European perspectives on job insecurity : Editorial introduction

Abstract

The year 2010 represents an important year in job insecurity research, as represented by the publication of two special issues. In addition to the present one, the journal International Studies of Management & Organization publishes a special issue (Reisel and Probst, 2010) dedicated to the research initiative developed by Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984). Some of the critical questions, then, concern how job insecurity research has evolved over the years, what new knowledge has been generated, and what aspects still deserve additional attention. These questions served as the background for a Small Group Meeting on 'Job Insecurity in Europe: State of the Art and New Directions', which we organized in Belgium in September 2008. The meeting, sponsored by the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology and hosted by the K.U. Leuven, attracted 34 researchers from no less than 17 countries. The presentations advanced the understanding of the nature and measurement of job insecurity, focused on factors that may make employees more prone to experience uncertainty regarding the future of their jobs, highlighted outcomes that hitherto have not attracted much attention, and explored potential moderators and mediators of the insecurity-outcome relations. After the meeting, participants were subsequently invited to submit articles for potential inclusion in the present special issue, and we are proud to present a special issue with high-quality studies addressing important topics in contemporary job insecurity research.