The objective – Temporary agency work (TAW) means being hired out to client organizations on an assignment basis, thus recurrently switching to new assignments. For workers, this constitutes a context with specific conditions for workplace learning and career development. Formal learning opportunities are known to be restricted, but there is limited research focusing on individual agency and possibilities – or hinders – to learn and develop in order to create meaningful and sustainable careers in the context of TAW. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore how temporary agency workers can use individual agency to influence their development and person-environment fit in meaningful ways, thereby contributing to career sustainability.

Methods – We conducted semi-structured theme-focused interviews with 22 temporary agency workers. After verbatim transcriptions, all interviews were analyzed with narrative analysis. Five typical narratives were identified: (a) The flexible worker, (b) TAW as a side gig, (c) TAW as a stepping stone, (d) Return to work as TAW, and (e) TAW as a dead-end.

Results – The five narratives offer different perspectives on development and meaningfulness, as TAW is seen as an investment in future career sustainability, an investment into regaining sustainability, an indirect investment in a future sustainable career, or as a sustainable or unsustainable situation in itself. In each narrative, learning and career development are individualized (require agency), and individual agency is restricted by the nature of the TAW contract (e.g., work tasks defined in contract) and the TAW policy at the client organization (buffer vs. recruitment strategy). Career development and developmental learning is primarily shaped by changing assignments or being recruited by the client organization.

Conclusion – This study elicits cohesive narratives of how temporary agency workers independently become agentic and identify their needs for learning and development to move forward, thereby creating meaning around TAW and their careers. 

Objective – By examining and addressing a gender-safe organizational climate, this study bridges the research streams on gender regimes, active bystanders, organizational tolerance for sexual harassment, and safety climate in organizations. It examines cross-level associations between a gender-safe climate at the organizational level and gender discrimination and sexual harassment outcomes at the individual level.

Methods – The point of departure was to integrate a gender perspective into the organization’s safety climate. Based on the concept of gendered regimes, a questionnaire was constructed to measure employees' perceptions of the organization’s approach to (1) gender discrimination, (2) sexual harassment, (3) the organization's preventive work to reduce gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and co-workers’ approach to (4) gender discrimination and (5) sexual harassment. The theoretical point of departure was Connell’s concept of gender regimes, organizational climate theory, and previous research on sexual harassment in organizations.

With the help of Statistics Sweden, a sampling frame was designed to achieve a representative multi-level sample based on register data collected by Statistics Sweden. Based on the sampling frame, the survey was sent to 9000 employees in 150 organizations. The response rate was 19.6%. Multilevel analysis was based on data from 1518 individuals in 130 organizations.

Results – All five dimensions of a gender-safe organizational climate were negatively associated with employees' experiences of sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the individual level. Furthermore, sexual harassment and gender discrimination were more frequently reported by women in male-dominated organizations and men in female-dominated organizations.

Conclusion – This study contributes to the research gap by examining a gender-safe organizational climate in relation to the occurrence of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Examining and addressing a gender-safe organizational climate can be a way for organizations to prevent sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

Objective: Previous research suggests that organizations have gender regimes, reflecting the pattern of gender relations within an organization. A non-polarized gender regime likely promotes higher inclusion and lower gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Assessing an organization’s gender regime may help address important aspects of organizational climate. Further, inspired by the concept of organizational tolerance for sexual harassment, we investigate tolerance for gender discrimination, focusing on an organization's readiness to act when violations occur. However, reliable instruments are lacking. This project aims to develop an instrument to assess both gender regime and tolerance for gender discrimination, as well as their associations with relevant outcomes. 

Methods: We developed a questionnaire aiming for measuring the dimensions of gender regime: 1) gender division of labor (horizontal gender segregation), 2) gender relations of power (vertical gender segregation), 3) human relations, 4) culture and symbolism, as well as tolerance for gender discrimination. The questionnaire was distributed to military cadets in Sweden in 2022 (N=189). We assessed measurement properties and explored associations with outcomes using hierarchical regression analysis.

Results: The new instrument showed satisfactory measurement properties. Gender regime dimensions and tolerance were strongly associated with inclusion, gender discrimination, and sexual harassment. After controlling for demographic factors (e.g., gender), the instrument explained 22% to 38% of the variance in these outcomes. The most significant dimension was human relations, addressing e.g. whether cadets socialize across or along gender lines. 

Conclusions: This study empirically explores the gender regime concept and contributes to the validation of a new theory-based instrument. Gender regime and tolerance for gender discrimination were significantly associated with outcomes, inclusion, gender discrimination, and sexual harassment. This suggests, that addressing an organization’s gender regime and tolerance for gender discrimination could be important for improving organizational climate. Thus, the instrument shows promise for being incorporated in preventive work environment management.

Job insecurity constitutes uncertainty about the future of the current job. Such uncertainty is expected to impact attitudes and behaviors about one’s work and career and how it will progress. The aim of the present study is to meta-analytically consolidate research on the associations between job insecurity and career-related outcomes. A further aim of the study is to explore two methodological moderators: study design (cross-sectional vs. longitudinal) and type of job insecurity measure (cognitive, affective, or combined). Based on a sample of 237 primary studies, our main results show that job insecurity was positively related to occupational and organizational turnover intention, job search behaviors, and knowledge hiding, and negatively related with career satisfaction, career opportunities, employability, and proactive skill development. In terms of the moderators, the associations were generally stronger in cross-sectional studies compared to longitudinal studies, while the impact of the type of job insecurity measure used was mixed. While our results inform research on job insecurity and career-related outcomes, more studies with a longitudinal design are needed on this research topic. Future research should also further examine how different types of job insecurity measures – cognitive, affective, or combined – are associated with career-related outcomes.

The objective – The aim of this study is to develop and validate a survey tool to enhance inclusion and a gender safe organizational climate. The survey tool is intended for organizations to scrutinize their gendered regime as part of the management of their psychosocial work environment. Previous research has reported that a gender safe organizational climate is associated with less gender discrimination and sexual harassment. This short-version of a more comprehensive, empirically tested research tool covers 5 climate dimensions: The organization’s approach to (1) gender discrimination and (2) sexual harassment, (3) the organization's preventive work to reduce gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and co-workers’ approach to (4) gender discrimination and (5) sexual harassment. 

Methods – The study is conducted in three steps: Step 1: Item reduction based on an exploratory sample (N=381), selecting the best items from the research questionnaire in terms of good representation of each climate dimension (content validity) as well as statistical criteria. Step 2: Scale validation with an explorative (N=2161) and a confirmatory sample (N=179). Step 3: Qualitative evaluation of the applicability of the survey tool by analyzing interviews with unit managers who received feedback from the survey tool. 

Results – Step 1 resulted in 27 items selected for the survey tool. In Step 2, all 5 climate dimensions showed acceptable reliability (  >.70) in both samples, and EFA and CFA results support the factor structure. A gender safe climate was positively associated with inclusion and job satisfaction, and negatively associated with turnover intention. For Step 3, evaluation of the feedback is currently ongoing. 

Conclusion – The results of this study suggest that the survey tool may be used to explore employees’ perceptions of a gendered organizational climate. Feedback from the survey tool may help organizations create a gender safe and inclusive organizational climate for everyone in the organization. 

Past work has extensively documented that job insecurity predicts various work- and health-related outcomes. However, limited research has focused on the potential consequences of perceived job insecurity climate. Our objective was to investigate how the psychological climate about losing a job and valuable job features (quantitative and qualitative job insecurity climate, respectively) relate to employees’ exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect behaviors, and whether such climate perceptions explain additional variance in these behaviors over individual job insecurity. Data were collected through an online survey using a convenience sample of employees working in different organizations in Türkiye (N = 245). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that quantitative job insecurity climate was associated with higher levels of loyalty and neglect, while qualitative job insecurity climate was related to higher levels of exit and lower levels of loyalty. Importantly, job insecurity climate explained additional variance over individual job insecurity in exit and loyalty. Our findings underscore the importance of addressing job insecurity in a broader context regarding one’s situation and the psychological collective climate. This study contributes to addressing the knowledge gap concerning job insecurity climate, an emerging construct in the organizational behavior literature, and its incremental impact beyond individual job insecurity. The foremost implication is that organizations need to pay attention to the evolving climate perceptions about the future of jobs in the work environment, because such perceptions are related to critical employee behaviors.

Research has consistently shown adverse consequences of job insecurity. Such adversity includes poorer mental and physical health as well as reduced well-being. Moreover, findings suggest that job insecurity increases interference between work and family domains. While most job insecurity research focuses on quantitative aspects, including overall worries regarding the future existence of a job, there is a qualitative dimension which includes worries about losing valued characteristics of the job. Studies of the two dimensions suggest that quantitative and qualitative job insecurity have diverse effects on different health-related outcomes. This makes it meaningful to investigate whether and how individuals and groups vary in their job insecurity perceptions across these two dimensions. While most studies have taken on a variable-oriented approach focusing on relationships between variables and the identification of predictors and consequences in specific populations, it tends to neglect variation between individuals. A person-oriented approach, including for instance latent profile analysis, uses the variation between individuals to form groups of individuals with similar variability. This study investigates such individual differences in perceptions of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity to go beyond categorizations of high and low job insecurity and forward the understanding of how individuals within a population may vary in their experiences. Specifically, the aim was to explore whether it would be possible to identify different job insecurity profiles among women and men working full-time. Moreover, variations between profiles in work/home interference, health, and well-being were investigated.

We invited working women and men with positions requiring a higher education, aged 32-58 years and residing in Sweden, to a questionnaire study (response rate: 56 per cent). The analysis included self-ratings of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity, work/home interference, health, and well-being, and demographics, from 1169 full-time working adults (52.4 per cent women). Latent profile analysis was performed to identify profiles. Subsequent analyses included profile comparisons of demographics, work/home interference, health, and well-being. Four different job insecurity profiles were identified: 1) Secure (n = 715), 2) Secure: quality concerned (n = 238), 3) Insecure: employment concerned (n = 149), and 4) Insecure (n = 67). Comparing the profiles, significant differences emerged for work/home interference (i.e., family/work conflict), self-rated health, and well-being. As would be expected, the Secure had better self-rated health and well-being than the others, while the finding for family/work conflict seemed less consistent.

Obviously, the study design limits conclusions regarding causality. Also, the study included full- time workers with a higher education which limits generalization. Yet, it was possible to distinguish different job insecurity profiles also in more privileged populations. Although the Secure profile was by far the largest, other profiles were characterized by concerns regarding overall insecurity, the employment, or job qualities. Using a person-oriented approach, this study adds to the fine-grained understanding of individual differences of job insecurity as an occupational stressor. This is important to facilitate targeted communication to vulnerable groups when organizational resources are limited, which, in turn, is key for developing a sustainable working life.

Bakgrund: Anställningsotrygghet, det vill säga en oro för att mot den egna viljan förlora jobbet, har visatsig vara kopplat till olika prestationsrelaterade utfall. Antalet studier är dock få med resultatsom pekar åt delvis olika håll. Därför är det angeläget att försöka sammanställa tidigareforskning på ett systematiskt sätt genom en meta-analys.

Syfte: Den här studien syftade till att undersöka hur anställningsotrygghet hänger samman med olikaaspekter av prestation i arbetet, däribland arbetsprestation och medarbetarbeteenden. I detingick också att undersöka faktorer som kan påverka dessa samband, såsom metodrelateradefaktorer samt kontextuella faktorer som speglar vilken typ av välfärdssystem en studiegenomförts i.

Metod: En meta-analys genomfördes på primärstudier som identifierades genom systematisklitteratursökning i för området relevanta databaser

Resultat: Över lag visar resultaten att anställningsotrygghet hänger samman med försämrad prestation iarbetet. Resultaten är jämförbara oberoende av om studiedesignen var tvärsnittlig ellerlongitudinell. Sambandet mellan hög anställningsotrygghet och försämrad prestation framstårsom svagare i välfärdssystem som är förenade med en högre grad av skyddsnät för den enskildaindividen. Även om merparten av resultaten visar på entydiga samband mellananställningsotrygghet och försämrad prestation behövs dock forskning som inkluderar mer avlongitudinella studier i olika välfärdskontexter för att ytterligare klargöra sambandens karaktär.

Objectives: Traditional variable-oriented research has shown that employee perceptions of job insecurity (JI) are associated with negative consequences, including more work-home interference, poorer health, and impaired well-being. Besides the negative consequences of high JI, particular combinations of JI perceptions may also be associated with different consequences. Taking a person-oriented approach, this study aimed to investigate (1) whether it is possible to distinguish different combinations of JI perceptions among working women and men and (2) whether such JI profiles involve different experiences of work-home interference, health, and well-being.

Methods: Self-reports in questionnaires of JI, including both quantitative and qualitative threats of perceived job loss, work-home interference (WHI), health, and psychological well-being came from 1169 white-collar workers (52.4% women) in Sweden. Latent profile analysis was performed to identify JI profiles. Subsequent analyses included comparing profiles with respect to WHI, health, and well-being.

Results: Four distinct JI profiles were identified: (1) Secure; quality-concerned, (2) Insecure: employment-concerned, (3) Insecure, and (4) Secure. Comparisons of cluster profiles showed significant differences in work-home interference (family-work conflict), self-rated health, and psychological well-being.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that the Insecure profile may be most vulnerable to adverse consequences of perceived JI. Taken together, different JI profiles may be associated with differential experiences of work-home interference, health, and psychological well-being among working women and men.

Job insecurity (JI), “the overall concern about the continued existence of the job in the future” is a worry and stress source for many employees. This concern may be related to the continued existence of the job itself (i.e., quantitative JI) or valued job features (i.e., qualitative JI). Both dimensions reflect a subjective perception involving a threat of loss in the future. A large number of studies have provided evidence for the detrimental effects of JI (in both forms) on various outcomes. Traditionally, JI has been defined as an individual phenomenon; however recent research indicates that it can also be shared and represent climate level perceptions. The limited number of studies having examined JI climate show that also “the shared concern about the continued existence of the job in an organization” may have negative outcomes. However, how JI climate is measured matters. While some previous studies have measured JI climate by aggregating individuals’ ratings of their individual JI to unit levels, there is also a recently developed measure to assess individuals’ ratings of JI climate at their workplace.

The present study aims to investigate the measurement properties and construct validity of individual JI and JI climate, both with quantitative and qualitative dimensions, in a Turkish sample. The sample was composed of 245 employees (51% women, Mage = 34, age range: 19-59). Confirmatory factor analysis results showed that the proposed four-factor model (individual JI and JI climate, both with quantitative and qualitative dimensions) provided a good fit to data and outperformed rivalling models. In general, the Cronbach's alpha reliability estimates were above .70 (the exception being individual quantitative job insecurity, α=0.64). Comparisons of associations between the four JI dimensions and demographic variables provided some evidence for the discriminant validity of the proposed four-factor representation of individual JI and JI climate.