When Minor Insecurities Project Large Shadows: A Profile Analysis of Cognitive and Affective Job Insecurity

People are generally thought to worry about potential job loss to the extent to which they view job loss as likely to occur. However, might there be some individuals for whom job loss may be so detrimental that they experience high levels of worry even if they view job loss as less likely? To answer this question, the present study leveraged research on future-oriented cognition to investigate profiles of cognitive and affective job insecurity (JI). We examined how economic job dependency relates to different profiles of JI experiences as well as the implications of these profiles for understanding heterogeneity in work strain. Latent profile analysis using the U.S. International Social Survey Program data set, and replicated in the U.K. data set, revealed three profiles: Employees who are secure in their role and do not worry about potential job loss (secure alignment profile), those who worry significantly about job loss despite perceiving minimal job threats (affective JI misalignment profile), and employees who worry to some extent and perceive minimal job threats (ambivalent JI alignment profile). As anticipated, several economic job dependence factors (perceived employability and education) were predictors of profile membership. Further, those in the affective JI misalignment profile reported the greatest amount of strain. We discuss our results in terms of implications for JI theory and organizational practice.