Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

BACKGROUND: The evaluative nature of high performance (HP) sport fosters performance expectations that can be associated with harsh scrutiny, criticism, and job insecurity. In this context, (HP) sport is described as a highly competitive, complex, and turbulent work environment. The aim of this longitudinal, quantitative study was to explore whether HP coaches' perceptions of job insecurity and job value incongruence in relation to work would predict their psychological well- and ill-being over time.

METHODS: HP coaches (n = 299) responded to an electronic questionnaire at the start, middle, and end of a competitive season, designed to measure the following: job insecurity, values, psychological well-being (vitality and satisfaction with work), and psychological ill-being (exhaustion and cynicism). Structural equation model analyses were conducted using Mplus.

RESULTS: Experiencing higher levels of job insecurity during the middle of the season significantly predicted an increase in coaches' psychological ill-being, and a decrease in their psychological well-being at the end of the season. However, value incongruence did not have a significant longitudinal impact.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings cumulatively indicate that coaches' perceptions of job insecurity matter to their psychological health at work. Consequently, it is recommended that coaches and organizations acknowledge and discuss how to handle job security within the HP sport context.

Despite agreement on the negative effects of job insecurity, more knowledge needs to be generated on the health effects in terms of burnout and depressive symptoms and for whom job insecurity has these negative effects. The present study aims to investigate the associations between job insecurity and burnout and depressive symptoms respectively, by studying the moderation influences of performance-based self-esteem (PBSE), a form of contingent self-esteem. A population-based sample with 4145 twins was used. The results showed that job insecurity was significantly associated with both burnout and depressive symptoms, and that PBSE acted as a moderator, so that the associations were stronger for individuals with high PBSE than for individuals with low PBSE. The study contributes by including a personality characteristic to gain more knowledge about the mechanisms of job insecurity on mental ill-health, and by illustrating that job insecurity has an impact on severe health outcomes in terms of burnout and depressive symptoms.

Most work on activity-based working centers on the physical environment and digital technologies enabling flexible working. While important, we believe the key components for implementing activity-based working are employee and manager behaviors. To measure the degree of enactment of activity-based work, based on workshops with experienced practitioners as well as previous literature, we have developed and validated a behavior-focused measure of activity-based working behaviors. In our initial sample (Sample 1, N = 234), three subscales were identified: task - environment crafting, workday planning, and social needs prioritization. In the replication sample (Sample 2, N = 434), this model also showed adequate fit. Moreover, task - environment crafting was related to general health and lower stress in sample 1 (multi-organization sample), but not in the single-organization sample (sample 2). Workday planning was associated with higher concentration in both samples and in the second sample with general health and work engagement; the latter was also related to social needs prioritization.

Task-Environment fit, a special case of Person-Environment fit, has been suggested as the central mechanism through which Activity-Based Working (ABW) Environments support productivity and employee wellbeing, here operationalized as team functioning and concentration troubles. We extend previous work in this space by testing the asymmetric effect (where deficient supply is worse than excess supply) usually assumed, with a new statistical approach-cubic polynomial regression-capable of such tests. The complex models gained only partial support and none for a strict congruence effect. Results are more in line with previous work on P-E fit showing that higher levels of needs met are more valuable, and with previous ABW work showing that the supply of suitable environments has the largest impact on outcomes.

Purpose - The purpose of the present paper is to investigate how employees' coping (problem, emotion and avoidance focused coping) may affect the reactions to job insecurity. Because the coping investigated in the present study addresses the stressor in different ways, the authors expect different moderating effects depending on the type of coping, which results in three different hypotheses.Design/methodology/approach - A sample of 579 Swedish accountants was used to test these hypotheses via surveys.Findings - The findings support the authors' assumptions that emotion focused coping weakened the relation of job insecurity and some of the outcomes. Both avoidance and problem focused coping strengthened the relation between job insecurity and some of the outcomes.Research limitations/implications - As this study utilizes cross-sectional data and only one occupational group, it is important to test the relations using longitudinal data with different occupational groups in future research.Practical implications - From these results some practical conclusions can be drawn as to which coping forms might be more beneficial, which can be helpful for organizations in order to develop intervention programs.Originality/value - This study expanded the understanding of coping in the context of job insecurity by testing different forms of coping and including a variety of important outcomes of job insecurity.

Job insecurity has become more relevant during the last decades as more flexibility from the workforce and organizations is demanded in the labour market. It has frequently been suggested that job insecurity is a more severe stressor for those who are more dependent on their job. The present study investigates the association between job insecurity and employee well-being by focusing on how employees’ dependence on the job moderates this relationship. Two types of financial dependence (subjective financial dependence and relative contribution to the household income) were studied, along with an indicator of a more psychological dependence on work in general (work involvement). In addition to this, both quantitative and qualitative job insecurity were included. The proposed relations were tested in a sample of Swedish accountancy firm employees. The results of moderated hierarchical regression analyses showed that subjective financial dependence, household contribution, and work involvement moderated the relation between both job insecurity dimensions and job satisfaction. No moderations were found with mental well-being as an outcome. This implies that the extent to which someone depends on their job is important for how job insecurity relates to job satisfaction.