A lead article to go deeper and broader in job insecurity research: Understanding an individual perception in its social and political context

Abstract

Job insecurity, that is, the perceived threat of job loss or of valued job features, is a well-documented stressor with negative consequences for employees. This lead article proposes to advance the field by going both deeper and broader in linking individual job insecurity experiences to their social context on the microlevel (individual characteristics), the mesolevel (the individual's immediate social context such as organizations) and the macrolevel (the wider context such as countries). Going deeper, we discuss theoretical and methodological approaches to investigate how job insecurity affects employees' experience of work but also their identity and life outside work—essentially, how people view themselves and their place in society. Going broader, we review evidence of macrolevel influences as predictors and moderators of job insecurity, as well as the effects of job insecurity on political attitudes and behaviour. Taken together, we discuss these two streams of research as top-down and bottom-up mechanisms in the interplay between individual job insecurity experiences and their socio-political context. We conclude with suggestions for future research and theory development to move the field forward. We hope to provide a fruitful point of departure to delve into the mechanisms between experiences of job insecurity and the broader social context.