Låstad L., Berntson E., Näswall K., Sverke M.
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; WorkWell: Research Unit for People, Policy and Performance, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Låstad, L., Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Berntson, E., Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Näswall, K., Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; Sverke, M., Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, WorkWell: Research Unit for People, Policy and Performance, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Over the last few decades, increased flexibility and lack of stability in employment has made job insecurity a work stressor that affects more and more employees. Since worrying about potential job loss (quantitative job insecurity) or possible loss of valued job features (qualitative job insecurity) constitutes a subjective perception, it has been claimed that personality factors may be decisive for job insecurity perceptions. Furthermore, the perception of a stressor, in this case job insecurity, could be argued to be dependent on appraisals of available coping resources. This study investigates whether core self-evaluations predict job insecurity perceptions, and whether coping mediates this relationship, in a two-wave data set from a Swedish sample of white-collar workers (N = 425). The results show that core self-evaluations had a negative total effect on both qualitative and quantitative job insecurity. Core self-evaluations were positively related to problem-focused coping but not to emotion-focused coping. However, there was no mediating effect of coping style on the association between core self-evaluations and job insecurity. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.
