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 focused on the evaluation of the relative importance of one (or more) job insecurity facets in explaining employee physical and psychological well-being from a variable-centered perspective. To our knowledge, only few studies have investigated how different appraisals of job insecurity may configure within employees and how their combination may lead to the emergence of distinct (unobservable) integrated patterns of JI. Adopting a person-centered approach and the Conservation of Resources Theory as overarching theoretical framework, the aim of the present contribution is to fill this gap. To strengthen the study results, we used employee sample data from two different countries (i.e., Italy and U.S. 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. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.