Job insecurity, resilience and general health of motor-trade employees

Abstract

Individuals employed within the South African workforce are finding themselves operating in an increasingly uneven playing field. The global marketplace is continually amplifying the already stiff competition, forcing employers to reduce the security they are able to offer their workers, in an effort to off-set their profit margins. Examining and consequently addressing these private sector employees' functioning in those spheres that may influence their health and consequent work performance, which in turn affects the performance of the industry - and therefore the economy – is thus essential. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between job insecurity, resilience and general health of personnel (N= 207) employed within the motor-trade industry and to examine differences among the job insecurity, resilience and general health levels of different demographic groups. A cross-sectional survey design was implemented. The constructs were measured by means of the Job Insecurity Scale (JIS), the Resilience Scale (RS) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The research method for the article consists of a concise literature review, followed by an empirical study. Cronbach alpha coefficients inter-item correlation coefficients and confirmatory factor analyses were used to determine the validity and reliability if the measuring instruments. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data and Pearson product moment correlation coefficients, as well as regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between the constructs employed in this research. No significant differences were found to exist based on biographical characteristics regarding job insecurity, resilience and general health. Job insecurity and the somatic symptoms, social dysfunction and severe depression subscales of the general health measure were found to be statistically significantly negatively correlated. Statistically significant correlations were displayed between resilience and general health, as well as all of its subscales. Resilience was shown to play a moderating role in the relationship between job insecurity and social dysfunction (and not in any of the other general health dimensions), as results indicated that the social functioning of individuals measuring high on resilience was less affected by job insecurity than those individuals measuring low on resilience. Conclusions are made, limitations of the current research are discussed and recommendations for future research are put forward.