IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v24y2003i2p271-289.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Union Support Reduce the Negative Effects of Job Insecurity on Well-Being?

Author

Listed:
  • Johnny Hellgren
  • Antonio Chirumbolo

Abstract

In the context of rapidly changing environmental conditions, innumerable organizations engage in restructuring activities. As a consequence, many employees feel insecure about the future existence of their jobs. While research suggests that such job insecurity has negative consequences for employee attitudes and well-being, less is known about if and how these negative effects can be alleviated by social support from the union. This present study tests for a potential moderator effect of perceived union support in the insecurity-mental health complaints relation using survey data collected among unionized workers in Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. The results indicate that job insecurity is associated with mental health complaints in all participating countries and that union support relates negatively to mental health complaints in one of the participating countries. However, no interaction effect was obtained, thus indicating that union support does not reduce the effects of job insecurity on mental health complaints.

Suggested Citation

  • Johnny Hellgren & Antonio Chirumbolo, 2003. "Can Union Support Reduce the Negative Effects of Job Insecurity on Well-Being?," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 24(2), pages 271-289, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:24:y:2003:i:2:p:271-289
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X03024002006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X03024002006
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X03024002006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gallie, Duncan & White, Michael & Cheng, Yuan & Tomlinson, Mark, 1998. "Restructuring the Employment Relationship," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198294412.
    2. Keith Bender & Peter Sloane, 1999. "Trade union membership, tenure and the level of job insecurity," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 123-135.
    3. Ferrie, J.E. & Shipley, M.J. & Marmot, M.G. & Stansfeld, S.A. & Smith, G.D., 1998. "An uncertain future: The health effects of threats to employment security in white-collar men and women," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(7), pages 1030-1036.
    4. Siegrist, Johannes & Peter, Richard & Junge, Astrid & Cremer, Peter & Seidel, Dieter, 1990. "Low status control, high effort at work and ischemic heart disease: Prospective evidence from blue-collar men," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 1127-1134, January.
    5. Ferrie, Jane E. & Shipley, Martin J. & Marmot, Michael G. & Stansfeld, Stephen & Smith, George Davey, 1998. "The health effects of major organisational change and job insecurity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 243-254, January.
    6. Nancy Brown Johnson & Philip Bobko & Linda S. Hartenian, 1992. "Union Influence on Local Union Leaders' Perceptions of Job Insecurity: An Empirical Test," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 30(1), pages 45-60, March.
    7. Heaney, Catherine A. & Israel, Barbara A. & House, James S., 1994. "Chronic job insecurity among automobile workers: Effects on job satisfaction and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1431-1437, May.
    8. Magnus Sverke & Johnny Hellgren, 2001. "Exit, Voice and Loyalty Reactions to Job Insecurity in Sweden: Do Unionized and Non‐unionized Employees Differ?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 39(2), pages 167-182, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shen, Zheng & Fang, Xiangming & Zheng, Xiaodong, 2022. "The impact of women's off-farm employment on depressive symptoms: Evidence from rural China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katharina Näswall & Hans De Witte, 2003. "Who Feels Insecure in Europe? Predicting Job Insecurity from Background Variables," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 24(2), pages 189-215, May.
    2. Kim, Il-Ho & Muntaner, Carles & Vahid Shahidi, Faraz & Vives, Alejandra & Vanroelen, Christophe & Benach, Joan, 2012. "Welfare states, flexible employment, and health: A critical review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 99-127.
    3. Magnus Sverke & Sjoerd Goslinga, 2003. "The Consequences of Job Insecurity for Employers and Unions: Exit, Voice and Loyalty," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 24(2), pages 241-270, May.
    4. Theodossiou, I. & Vasileiou, E., 2007. "Making the risk of job loss a way of life: Does it affect job satisfaction?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 71-83, June.
    5. Bratberg, Espen & Monstad, Karin, 2015. "Worried sick? Worker responses to a financial shock," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 111-120.
    6. Eitan Hourie & Miki Malul & Raphael Bar-El, 2018. "The Value of Job Security: Does Having It Matter?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 1131-1145, October.
    7. László, Krisztina D. & Pikhart, Hynek & Kopp, Mária S. & Bobak, Martin & Pajak, Andrzej & Malyutina, Sofia & Salavecz, Gyöngyvér & Marmot, Michael, 2010. "Job insecurity and health: A study of 16 European countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 867-874, March.
    8. Nam, Taewoo, 2019. "Technology usage, expected job sustainability, and perceived job insecurity," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 155-165.
    9. Richard Anderson-Connolly & Leon Grunberg & Edward S. Greenberg & Sarah Moore, 2002. "Is Lean Mean?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(3), pages 389-413, September.
    10. Adrian Chadi & Laszlo Goerke, 2023. "Seeking shelter in times of crisis? unemployment, perceived job insecurity and trade union membership," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(359), pages 1041-1088, July.
    11. Jofre-Bonet, Mireia & Serra-Sastre, Victoria & Vandoros, Sotiris, 2018. "The impact of the Great Recession on health-related risk factors, behaviour and outcomes in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 213-225.
    12. Burgard, Sarah A. & Brand, Jennie E. & House, James S., 2009. "Perceived job insecurity and worker health in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 777-785, September.
    13. Nicholas Rohde & KK Tang & Lars Osberg, 2017. "The self-reinforcing dynamics of economic insecurity and obesity," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(17), pages 1668-1678, April.
    14. Cheng, Yawen & Chen, Chun-Wan & Chen, Chiou-Jong & Chiang, Tung-liang, 2005. "Job insecurity and its association with health among employees in the Taiwanese general population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 41-52, July.
    15. Magnus Sverke & Lena Låstad & Johnny Hellgren & Anne Richter & Katharina Näswall, 2019. "A Meta-Analysis of Job Insecurity and Employee Performance: Testing Temporal Aspects, Rating Source, Welfare Regime, and Union Density as Moderators," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-29, July.
    16. JaeWon Shin & HyoungChul Shin, 2020. "Impact of Job Insecurity on Hotel Workers’ Workaholism and Work–Family Conflict in Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-12, October.
    17. Concetta Russo & Marco Terraneo, 2020. "Mental Well-being Among Workers: A Cross-national Analysis of Job Insecurity Impact on the Workforce," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 421-442, November.
    18. Lynsey Romo, 2014. "“These Aren’t Very Good Times”: Financial Uncertainty Experienced by Romantic Partners in the Wake of an Economic Downturn," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 477-488, December.
    19. Simon Luechinger & Stephan Meier & Alois Stutzer, 2010. "Why Does Unemployment Hurt the Employed?: Evidence from the Life Satisfaction Gap Between the Public and the Private Sector," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(4), pages 998-1045.
    20. Eve Caroli & Mathilde Godard, 2016. "Does job insecurity deteriorate health?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 131-147, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:24:y:2003:i:2:p:271-289. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.