Antecedents and outcomes of job insecurity among salespeople

an article by Mona Bouzari (European University of Lefke, Turkey) and Osman M. Karatepe (Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Turkey) published in Marketing Intelligence & Planning Volume 36 Issue 2 (2018)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of job resources, as manifested by selective staffing, training (TR), and career opportunities, on job insecurity and the influence of job insecurity on hope, job satisfaction, and creative performance. By investigating these relationships, the present study also aims to provide the managers the ways by which they can foster job resources, reduce job insecurity, and activate hope and job outcomes of their salespeople.

Design/methodology/approach
Data came from hotel salespeople in Iran. Structural equation modeling was used to test the aforesaid relationships.

Findings
The empirical data lend support to the overwhelming majority of the relationships. Specifically, job insecurity and hope act as mediators of the impacts of job resources on job satisfaction. Job satisfaction mediates the impacts of job insecurity and hope on creative performance. Contrary to what has been hypothesized, job insecurity positively influences salespeople’s hope. Such salespeople in turn exhibit higher job satisfaction. In addition, job resources do not significantly influence hope via job insecurity.

Practical implications
Management should invest in job resources to reduce job insecurity. Management should also try to hire individuals high on hope since hope is treated as a malleable variable and can be developed via TR interventions. Workshops can be organized to enable junior salespeople to learn senior salespeople’s practices regarding the solutions to new customer requests and problems.

Originality/value
Job insecurity is an endemic problem in many industries and there is a lack of empirical research about the intermediate linkage between job insecurity and employees’ job outcomes. There is also a need for more research to ascertain the factors influencing job insecurity.

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How do job characteristics contribute to burnout? Exploring the distinct mediating roles of perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness

an article by Claude Fernet, Stéphanie Austin, Sarah-Geneviève Trépanier and Marc Dussault (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada) published in European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Volume 22 Issue 2 (2013)

Abstract

This study aimed to better understand the psychological mechanisms, referred to in the job demands–resources model as the energetic and motivational processes, that can explain relationships between job demands (role overload and ambiguity), job resources (job control and social support), and burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment).

Drawing on self-determination theory, we examined whether psychological resources (perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness) act as specific mediators between particular job demands and burnout as well as between job resources and burnout.

Participants were 356 school board employees.

Results of the structural equation analyses provide support for our hypothesised model, which proposes that certain job demands and resources are involved in both the energetic and motivational processes – given their relationships with psychological resources – and that they distinctively predict burnout components.

Implications for burnout research and management practices are discussed.

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