Job insecurity in a retail bank in South–Africa : scale validation and an exploration of negative attitudinal outcomes

Abstract

The objective of this study was, firstly, to investigate the reliability of a measure of qualitative and quantitative job insecurity and, secondly, to determine the relationship between qualitative and quantitative job insecurity, job satisfaction, affective organisational commitment, turnover intention and locus of control. A cross–sectional survey design was used which included participants randomly selected from a retail banking group across junior, supervisory and middle management levels (n=178). The job insecurity scales of Hellgren, Sverke and Isaksson (1999); job satisfaction scale of Hellgren, Sjöberg and Sverke (1997); affective organisational commitment scale of Allen and Meyer (1990); turnover intention scale of Sjöberg and Sverke (2001) and the locus of control scale of Levenson (1981) were administered. Descriptive statistics were used in order to analyse the data. Structural equivalence was used for the comparison of the factor structures of the job insecurity scale for the three language groups. Furthermore, in order to determine the relationships between the variables, the Pearson product–moment correlation coefficients were used, while the dependent variable turnover intention was predicted by means of a regression analysis. As indicated at the outset, two research articles form the basis of this mini–dissertation: Based on the first article, results indicate that both the qualitative and quantitative scale presented satisfactory levels of reliability across different language groups, and a relationship between these dimensions (quantitative and qualitative) was noticeable. However, the item “I think my future prospects and opportunities within the organisation are good” included in the qualitative job insecurity scale could well be problematic, the deduction being that language barriers probably played a role in participants’ interpretation of the question. According to the second article, both qualitative and quantitative job insecurity positively related to turnover intentions. Furthermore, job satisfaction reported a negative relationship with turnover intention, and a negative relationship between qualitative job insecurity and job satisfaction came to the fore. Locus of control, on the other hand, had a direct bearing on qualitative job insecurity, while only job satisfaction and quantitative job insecurity directly predicted employees’ turnover intention in the banking sector. Finally, locus of control seemingly had no mediating effect when predicting turnover intention. Based on the afore–going, this mini–dissertation will conclude by offering deductions and making recommendations for further research as well as offering possible solutions to the commercial banking sector as far as the retention of staff is concerned.