Job insecurity and discretionary behaviors: Social exchange perspective versus group value model

This study examines the relationship between job insecurity and discretionary behaviors, that is, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB), with the purpose to extend knowledge on the theoretical explanations for these outcomes. Considering the employment relationship with the organization, two different perspectives are suggested and compared in a multiple mediator model, in order to understand the reasons for discretionary behaviors. We draw upon social exchange theory as the basis of psychological contract perceptions and we rely on the group value model to explain organizational justice evaluations. A total of 570 blue‐collar workers in Italy participated in our survey. The results show that job insecurity is indirectly related to OCB and CWB through psychological contract breach and organizational injustice. Both mediational mechanisms have equivalent strength in explaining the relationships, namely, they are complementary processes in accounting for both behaviors. These findings suggest that employees’ behaviors in job insecure contexts are driven not only by concerns related to the exchange of resources with the organization, but also by evaluations about their value as important members of the group.