The Impact of Qualitative Job Insecurity on Safety Performance: The Moderating Role of Safety Climate

Purpose: Few studies examined the impact of JI on safety outcomes, and no research to our knowledge has considered the QJI dimension, i.e. perceived threats to valued job features. Furthermore, this study considers two main components of safety performance: safety compliance and safety participation. Previous research (e.g. Probst, 2004) has already suggested that the effects of JI on SBs depend on the extent to which the organization is perceived as valuing and emphasizing safety. In particular, in this study we intend to verify three different models considering organizational, supervisor and coworkers safety climate as moderators variables. In fact, safety climate, i.e. perceptions about policies, procedures and practices relating to safety, can be considered from the point of view of the agents that perform safety activities. Methodology and Results: The hypotheses are tested in a sample of 446 employees in a manufacturing industry of the north-east of Italy. Preliminary results of hierarchical regressions showed that only organizational safety climate moderates the effects of QJI on safety participation. Limitations: Cross-sectional data: limit for causal interpretation. Self-report measures: potential source of common method variance. Practical implications: Organizations may improve safety during uncertainty situations focusing on enhancing the organizational safety climate perceptions, in order to motivate workers to actively participate in safety activities Originality: Considering also SBs among the potential consequences of JI and thereby contribute to combine these two different areas of research.