The influence of job insecurity on job performance and absenteeism: The moderating effect of work attitudes

Abstract

Job insecurity was found to have relevant psychosocial consequences for both individuals and organisations. Recently, research is increasingly focusing on those variables that can moderate its negative influences. In this study, the impact of job insecurity on two indicators of organisational behaviour (i.e. job performance and absenteeism) was investigated. It was expected that job insecurity was negatively related to job performance and positively to absenteeism, and that this relationship was moderated by work related attitudes, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Four-hundred and twenty five workers were interviewed with a structured questionnaire. Overall, the hypotheses were supported by the data: job insecurity was in fact negatively correlated with job performance and positively with absenteeism. However, work related attitudes moderated only the effect of job insecurity on job performance but not on absenteeism. Opsomming Daar is gevind dat werksonsekerheid relevante psigososiale gevolge vir beide individue en organisasies inhou. Onlangse navorsing fokus al hoe meer op daardie veranderlikes wat die negetiewe effekte hiervan kan modereer. In hierdie studie is die impak van werksonsekerheid op twee indikatore van organisasiegedrag (werksprestasie en afwesigheid) ondersoek. Dit was verwag dat werkonsekerheid ’n negetiewe verhouding tot werksprestasie en ’n positiewe verhouding tot afwesigheid sou gehad het en dat hierdie verhouding gemodereer sou word deur werksverwante gesindhede, soos werkstevredenheid en organisasiegebondenheid. 425 werknemers is met ’n gestruktureerde vraelys ondervra. Die hipotese is oor die algemeen deur die data ondersteun: werksonsekerheid het inderdaad ’n negetiewe korrelasie tot werksprestasie en ’n positiewe korrelasie tot afwesigheid gehad. Werksverwante gesindhede het egter slegs die effek van werksonsekerheid op werksprestasie gemodereer, maar nie op afwesigheid nie.