A Transactional Model of Job Insecurity, Personality, and Coping

The current study examines the role personality plays in influencing how people cope with job insecurity by utilizing the theory of psychological contracts. Specifically, this study examines the extent to which personality moderates the relation between job insecurity and coping strategies. Also, the relation between job insecurity and job attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and job security satisfaction) are addressed. Lastly, the possibility that the relation between job insecurity and important organizational outcomes (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior (OCBs) and counterproductive work behavior) are moderated by different coping strategies is considered. Participants included undergraduate students who were employed at least part-time. Results indicate role conflict and role ambiguity predict job insecurity, job insecurity predicts job satisfaction and job security satisfaction, emotional stability moderates the relation between job insecurity and withdrawal coping, and coworker support moderates the relation between job insecurity and OCBs. Discussed are theoretical implications, limitations, including the use of cross-sectional data to test a causal model, and directions for future research