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Academics’ Responses to Job Insecurity: The Mediating Effect of Job Satisfaction

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Abstract

This study investigates the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relation between job insecurity and exit, voice, loyalty and neglect (EVLN) responses. Data were collected from 232 academic employees. The authors test whether job satisfaction transmits the effects of the job insecurity on exit, voice, loyalty and neglect using path analyses via structural equation modelling. The analyses reveal that job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between job insecurity and all of the employee responses (EVLN). However, the mediating role of job satisfaction is marginally significant for job insecurity–voice linkage. Within the insecure working context, our study has relevant implications for the managers/administrators whose aim to increase their staff’s loyalty and to retain qualified employees, which in turn enables their organisations to be competitive. The findings of this study highlight that job satisfaction can be used as a remedy to alleviate the adverse effects job insecurity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    Ozge Tayfur Ekmekci, Pinar Bayhan Karapinar & Selin Metin Camgoz

  2. Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey

    Arzu Ozsoy Ozmen

  3. Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, Dokuz Eylul University, İzmir, Turkey

    Burcu Kumbul Guler

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  1. Ozge Tayfur Ekmekci
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  2. Pinar Bayhan Karapinar
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Correspondence to Ozge Tayfur Ekmekci.

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Tayfur Ekmekci, O., Bayhan Karapinar, P., Metin Camgoz, S. et al. Academics’ Responses to Job Insecurity: The Mediating Effect of Job Satisfaction. High Educ Policy 34, 218–237 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-018-00129-7

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