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Introduction
This thesis is about the phenomenon of job insecurity and its antecedents.
My generation is the first one to experience the risk of living a worse situation,
within a working optic, than its parents’; to regress instead of progress.
The working scenario of nowdays is disarming and it aroused my interest.
Job Insecurity is a very actual topic, especially in Italy. It has been studied by many
authors, although often in a quantitative optic and from an economic point of view.
On the contrary, this thesis aims to deal witht the phenomenon in a qualitative optic
and from a psychological point of view.
The starting point of my work is to try to briefly illustrate the phenomenon in all its
aspects, by making a general international literature review in the first two chapters
of the thesis. In particulr, the first chapter will discuss why the phenomenon
happened to rise and how it evolved during the past years (together with the
development of the new forms of jobs and contracts), while the second chapter
will focus on how job insecurity is defined by the main authors who wrote about it,
and which are the gaps that, in my opinion, can be found in the literature.
Reviewing the literature, I realised that there is a strong interest for this topic. It is
often described as strongly related to the kind of contract someone has: many
authors point out an important relationship between an insecure kind of contact (i.e.
the fixed-term contract) and the perception of Job Insecurity. The aim of my work is
also to show that there is so much more, beside this relationship (which is real and
strong, but not the only factor that matters), between the two variables. In fact,
the most recent papers, regarding the phenomenon of Job Insecurity, start to
introduce other social, economic and cultural factors as equally determinant on the
perception of insecurity: the phenomenon turned out to be defined as the fear of
losing the job, and it touches the employees who have a secure working position, in
terms of kind of contract, as well (Bosio, Graffigna, Libreri, Lozza, 2009). We will
see why and how job insecurity occurs, by defining and discuss a qualitative model
of the antecedents of job insecurity.
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In the third chapter, I will describe the theoretical paradigms I referred to, which
influenced the research method. Specifically, we will go through a review of the
Grounded Theory methodology and the Cross-cultural analysis, applied to the
qualitative research. In regards to this, it is the writer’s opinion and curiosity to talk
about the issues that a researcher could have making a cross-cultural research
which is based on the Grounded Theory method. Not much has been written about
it: cross-cultural research is usually used as a methodology for ethnographic
researches. It will be one of my goal to discuss this point, starting from the analysis
of what has been written about it so far.
In the fourth chapter, I will focus on the antecedents of the phenomenon and
describe the research I’ve made in Milan, which brought me to the definition of a
model that explains the antecedents of job insecurity, seen through a dynamic
process. The aim is to provide a comprehensive, complete and descriptive process
of the phenomenon in Italy.
Beside this, with this qualitative study I will try to understand what the term
“in/secure” itself means according, to the employees’ point of view, and how the
phenomenon is perceived, by interviewing workers who have previously defined
themselves as secure or insecure, depending on who they feel about working
position.
It was, and it still is, of my interest to approach the phenomenon of Job Insecurity
in a more international optic.
In 2009 I've been living in Holland for nine months, studying at the University of
Tilburg. This year I decided to go back there, and use the contacts I created, during
my stay, to perform a phase of qualitative inquiry to determine which factors are
generative of the perception of Job Insecurity in Holland.
In the fifth chapter, I will illustrate the research and the model of the antecedents
of Job Insecurity, based on the analysis of the interviews I've conduced there.
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Finally, in the sixth chapter, I will discuss the cross-cultural comparison (within the
limits of my ability) between the Italian and the Dutch models. I will point out the
differences and the similarities.
The reason why I decided to make my thesis cross-cultural are several. My goals
are to:
− Verify if and how the social, cultural and economical differences between the
two countries influence the perception of job insecurity.
− Use those differences to better understand the Italian situation (point of
weakness and strengths).
− Explore the phenomenon of job insecurity through different realities, in order
to provide the most complete and actual definition of the phenomenon.
− Create the possibilities for the results of my research to be useful and used
in the future to develop any socio-political interventions, with the objective
of re-built a sense of security and well being in the employees' life, using the
advantage of being able to take inspiration from the comparison with a
highly developed country, in terms of work organization, such as Holland.
The all research project took one year to be realized, and I like to consider it as the
beginning of a bigger cross-cultural project, which would compare Italy with many
other countries, always with the ultimate goal of improving the workers' conditions
in my own country.
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Chapter 1
THE ORIGINS OF JOB INSECURITY: THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONTEXT
1.1 Introduction to the flexible labour market
This chapter briefly examines how the changes, which have involved the labour market
in the past decades, have brought to a general perception of insecurity in employees
about their working positions, due to the introduction of new forms of contracts and
working conditions. We will see how the phenomenon of Job Insecurity raised in a
labour market which is mostly characterized by flexibility and an increasing
development of unemployment (De Cuyper, Notelaers, De Witte, 2009) .
1.1.1 The changing nature of work
The last two decades have seen major changes both in work and workers. Profound
changes within the workplace are found in the downsizing and restructuring of
enterprises, the decentralization of production, greater flexibility and longer working
hours, the introduction of new technologies and new ways of working distance, as well
as the emergence of new tasks and new working roles. In this context Job Insecurity
has emerged as an important construct. Moreover, the intensification of global
competition has forced organizations to cut costs downsizing, engaging in restructuring
and large-scale work force reduction (Hellgren, Naswall, Sverke, 2006).
The main goal was to “increase the scope for flexible management of company
workforces as a response to the perceived rigidity and excessive protection”(Hepple
and Veneziani ,2009, p.80).
Consequently, many working positions have been deleted and unemployment has
increasingly developed (Sverke, Hellgren, 2002).
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Although, these changes are not only economic or related to employment and
unemployment; they mainly concern the relationship between workers and work
(Andreoni, 2005).
According to Reyneri (2005), the contemporary Labour Market also includes the
"Market of Life": the era of self-employed characterized only by professional
experience is in decline and we see the return to what is precisely defined "market of
life", in which workers are asked to exchange, in addition to their working capabilities,
their entire personality. The presence of new invasive forms of atypical work does not
look to be a simple process of deregulation of labour; on the contrary, it turned out to
be a depletion of its social function.
Many psychological variables of the employees are put at risk: in particular the
processes of construction of professional identity, the interactions with the
organization, the levels of satisfaction and quality of life, not only organizational but
also private.
Here below a brief description of the evolution of the employment contract
1.1.2 Atypical work and new forms of contract
A brief description of the evolution of the employment contract is important to better
understand the situational conditions that brought to Job Insecurity.
The original model of a work agreement concerned an adult working full time with one
and the same job for an indefinite period of time in defined conditions (Hepple and
Veneziani, 2010).
With the development of the economic crisis, the global competition and the
technological evolution, the classic model of the labour contract started to be
questioned and the flexible contracts turned out to be more useful for the
organizations, as sources of job creation and economic stabilisation.
During the 1980s, the labour legislation started to become more flexible. Consequently,
series of reforms affecting part-time and fixed-term employment took place.
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The following table shows the impact of the crisis on employment and wage rise during
the crisis.
Table1. Unemployment, prices and wages.
Country
%
Unemployment
%
Price
rise
%
Wage
rise
EGG 1965-1981
1965 1975
1981
1965
1975
1981
1965
1975
1981
Belgium
2.2
5.0
11.6
3.1
6.8
7.5
7.6
12.3
8.8
Denmark
1.2
3.3
8.2
5.0
9.7
11.2
10.2
11.6
9.9
Germany
0.9
2.5
4.8
2.6
5.3
5.8
7.6
9.5
5.6
Greece
-‐
-‐
3.3
-‐
11.7
24.1
-‐
-‐
22.5
France
0.8
3.3
7.8
4.2
8.6
13.5
9.6
13.5
15.6
Ireland
4.5
7.1
9.7
3.9
12.8
20
9.3
18.1
18.4
Italy
5.5
5.6
8.6
3.5
13.2
19.5
10.3
17.8
19.3
Luxembourg
0.1
0.2
1.0
2.3
6.3
8
6.2
10.4
9.0
The
Netherlands
0.9
3
7.3
4
7.5
7.5
10.4
11.7
4.3
UK
1.8
4
10.2
3.5
12.3
11.8
6.1
15.1
12.01.00
Source: European Commission (1981), 19-29.
In the '50s and the '60s Job Insecurity wasn't a managerial concern as much as it is
today. That is due to the fact the employees, both in public and private sectors, were
expected to have an organisational career, and there was a situation within
organisations where human resources processes were set up to provide them.
Things changed during the 1980s. The table points out the high percentage of
unemployment in those years.
In this situation, many critiques have been made to the labour regulation: it was
criticized for being responsible for the unemployment. One of the solutions from an
economic approach was to deregulate labour law “removing or rewriting employment
rights in the idea that a developed system of stringent rules is an obstacle to
productivity and in some way responsible for mass unemployment” (Hepple and
Veneziani 2009, p. 114 ).
Eventually, what challenged the classic form of contract was the evolution of the work
itself: the employees skills and qualifications raised and the markets became more
open, because of the increasing pressure of competition and technological progress,
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leading to the development of new patterns of work organization (Alain Supiot ,2001,
p. 2. ).
In the '70s and the '90s, workforce management practices were changing; the changes
of the labour market and the introduction of new forms of contracts, starting from the
'90s, have had a huge impact on the workers and “looking for a job” people's life. In
the past the career was seen as “bounded”: a full time employment within a single
organization , with occupational changes seen as positive changes, associated with
upward mobility (Otto, E. Dette-Hagenmeyer and Dalbert, 2010). Nowdays things have
changed, these kinds of upward careers are rare and there are several forms of
contract which do not provide any sense of job security.
It is very common, especially for young people who face the labour market for the first
time, to get a fixed-term contract.
1.1.2.1 Fixed-term contract
As the table 2 shows, in many European countries (with the exception of Greece and
Luxembourg) the percentage of fixed-term contracts increased in the 80s and 90s
decade (De Jong, De Cuyper, Shalk, 2009).
Table2. Percentage of employees with fixed-term contract
1983 1996
Belgium 5.4 5.9
Denmark : 11.2
Germany : 11.0
Greece 16.2 11.0
Spain : 33.6
France 3.3 12.5
Ireland 6.1 9.2
Italy 6.6 7.5
Luxembourg 3.2 2.6
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Netherlands 5.8 12.0
Austria : 8.0
Portugal : 10.4
Finland : 17.3
Sweden : 11.6
UK 5.5 6.9
The growth of fixed-term contracts began to be a cause of concern for researchers (De
Cuyper, Notelaers, De Witte, 2009), especially in regards to the field of occupational
health (see paragraph 1.2.3). The reason of this increase can be found in the economic
difficulties of those years (which unfortunately are still actual); in fact, this new form of
contract is useful in times of crisis because its validity can last for a short period of
time, for a specific project or specific task, and then expires.
At the beginning, the fixed-term contract was a sort of exception and the permanent
contract was still quite common. What is becoming reason of concern is the current
tendency for it to become a general rule.
1.1.2.2 Part-time contract
Another type of contract which is constantly increasing during the past decades is the
part-time contract (Mohan, 2008).
The following chart describes the increase in part-time contracts between 1983 and
1996 showing the rise of this type of contract.
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Table3. Percentage of employees with part-time contracts
Part-time work is predominantly a female phenomenon, especially in regards to young
women. Moreover, it is strongly age-specific.
“Panel data from the New Earnings Survey show that among women aged 21–65 who
were in work for at least three years between 1991 and 2001 41% only ever worked
full-time, 21% only ever worked part-time while 38% moved between the two states.
Combining these last two groups, 59% of women work part-time at some stage even
within a 10-year window. The peak age range for women switching from full to part-
time work is 27–34, a stage in the life-cycle when the involvement of men in part-time
work is minimal. It is clear that part-time work differs fundamentally in both role and
scale for women relative to men” (Gregory and Connolly, 2008, p.3).
Out of curiosity, the table here below shows the situation of part-time employment in
2006 due to the variables of gender and age.
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Table4. Part-time employment in Europe, in 2006.
The increase in the volume of part-time work is due to the following reasons:
- Social changes : the structure of the workforce changed with young persons and
women entering the labour market.
- Modernization and technological innovations: the performance of the task become
easier (in offices or in the homes of employees).
These new forms of contracts had the main consequence of changing the workers'
perception of their time, from a qualitative point of view
1
, dedicated to work.
(Benevene, Callea, 2010). In this perspective, work has not changed from a
quantitative point of view, or at least not as much as it has from a qualitative one;
what has dramatically changed is the meaning each worker attribute to his job,
particularly referring to the employees management of work, of a new life-work
balance and the ability to deal with stress and flexibility. These three concepts will be
analysed in the next paragraphs.
1
The original concept of “time” can be divided in quantitative and qualitative time. The first one
refers to the chronological passing by of time, divided in hours, minutes and seconds. The
second one, which is object of discussion in the paragraph, refers to a “subjective time”, made
of important events (Andreoni, 2005).
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1.2 Workers: a new scenario
1.2.1 Change management
21
st
century careers are defined as “protean”
2
, characterised by the transition to
different occupations, less structured and less secure. This creates the necessity for
employees to become more mobile and flexible: to be able to change (Otto, E. Dette-
Hagenmeyer and Dalbert, 2010).
The term “change” can be defined as an event which modify the status quo; the
individual loses his securities and certainties and starts to need to find new strategies
to deal with this feeling of insecurity, in order to re-built his own balance. All the
theories about change have shown how resistance to what is new is a phenomenon
that occurs whenever an opportunity for innovation comes out (Benevene e Callea,
2010).
People fight changes when perceived as a threat to their sense of security.
Still, people can find a way to deal with change, if it is their own decision to make that
change.
Things work differently when the change is externally imposed, as for example in the
case of the introduction of atypical working forms. In these kind of situations, people
react really bad and strongly try to resist to the event which might lead to a change.
Eventually the individual only has two choices: he can either reject the change or try to
manage it and find a new life-work balance.
2
This definition refers to the fact that nowadays careers are driven by individuals, rather than
by organisations.
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