Outcomes of job insecurity climate: the role of climate strength

Abstract

The large majority of studies on job insecurity have focused upon the individual level. Recent research has also paid some attention to job insecurity at the level of the organisation, referred to as job insecurity climate. This research has shown negative relationships between job insecurity climate and employees' individual job attitudes. Nevertheless, in these studies no attention has been paid to organisational climate strength, in spite of the recommendations formulated in the literature on this topic. In response, this study aims to account for climate strength in the relationship between job insecurity and job attitudes. We hypothesise that climate strength is related to job satisfaction, organisational commitment, work involvement, and organisational trust. Moreover, we hypothesise that the relationship between job insecurity climate and these outcomes may be stronger when there is a strong agreement among employees concerning their job insecurity perceptions compared to when there is a weak agreement (strong versus weak climate strength). Results based on a Spanish sample of 428 employees from 20 organisations largely supported our hypotheses except in the case of work involvement: climate strength was negatively related to job attitudes, and the relationship between job insecurity climate and individual job attitudes was moderated by climate strength.