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Job Insecurity, Health and Well-Being

  • Chapter
Sustainable Working Lives

Part of the book series: Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being ((AHSW))

Abstract

The current chapter reviews the literature on the relationship between job insecurity and employees’ health and well-being. Job insecurity is defined as (subjective) concerns about the continued existence of the actual job. We highlight the various components of the definition and discuss the prevalence and objective antecedents of job insecurity, like the level of unemployment, demographical variables and the employment contract. Various individual consequences of job insecurity are surveyed, suggesting that job insecurity has detrimental consequences for health and well-being. The evidence for causal relationships is summarised based on longitudinal studies. The chapter continues by inventorying explanations for the negative consequences of job insecurity, such as psychological contract violation and perceived lack of control, and by discussing moderators that can mitigate the relationship between job insecurity and outcomes, such as employability. These findings cumulate in suggestions for practice and for the development of interventions aimed at reducing job insecurity and/or its negative consequences.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For an interesting example, see e.g., König et al. (2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. WOPP, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Hans De Witte, Tinne Vander Elst & Nele De Cuyper

  2. Optentia, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

    Hans De Witte

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  1. Hans De Witte
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  2. Tinne Vander Elst
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  3. Nele De Cuyper
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Correspondence to Hans De Witte .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Development of Work and Organizations, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland

    Jukka Vuori

  2. TNO Sustainable Productivity and Employability, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Roland Blonk

  3. Department of Psychology, Organizational Studies, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Richard H. Price

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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De Witte, H., Vander Elst, T., De Cuyper, N. (2015). Job Insecurity, Health and Well-Being. In: Vuori, J., Blonk, R., Price, R. (eds) Sustainable Working Lives. Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9798-6_7

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