Social well-being in a utility organisation : the role of trust and job security

Abstract

The term “well-being” is often misconstrued and is mainly associated with physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. However, humans are fundamentally social beings and have a deep need to form strong social bonds. Social well-being is a means of seeking positive social life and mimics relations developed with others in community, family, or workplace settings. However, it is the least considered as an element of importance despite including a significant part of overall well-being. As a result, individual and organisational outcomes might be affected. Social connectedness and well-being are known to benefit health and employee performance factors. However, in today’s uncertain times, numerous challenges have eroded social well-being. Despite living in a technologically advanced world that allows more convenient and immediate connections, it is associated with more social withdrawal. These symptoms stem from retrenchment, corruption, and poor leadership, all of which have harmful effects on a utility industry that forms the backbone of the South African economy and threaten the longevity of the organisation, employee relations, and performance. Organisations should, thus, have a vested interest in creating socially sound workspaces, as such workplaces have a significant impact on organisational longevity and promote greater employee satisfaction. Social well-being affects worker well-being relating to job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and intention to leave. The absence of social relations hinders the development of trust, an aspect that underpins collaborative initiative. For trust to be durable, social well-being needs to be ensured. This study aimed to investigate the under-researched topic of social well-being and how it related to subjective job insecurity and trust as well as the outcomes in terms of job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and intention to leave of employees in the utility industry. A cross-sectional survey design was used in the three manuscripts. The sample (n = 403)

included all permanently employed employees across various designations in the utility industry. The following measures were used: a biographical questionnaire, the Social Well-being Scale, the Multidimensional Qualitative Job Insecurity Scale, the Workplace Trust Survey, the Job Satisfaction Scale, the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale, and the Turnover Intention Scale. Latent variable modelling was utilised to conduct variable- and person-centred analyses. Variable-centred analyses were used to test measurement and structural models of social well-being, trust, and intention to leave. Latent profile analysis was used to explore social well-being profiles, and their associations with job satisfaction, and intention to leave were investigated. Article 1 investigated the associations between social well-being, organisational and colleague trust, and precarity. Both forms of trust – both in the organisation and in colleagues – predicted higher levels of social well-being among the participants, with trust in the organisation having the most noticeable impact. Results further showed that higher levels of subjectively perceived job insecurity led to decreased social well-being levels. Trust in the organisation and colleagues served as an underlying mechanism that influenced the inverse relationship between perceived job insecurity and social well-being. Organisations could, therefore, promote social well-being by being trustworthy and transparent. This study concluded that the centrality of trust was needed to develop quality social relations, as it was firmly anchored in one of the five social well-being constructs. Therefore, organisations should seek to enhance social connections, which would ultimately increase trust levels that would benefit both employer and employee. Article 2 aimed to investigate the associations between social well-being, job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and intention to leave in a South African utility organisation. The results showed that social well-being was positively associated with job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour and negatively associated with intention to leave. Social well-being indirectly affected organisational citizenship behaviour through job satisfaction and intention to leave through job (dis)satisfaction. This study illuminated social well-being associations with job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and intention to leave in a developing African country workplace context. Article 3 used a person-centred approach to distinguish between sub-populations of employees using indicators of social well-being. Three distinct profiles were identified, namely socially well, socially withdrawn, and superficially socially well. The Social Well-being Scale,

Workplace Trust Survey, Job Satisfaction Scale and Turnover Intention Scale were administered. Three types of social well-being were found: socially well, socially withdrawn, and superficially socially well. The first two profiles demonstrated either high or low scores on five dimensions of social well-being (contribution, integration, acceptance, actualisation, and coherence). The superficially socially well profile showed above-average social contribution and integration, but below-average social acceptance, actualisation, and coherence were evident. The socially well profile was associated with trust in managers and colleagues, job satisfaction and low intention to leave. The opposite patterns were found for the socially withdrawn profile. The study showed that young employees and those with more service years were more evident in the socially withdrawn profile than the superficially social well profile. Younger employees in the socially withdrawn profile (compared to the superficially socially well profile) were also more inclined to experience lower job satisfaction and had higher intentions to leave. This research is the first to record which social well-being profiles are the most prominent and how diverse profiles relate to trust, job satisfaction, intention to leave and demographic differences. Recommendations for future research are made.