Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Job insecurity, employee anxiety, and commitment: The moderating role of collective trust in management

Wang, Wen; Mather, Kim; Seifert, Roger

Job insecurity, employee anxiety, and commitment: The moderating role of collective trust in management Thumbnail


Authors

Wen Wang

Kim Mather

Roger Seifert



Abstract

This article examines the moderating effect of collective trust in management on the relation between job insecurity (both objective and subjective) and employee outcomes (work-related anxiety and organisational commitment). This is contextualised in the modern British workplace which has seen increased employment insecurity and widespread cynicism. We use matched employer-employee data extracted from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) 2011, which includes over 16,000 employees from more than 1100 organisations. The multilevel analyses confirm that objective job insecurity (loss of important elements of a job such as cuts in pay, overtime, training, and working hours) are significantly correlated with high levels of work-related anxiety and lower levels of organisational commitment. These correlations are partially mediated by subjective job insecurity (perception of possible job loss). More importantly, collective trust in management (a consensus of management being reliable, honest and fair) significantly attenuates the negative impact of objective job insecurity on organisational commitment, and reduces the impact of subjective job insecurity on work-related anxiety. Theoretical and practical implications and limitations of these effects are discussed.

Acceptance Date Apr 4, 2018
Publication Date Apr 25, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of Trust Research
Print ISSN 2151-5581
Publisher Routledge
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/21515581.2018.1463229
Keywords Job insecurity; employee anxiety; collective trust in management; organisational commitment; multilevel analysis
Publisher URL https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21515581.2018.1463229

Files




You might also like



Downloadable Citations