JOB INSECURITY, ATYPICAL WORK AND LIFE S PRECARIOUSNESS. Ida Sciabica1, Antonino Callea2, Mariangela Cersosimo3, Arrigo Pedon4

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1 II Congresso Internacional Interfaces da Psicologia: Qualidade de Vida Vidas de Qualidade. 14 e 15 de Novembro de 2011 JOB INSECURITY, ATYPICAL WORK AND LIFE S PRECARIOUSNESS Ida Sciabica1, Antonino Callea2, Mariangela Cersosimo3, Arrigo Pedon4 1 Lumsa University, Rome idasciabica@virgilio.it 2 Lumsa University, Rome. 3 Europea University, Rome. 4 Lumsa University, Rome. Abstract This research aims to focus on atypical work and its respective psychological consequences. The introduction in Italy of new job reforms, has induced the today so called orientation to flexibility, with various psychological, social and organizational consequences in the workers' lives. The main purpose of this research is to establish whether there is a relation between the following psychological variables: job insecurity, life's precariousness, coping strategies and the level of satisfaction in workers who have a timedetermined contract. For this reason a questionnaire has been administered to 210 participants, all workers with an atypical-contract. The questionnaire included these 3 scales: Job Insecurity, Life's Precariousness, Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation and a single item about job satisfaction. The results show that there is a negative correlation between satisfaction, job insecurity and distrust in atypical workers and that this sense of precariousness produces stress and particular coping-strategies. Furthermore, woman are more exposed than men. The hypothesis have been verified using the following statistic test: correlation, Student's t and multiple regression. Key Words: atypical work, job insecurity, life s precariousness, coping strategies, job satisfaction. Introduction In Italy since the 90's there have been unusual changes in working conditions which have had a significant impact on the social, economical and psychological sphere of the workers. This scenario has changed old traditional values, the new structure of applying and offering which modifies the relationship between workers and businesses, the psychosocial effects of job insecurity and the emersion of modern tasks and of current working roles. It has gone from the era of fordism to post-fordism. These changes in the Italian labour market have without doubt, changed the worker from standard or rather from steady worker to atypical worker rendering them victims of the flexibility process. 183

2 II International Congress Interfaces of Psychology: Quality of Life Living with Quality 14th 15th November 2011, University of Évora. According to some parameters Istat estimated that between 1996 and 2000 the percentage of atypical work has increased by 40%(Istat, 2001). These trends which continued until the year 2000, have transformed the nature of work changing from a phase of "steady" work to "precarious" and insecure employment. The current condition however sees a qualitative change rather than a quantitative change because there has been not only a change in the weekly and monthly hours but above all in the significance that each worker attributes to their own work. These people's psychological equilibrium becomes unstable like their work and emotional ties. It is in this setting that the concept of "Life's precariousness" finds its space, that is, insecurity, dissatisfaction and fear of the future, which derives from atypical work, but also has an impact on the private life (Callea e Ballone, 2009). Numerous studies have shown that atypical workers live prolonged stressful job experiences and risk psychophysical health issues.(tomei and Tomao.2003) Literature also shows how job insecurity can be considered a significant cause of work and personal stress (Sverke and Hellgren,2002) In this perspective, we must insert the concept of job insecurity defined as the perception of the threat of losing ones job and the emotional experiences of worry and anxiety connected with this threat (cfr.de Witte, 1999, De Witte, 2005, Sverke, Hellgren, Naswall, Chirumbolo, De Witte e Goslinga 2004). Job insecurity has, therefore, two important and closely related aspects: the first regards the nature "subjective" of the experience of insecurity caused by the fear of losing ones job regardless of the type of contract, the second regards the aspect "objective" that is the perception and interpretation that is given to situations connected to the expiry of the contract.(klandermans e Van Vuuren, 1999). In particular it has been shown (Sverke e Hellegren, 2002) that subjective job insecurity increases with the diffusion of flexibility and this insecurity may have adverse consequences in both the individual and organizations(chirumbolo e Hellegeren, 2003). Life's precariousness also seems to affect the individual's personal and family life as it increasingly moves forward the age where you choose to marry, cohabit or live alone(ferrari e Veglio, 2005) it prevents longterm projects, causes problems in applications for loans or mortgages (Salvini e Ferro, 2005). Precariousness, insecurity, apathy and dissatisfaction are therefore more appropriate terms to explain the current conditions of the worker. Objective and Hypothesis of the study The research focuses on the impact that job insecurity on life precariousness and on stress together with coping strategies connected with the satisfaction degree in atypical workers with temporary work. The hypothesis to be tested are the following: if there is a correlation among satisfaction, job insecurity and distrust; 184

3 II Congresso Internacional Interfaces da Psicologia: Qualidade de Vida Vidas de Qualidade. 14 e 15 de Novembro de 2011 if the three dimensions of life precariousness are positively correlated with the three dimensions of CISS (Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation); if women are more vulnerable than men about job insecurity, life precariousness and coping strategies; if job satisfaction, job insecurity and coping strategies cause the three dimensions of life precariousness. Methodology Participants The participants of the research are 210, including men (40.7%) and women (59.3%), from 18 to 60 years old with an average age of 31years old (DS= 7.9). Interviewees are all atypical workers with a temporary work contract; most of them are single (63,1%) and the others married/common-law people (33%). Most of the workers have a full-time contract (54.4%) against 41.6% who has a part-time contract. Education is also high: 48% have a high school diploma while 35.8% have at least a first level degree. Data were mainly collected in Central and South Italy. It is an ad hoc sampling or of expedience, certainly it is not probabilistic (Pedon, 2009), where there is the certainty that all interviewees have the variable that is suppose to be investigated. Instruments The instrument is a questionnaire composed by three scales: Job insecurity, Life precariousness and Ciss. The questionnaire also includes socio-demographic information. Job Insecurity Scale, it wants to measure the perceptions and concerns of workers about the maintaining their jobs, it has ten items (Chirumbolo, 2003; Sverke et al., 2004). Participants were asked to express their agreement / disagreement on a Likert scale in five steps (1= total disagreement; 5 = total agreement). Example of items are: I m afraid to be dismissed, I m sure I can keep my job (reversed item). High scores show a high job insecurity, precisely the individual is afraid to lose his job. Life precariousness Scale, (Callea, 2009) the questionnaire life precariousness was born after some studies about psychological variables and work situation of atypical workers. This questionnaire investigates the consequences that bring atypical work in people s lives and particularly in involuntary atypical workers (Callea e Ballone, 2009). The questionnaire consists of 28 items. The answers are given on a Likert scale in seven steps and detect three dimensions: Disregard for current job, that examines how temporary workers live, dealing with the present condition; Distrust of the future that aims at exploring workers' expectations about their future 1

4 II International Congress Interfaces of Psychology: Quality of Life Living with Quality 14th 15th November 2011, University of Évora. employment; Emotional consequences on everyday life, which study the consequences of precarious work in personal and family life, that is how emotional reactions influence everyday lifestyle. Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation, (CISS, 1990) consists of 48 items, that explore the different ways to react to a difficult and stressful event. The subject must indicate his way of reacting to the events described in the item through a 5-step Likert scale from "not at all" to "very much". The questionnaire has three dimensions and in particular it identifies three different strategies as answer to stressful events: task coping, deals with the problem directly, looking for suitable solutions, emotion coping, shows a strong emotion change towards stressful situation, finally avoidance coping, used to unaware stressful and threatening event, so people undertake themselves in other activities in order to avoid to think of the problem. Finally, the socio-demographic section, as well as detecting gender, age, educational level and marital status, also investigates the years of precarious employment, the type of contract and the working week. Results Hypothesis: the correlation between satisfaction, job insecurity and distrust has been measured by the correlation coefficient r of Pearson. As can be seen (Table 1) from correlations between the scales, the hypothesis 1 is confirmed Tab. 1 Correlations Job Ins. Disinterest Distrust Consequences Task Emotions Avoidance Satisfaction -.399(**) (**) Job Ins (**).639(**).430(**) (**).206(**) Disinterest 1.157(*).523(**) -.209(**).419(**).284(**) Distrust 1.546(**) (**).163(*) Consequences (**).434(**) Task (**) Emotions 1.513(**) ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) 186

5 II Congresso Internacional Interfaces da Psicologia: Qualidade de Vida Vidas de Qualidade. 14 e 15 de Novembro de 2011 The "satisfaction", in fact, correlates negatively with "job security (r = -.399, p <.01) and distrust (r = -.340, p < 0.1) while is not correlated neither with the other two dimensions of life precariousness (disinterest and emotional consequences) nor with coping strategies. The satisfaction level of an individual is inversely correlated with job insecurity and the distrust towards his own professional future. Hypothesis: the three dimensions of life precariousness are positively correlated to the three dimensions of ciss scale. The hypothesis has been tested. Through the observation of Table 1 you can notice that it is evident that the "disinterest" is negatively correlated with the "task" (r = -.209, p <.01), while presents a positive and significant correlation with the "emotions" (r =.419, p < 0.1) and avoidance (r =.284, p < 0.1). Distrust has a positive correlation with emotions (r =.432, p <.01) and avoidance (r =.163, p < 0.5), while it isn t correlated to task (-.005). Finally, emotional consequences dimension correlates positively with emotions (r =.652, p < 0.1), and with avoidance (r =.434, p < 0.1), is not correlated with the task (.003). Hypothesis: to test the hypothesis that women have higher scores than men about job insecurity, life precariousness and coping strategies the "Student t test" was conducted, that is the comparison for independent samples. The results (Tab. 2) confirm this hypothesis: data demonstrate that women have higher job insecurity (t(207) < -3.38; p<.001) than men, have more distrust (t(207) < -3.62; p<.000), with emotional consequences (t(207) 207< -2.03; p<.043), more emotions (t(207) 207< -3.72; p<.000) and oriented to avoidance (t(207) < -1.93; p<.054). Table. 3 contains the averages of the two groups. Tab. 2: t- test on gender compared to areas investigated T DF Sig. (2-tailed) Job Insecurity Disinterest Distrust Consequences Task Emotions Avoidance Satisfaction

6 II International Congress Interfaces of Psychology: Quality of Life Living with Quality 14th 15th November 2011, University of Évora. Tab. 3: Average of men and women Gender N Average Deviaz. Std. Job Insecurity Disinterest Distrust Consequences Task Emotions Avoidance Satisfaction ) Hypothesis: to verify if job satisfaction, job insecurity and coping strategies determine the three dimensions of life precariousness was used the regression test, with the method of blocks, that is considering the three independent variables at the same time; for each independent variable disinterest for your own job, distrust towards your professional future and emotional consequences on daily life it has been created an ad hoc model. The results of the regression have stressed how hypothesis n 5 is fully confirmed: disinterest is not explained neither by job insecurity nor by satisfaction but from the three dimensions of the ciss scale (Tab. 4). 188

7 II Congresso Internacional Interfaces da Psicologia: Qualidade de Vida Vidas de Qualidade. 14 e 15 de Novembro de 2011 Tab. 4: Regression on Disinterest towards your own work dimension Non Standardized Coefficents Standardized Coefficents Model B Standard Error Beta T Sig. 1 (Constant) Satisfaction Job Insecurity Task Emotions Avoidance F (5.203) < 12.76; p =.00; R2 =.24 In particular the most important variables are the emotions that determine directly the disinterest (B=.253) and the task that represents on the contrary a negative coefficient (B= -.233), as you can see from Graph. 1. Graph. 1 : Causal model with dipendent variable disinterest Satisfaction Job insecurity.123 Task Disinterest Emotions.253 Avoidance.177 The model in respect to the dimension distrust towards your own professional future presents a good quality of adaptability (R2=.48) (Tab. 5). 189

8 II International Congress Interfaces of Psychology: Quality of Life Living with Quality 14th 15th November 2011, University of Évora. Tab. 5: Regression on the dimension Distrust towards your own professional future Non Standardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients Model B Errore standard Beta T Sig. 1 (Constant) Satisfaction Job Insecurity Task Emotions Avoidance F (5.203) < 34.16; p =.00; R2 =.48 The main variables are satisfaction, job insecurity and the emotion while task and avoidance are not so important. Especially, job insecurity and emotions present higher coefficient (respectively B =.499 e B =.246) while satisfaction presents a negative coefficient (B = -.120) (Graph. 2). Graph. 2 : Causal model with dipendent variable distrust Satisfaction Job insecurity.499 Task Distrust Emotions.246 Avoidance

9 II Congresso Internacional Interfaces da Psicologia: Qualidade de Vida Vidas de Qualidade. 14 e 15 de Novembro de 2011 The emotional consequences on daily life are instead determined by job insecurity, by emotion and by avoidance, whereas other variables like satisfaction and task are not important (Tab. 6). Tab. 6: Regression on dimension Emotional consequences on daily life Non Standardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients Model B Standard Error Beta T Sig. 1 (Constant) Satisfaction Job Insecurity Task Emotions Avoidance F (5.203) < 36.37; p =.00; R2 =.47 All the important variables have positive coefficients; the most important one seems to be emotions (B =.507), while the variable avoidance is important at p =.06 (Graph. 3). 191

10 II International Congress Interfaces of Psychology: Quality of Life Living with Quality 14th 15th November 2011, University of Évora. Graph. 3 : Causal model with dipendent variable consequences Satisfaction Job insecurity.213 Task.016 Consequences Emotions.507 Avoidance.121 Conclusions This study has aimed at the analysis of the ways through which the so-called atypical workers live their condition as workers in terms of satisfaction, precariousness of life, stress and job insecurity grade. The results confirmed the hypothesis proposed in the study. A man with a low level of satisfaction for his work has a strong anxiety about the maintenance of the same and even more he does not manage to be positive about his professional future. The law satisfaction about his own work determines a behavior of unease linked to the fear of loosing the job and so this leads the worker to live a sense of distrust and of discouragement. Disinterest, distrust and emotional consequences can be correlated to the different strategies of coping and so stress is strongly present in workers with high levels of precariousness of life. In particular, the subjects showing disinterest use above all coping strategies oriented to emotion and avoidance, whereas they present a negative correlation to the task. Anyway, a man who deals with the matter of solving the problems, and looks for new solutions, cannot be disinterested about the problem itself. The distrust about his future links him positively with emotions and the avoiding behavior. The discouraged people look like being without expectations about the future and are more sensitive, they react in an emotional way in front of the problem or even let space to another attempt to distract themselves avoiding the problem. Emotional consequences are strongly related with emotions and avoidance. You can also observe how the positive correlation between job insecurity and distrust towards professional future can be ascribable to 192

11 II Congresso Internacional Interfaces da Psicologia: Qualidade de Vida Vidas de Qualidade. 14 e 15 de Novembro de 2011 both reduced possibilities to go-getting, the more difficult possibility to gain a professional promotion and the frequent changing in charges or moving in different working fields. In particular women experience more job insecurity and disinterest towards their work and are more discouraged towards men. As for stressful situations, some results stress that women use above all coping strategies oriented to emotion and avoidance, while as for the task there no important differences. present more important differences than man about job insecurity, and distrust towards future and emotional consequences. The results of tests show that women are more exposed to job loosing and as a consequence fear that as a threat to their emotional status accompanied by distrust in thinking about their future and negative results in their daily life as in their family and extra-working life. Finally, our study aims at carrying out some models of multiple regression, using as dependent variables the dimensions of life precariousness (considered one by one). In particular, disinterest is caused by emotions, avoidance and law task orientation. This result shows that coping strategies that are useless to solve the problem lead the subject to be disinterested about his job. The dimension called distrust about your own professional future, in on the contrary determined above all by job insecurity and by emotions that represent B coefficients standardized as more elevated; whereas satisfaction is considered a negative coefficient. This result suggests that dissatisfaction, fear of loosing job and emotional orientation towards stressful events give life to distrust about the future. Emotional consequences on daily life are on the contrary determined by job insecurity, emotion and avoidance while variables such as satisfaction and task are not so important. People who fear to loose the job and use coping strategies oriented to emotion and avoidance are more affected by atypical work which, therefore, influences personal and family life of individuals. References Callea, A., (In press). Un nuovo disagio lavorativo: Validazione del questionario Precarietà di vita. Risorsa uomo. Callea, A., & Ballone, F. (2009). Validazione del questionario sul costrutto Precarietà di vita. Paper presented at Congresso Aip, Sezione di Psicologia Sperimentale, Chieti Settembre Chirumbolo, A. (2003). L impatto dell insicurezza lavorativa sul benessere dei lavoratori e sugli atteggiamenti verso l organizzazione. Rassegna di Psicologia, 20, Chirumbolo, A., & Hellgren, J. (2003). Individual and Organizational consequences of Job Insecurity: a European study. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 24 (2),

12 II International Congress Interfaces of Psychology: Quality of Life Living with Quality 14th 15th November 2011, University of Évora. De Witte, H. (1999). Job insecurity and psychological well-being: Review of the literature and exploration of some unresolved issues. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8, De Witte, H. (2005). Job insecurity: Review of international literature on definitions, prevalence, antecedents and consequences. Journal of Industrial Psychology, 31 (4), 1-6. Ferrari, L., & Veglio, O. (2005). Donne e uomini nel mercato del lavoro. Milano: Franco Angeli Istat (2001). Rapporto annuale Bologna: Il Mulino. Klandermans, B., & Van Vuuren, T. (1999). Job insecurity. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8 (2), Pedon, A. (2009). Dizionario di statistica e metodologia per le scienze del Comportamento. Roma: Alpes Italia. Salvini, S., & Ferro, I. (2005). Un difficile equilibrio: i giovani tra flessibilità del lavoro e scelte familiari. Paper presented at the Convegno Nazionale dei Lincei Famiglie, nascite e politiche sociali, Roma. Sverke, M., & Hellgren, J. (2002). The nature of job insecurity: Understanding employment uncertainty on the brink of a new millennium. Applied Psychology, An International Review, 51, Sverke, M., Hellgren, J., Näswall, K., Chirumbolo, A., De Witte, H., & Goslinga, S. (2004). Job insecurity and union membership: European unions in the wake of flexible production. Brussels: P.I.E.-Peter Lang. Tomei, C., & Tomao, G. (2003). Burnout. Paper presented Giornate Romane di Medici Del Lavoro, Sezione regionale della S.I.M.L.I.I. 194