Integrated patterns of subjective job insecurity: a multigroup person-centered study

Past research attests to the pivotal role of subjective job insecurity (JI) as a major stressor within the workplace. However, most of this research has used a variable-centered approach to evaluate the relative importance of one (or more) JI facets in explaining employee physical and psychological well-being. Relatively few studies have adopted a person-centered approach to investigate how different appraisals of JI co-occur within employees and how these might lead to the emergence of distinct latent profiles of JI, and, moreover, how those profiles might covary with well-being, personal resources, and performance. Using conservation of resources (COR) theory as our overarching theoretical framework and latent profile analysis as our methodological approach, we sought to fill this gap. To evaluate the external validity of our study results, we used employee sample data from two different countries (Italy and the USA) with, respectively, n = 743 and n = 494 employees. Results suggested the emergence of three profiles (i.e., the “secure”, the “average type”, and the “insecure”) in both country samples. The “secure” group systematically displayed a less vulnerable profile in terms of physical and psychological well-being, self-rated job performance, positive orientation, and self-efficacy beliefs than the “insecure” group, while the “average” type position on the outcomes’ continua was narrower. Theoretically, this supports COR’s notion of loss spirals by suggesting that differing forms of JI appraisals tend to covary within-person. Practical implications in light of labor market trends and the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed.