The influence of job insecurity on job performance and absenteeism: the moderating effect of work attitudes

Job insecurity was found to have relevant psychosocial consequences for both individuals and organisations. Recently, research is increasingly focusing on those variables that can moderate its negative influences. In this study, the impact of job insecurity on two indicators of organisational behaviour (i.e. job performance and absenteeism) was investigated. It was expected that job insecurity was negatively related to job performance and positively to absenteeism, and that this relationship was moderated by work related attitudes, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Four-hundred and twenty five workers were interviewed with a structured questionnaire. Overall, the hypotheses were supported by the data: job insecurity was in fact negatively correlated with job performance and positively with absenteeism. However, work related attitudes moderated only the effect of job insecurity on job performance but not on absenteeism.