Does occupational self-efficacy mediate the relationshipsbetween job insecurity and work-related learning? A latentgrowth modelling approach

Abstract

This study investigates whether job insecurity is related to employee learning (i.e. the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies/characteristics; KSAOs) and whether occupational self-efficacy functions as a mediating mechanism in this relationship. We used three-wave longitudinal data, with a time-lag of six months, collected among Flemish employees (N= 1708),and employed a latent growth curve modelling approach. The results provide support for a dynamic relationship between job-insecurity and employee learning. More specifically, changes in employees’ levels (i.e. the slope) of job insecurity were related to changes in occupational self-efficacy. Changes in self-efficacy, in turn, were related to changes in levels of newly acquired KSAOs, in such a way that occupational self-efficacy operated as a mediator between job insecurity and newly acquired KSAOs. These results contribute to the understanding of the relationship between job insecurity and work-related learning, and to the general understanding of the mechanisms linking job insecurity to outcomes.