Locus Of Control, Job Status, Gender And Perceived Job Insecurity Among Bank Workers
Locus Of Control, Job Status, Gender And Perceived Job Insecurity Among Bank Workers
Abstract
This study investigated locus of control, job status and gender as predictors of perceived job insecurity among bank workers. Two hundred (200) bank workers (122 males and 78 females) drawn from first bank Plc, fidelity bank Plc, zenith bank Plc, Union bank Plc and Access bank Plc all in Nsukka, Enugu state participated in the study. Locus of control scale (LCS) and Job insecurity inventory (JII) were used for data collection. It was hypothesized that locus of control, job status and gender as predictors of perceived job insecurity. Results of correlation matrix showed that Locus of controls, Job status and gender are not significant predictors of cognitive and affective job insecurity. Implications and Limitations of the study were discussed and suggestions made for further studies.
Chapter One
Introduction
It is widely believed that the changing world of work and its implications as well as the demand on organizations for better performance and competitiveness are taking their tolls on the emotional well-being of employees (De Witte, 1999). The effect is large-scale work force reduction, job insecurity, and unemployment. Moses (1998) argues that once valued social contract that guaranteed job insecurity has been replaced by a reality that employees remain employed as long as they can make a contribution and skills and knowledge are needed by the organization. According to Moses (1998), the work roles have changed so much that workers have lost their sense of protection. In the past, organization provided a sense of security, allowing employees to belong to something bigger than themselves as well as identification with people that are like-minded and working for a common purpose that instills pride and meaningfulness (Moses, 1998).
Investment in medium and large scale manufacturing enterprise by Nigerian entrepreneurs has continued to grow but little is known about their organization and its management in general and the nature of working conditions and employee commitment in particular. A study by Dieker (1997), which examined the relationship between working conditions and employee commitments in twenty indigenous owned private manufacturing firms in South east Nigeria shows that these firms have the potentials to contribute to the industrial future of the country.
However, a substantial number of their workers are dissatisfied with the extrinsic and equity factors of their work which are stronger predictors of employee commitment than the intrinsic responsibility component. To build a viable workforce for enterprise success and industrial development, entrepreneur should invest in the long- term goals of their workers and learn to balance their own interests with those of their employees.
In Nigeria, May Day is celebrated like any other countries in the world but, her citizens have been confronted with massive unemployment especially among youths. Thousands of university graduates are roaming the streets without jobs while thousands of Nigerian bankers have lost their jobs. Even those at work face inequality and this has become a major challenge. All these are issues which successive governments in Nigeria have failed to address on May Day. The consolidation reforms under Professor Charles Soludo in 2005, streamlined banks in the country to just twenty five with strong capital base with high expectations that the industry would take its driver’s seat in growing the economy. This dream was shattered by poor corporate governance, credit indiscipline and financial recklessness. Major sectors of Nigerian organization, manufacturing industries, energy and basic infrastructures continue to suffer.
More importantly, despite the effort of competent hands in some institutions and industries, virtually all the banks, insurance and financial empires have entrenched policies that are definitely antithetical to security of jobs, its creation and welfare of the workers. A clear example is the perennial lay off of workers as redundant. Job insecurity and unemployment have become a major threat to the future of trade unions. Employees continue to lose jobs even when employers do not engage new employees.
Due to the violation of the trade union acts in Nigeria, new employees are made to sign bond that they would not belong to trade union. This has not been challenged because new employees would rather protect their jobs than belonging to trade union. The inability of the Nigerian government to create an enabling environment for the companies, has led to hash economic climate despite the positive reforms which the National Union of Petroleum and Gas (NUPENG) has recorded. NUPENG, like many other unions in the private sector, had to contend with casualisation which leaves the employees vulnerable to all sorts of abuses in the workplace.
In the last two years, the negotiation of a new national minimum wage has been in focus. Although, that has been done by President Goodluck Jonathan, its implementation has thrown up a constitutional issues. Even when privatization has created employment in Nigeria, the level of job insecurity is at an alarming rate. Entrepreneurs failing to adhere to the trade union’s acts, employment of incompetent workers, bringing in rigidity in the industrial work content, low level of employee’s participation in organizational decisions, extrinsic incentives like wages, promotions and fringe benefits are all found wanting in Nigerian’s employers. This amounts threats not only to the employees but also to the organizations.
Harbison and Mayers (1965), once pointed out that the wealth of a country is based on its’ power to develop and to effectively utilize the innate capacities of her people. Though that statement has become a cliché, it is an overstatement to say that human effort is the foundation of national development. Consequently, national development occurs through the effective utilization of human resources. Therefore, the international Institute for Human Factor Development (IIHFP) has stated that Nigeria, being one of the developing countries has not been successful in achieving proper development and utilization of their human resources because the government has failed to create an enabling environment and as a result of this, the companies fail to respect trade unions acts which make working environment better for employees, leaving workers with fear of loss of jobs. This fear of job loss has the potential of creating job insecurity in employees.
Job insecurity has been found to affect employees motivation and the ability to perform a task effectively and efficiently reduce production, and increase an induce illnesses, absenteeism and turnover, Owens (1995). It is therefore defined as the employee’s negative reactions to the changes concerning their jobs as well as the fear that they may loss their jobs (De Witte,1989; Dary, Kinicki & Sheck, 1997). Job insecurity has also been defined as the worry experienced by an individual in relation to the continuation of the present job (De Witte, 1999; Hartley, 1999; Swerke & Hellgren, 2002; Rosenbalt & Ruvio, 1986; Heaney, Isreal & House, 1994). Hui and Lee (2002) added that job insecurity encompasses the lack of control to maintain desired continuity in a threatened job situation. It has been conceptualized from two points of view (as global and as multidimensional concept). In most instances, job insecurity has been defined, according to the global view point, signifying the threat of job loss or job discontinuity (Caplan, French, Harrison & Pinneay, 1980). Generally, this definition has been applied in the context of organizational crises or change, in which job insecurity is considered as a phase of the process of job loss (Ferrie, 1997; Jeolson & Wahiquist, 1987). From a global perspective, Van Vuuren, (1990), emphasized that job insecurity has the following components:
- It is a subjective experience or perception, as different employees might perceive the same situation differently.
- It is an implication of uncertainty regarding the future and doubts about the continuation of the job as such.
The component of uncertainty inherent in job insecurity makes it a potent work stressor. It is argued that the lack of predictability or knowledge or what is to come is reference to the present job would give rise to distress in the individual. Several research studies have suggested that job insecurity should be related to different negative outcomes. These may roughly categorized as attitudinal, health-related and behavioural (Ashford, 1989; Dekker & Schaifeli, 1995; Heaney et al, 1994; Hellgren & Sverke, 2002; Hellgren, Sverke & isakksson, 1999, Probst, 2000; Rosembalt, Mohren, Sverke & Hellgren 2001;Sverke, Hellgren & Haswall, 2002; swaen Van Amelsvoort, Talmud & Ruvid, 1999).
The negative impact of job insecurity on the well being of job incumbents as well as the effect on organizational effectiveness necessitates research about job insecurity and the factors related to job insecurity (De Witte, 1999). Burchell (1999) stated that it has significant negative influence on the emotional well being of the individual. It reduces the level of job satisfaction and leads to psychosomatic complaints. Job insecurity has generally been considered a job stressor (Muano & Khnunen, 1999), prolonged job insecurity is more detrimental and acts as a chronic stressor whose negative effect become more potent as time goes by (Dekker & Schaufeli, 1995). They also suggested that perceived threats concerning the nature and continued existence of a job may have as detrimental consequences as job loss itself. Perceived job insecurity had consistently been found to associate with a number of attitudinal reactions. The most commonly researched outcome in this context is job satisfaction. For instance, Ashford et al (1989) showed that employees who feel insecure about their future employment are more dissatisfied with their jobs as compared to those who perceived their job situation as more secured. Therefore, weiten (1989) suggested that job insecurity is a job circumstance that threatens or perceived to threaten our well being thereby tax our coping ability.
It is on the above note that the researcher takes a step towards investigating the role of locus of control, gender and job status in predicting job insecurity. Although locus of control has been linked with psychopathology (Lipp, Kolstore, James & Randal, 1968), its relationship to job insecurity seems to have attracted the attention of many researchers. In this study therefore, locus of control will be measured and its role in predicting job insecurity will be investigated. The concept of locus of control has to do with how individuals View themselves with regard to having control over events and situations in their lives.
The term has also been conceptualized as either internal or external in orientation. Those who are self-directed and perceived themselves as the primary determinants of their own fate are said to hold internal control expectancies. In other words, a worker who has an internal locus of control believes that his/her rewards in the organization are, guided by his/her own decisions and efforts (Neill, 2006). On the other hand, those who perceived chance or luck, as the primary determinants of their destinies are said to hold external control expectancies (Lefcourt, 1976; Rotter 1966). For examples, an employee with external locus of control who does not receive promotion as a result of his/her performance may conclude that there is a poor job description and the management was incompetent. He/she will now blame the performance on the external factors that were out of his/her control and do not see the need to try harder (Grantz, 2000).External orientation can be re- orientated through attribution training which concentrates on strengthening the workers’ internal orientation to increase motivation (Grantz, 2000). According to him, workers can be trained into believing that they have the control to change events.
Internal orientation has been found to be positively associated with such psychological adjustment indicators as resistance to influence, and the ability to cope with failure (Wolfle & Robershaw, 1982). Differences in locus of control have been related to much behaviour including organizational behaviours (Spector, 1982). In this work therefore, effort will be made to relate the concept to perceived job insecurity.
Another variable under study is job status which has been acknowledged in psychology by various researchers as one of the important problems that challenges, perceived job insecurity (David, Kinicki & Sheck, 1997). Different individuals are exposed to different kinds of stressors in work organizations and the job status also determines the task required of the individuals occupying these positions. It can therefore contribute to the worker’s stress. Different occupations and job status have been identified as stressful (Burke & Belcourt, 1974). Directors and other high level executives in their desire to achieve their ambitions and attain self-actualization pay dearly in terms of both physical and emotional costs. Executives were described by Bruno (1993) as “Workaholics” who are continuously, working to improve the entire organization and are always striving to meet deadlines. All these tend to expose them to intense stress which could lead to job insecurity. Also lower or junior workers who are on the assembling line attending to several parts of automated machines or other areas in the organization continuously receiving orders from their superiors, are also under intense stress which could also lead to job insecurity. How these different categories of workers react to job insecurity-induced stress is of interest to the researcher.
The last variable under study is gender. Ever continuous increase in women employment in recent years suggested that more system analysis of how work- related stress affect females in comparison to their male counterparts. Many research evidences indicate that in the same work setting men and women experience job insecurity differently (Greenglass, 1982). Finally in this study, gender differences in predicting job insecurity will be investigated.
Statement of the Problem
In this research however, effort will be made to identify how workers generally react to job insecurity from its global view and multidimensional view. Also the role of locus of control, job status and gender in predicting perceived job insecurity is of interest to the researcher. Therefore, in this study, attempt will be made to provide answers to the following questions.
- Does locus of control play a role in predicting perceived job insecurity?
- Does job status of an individual in an organization play a role in predicting perceived job insecurity?
- Does gender play role in predicting perceived job insecurity?
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this research is to examine the role of individual’s locus of control on perceived job insecurity. Also the study will investigate the role of job status (senior vs. junior workers) in perceived job insecurity. The role of gender in perceived job insecurity will also be investigated.
Operational Definition of Terms
To have a clear understanding and minimize ambiguity, the definition of terms used in this research is hereby presented as follow
Locus of Control
This refers to a person’s belief about what causes the good or bad result in his or her life either in general or in specific areas such as organizational work settings or how one views him/her self as regards to having control over events and situations in life. It is measured by internal-external locus of control scale developed by Rotter in 1966.
Job Insecurity
This refers to as inconsistencies in the organizational motives, assurances, decision making, job description and contractual agreement which amount to threat, hope lost and fear of job lost. It is measured by De Witte’s Cognitive-Affective Job Insecurity scale developed in 2000.
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Discussion
The findings of this study showed that Locus of control has no significant relationship with perceived job insecurity (Cognitive and affective dimensions). The finding therefore fails to reject the first hypothesis which stated that Locus of control would not predict perceived job insecurity. This result is inconsistent with previous studies (e.g Susan, Ashford, Cynthia & Bobko 1989; Jack & Brotheridge 2007; Blau 1987, Lin & Ding 2003 & Bruce, Roy & Adrain 2002). For example Susan, Ashford, Cynthia and Bobko (1989) found that personal, job and organizational realities associated with a perceived lack of control are correlated with measured job insecurity. Jack and Brotheridge (2007) found a result that supported the treatment of the components of job insecurity as separate variables. The cognitive and emotional components differed in their associated with Locus of control and employment. Also, that people who feel they have limited extra-organizational opportunities appear to be particularly vulnerable. Roy and Adrain (2002) found that those with an external locus of control showed significantly lower level of work satisfaction, especially when this characteristic was combined with a type “A” personality. The finding implies that thoughts going on in the minds of workers on whether they are doing well or not does not necessarily lead to feeling insecurity at job. Bandura (1986) specifically examined the beliefs people hold about their abilities to accomplish certain tasks, whether or not they will undertake a particular activity, attempt to do a particular task, or strive to meet a particular goal depends on whether or not their beliefs will be efficacious in performing those actions. It does not matter whether an outcome is or is not attainable; the perception of control determines if one will try to attain it (Bandura 1986). For example, if an employee believes that it is in his /her control to meet an extremely difficult goal such as working in different offices of the same organization instead of other employees, he/she will try to make it even though the odds may be against him/her.
The second hypothesis, that job status would not predict perceived job insecurity was not rejected. Result showed that job status is not a significant predictor of cognitive and affective job insecurity. The findings of this study is inconsistent with previous findings (e.g Buck 1972; Blumenthal, Thyram & siegel 1995 and Light, Brownley, Turner, Hinderliter, Girdler, Sherwood & Anderson 1995), which found that job status moderate the outcome of stress in workers. Blumenthal, Thyrum and Siegel 1995) found that both male and female with high status occupations had significantly higher blood pressures. This was especially true for men, in that men with high-Job status had higher blood pressures than low status men. Also, Buck (1972) found that Managers felt significantly more pressed than workers to earn the respect of their supervisor and to show only the good side of their activity.
A possible explanation of this finding could be that the status of a worker does not have much influence in making workers perceive insecurity in his/her job. The research lacked extant theoretical to explain the finding.
More so, the result fails to reject the third hypothesis which states that gender would not predict job insecurity. The finding of this study is consistent with previous studies (e.g Harpaz 1990, & Gmetch 1988). Harpaz (1990) found no gender differences in the importance attributed to job insecurity. Gmetch (1988) reported that it would be hard to predict whether males or females are more pone to job insecurity. He also found no difference between males and females in regard to coping with stress. The finding is also inconsistent with some previous findings (e.g Allen, Stoney, Owens, Mathew, 1993; Ferrie & Colleagues, 1995; DeRijk & Nijhuis, 2009; & Elizur, 1994). For instance, Ferrie and colleagues (1995) reported that changes in reported physical health in response to job insecurity in the White hall study were larger for men, but that changes in psychological health were larger for women. De Rijk and Nijhuis (2009) found that women feel more in secured when returned-to-work after sickness absence than men. Elizur (1994) showed that females ranked the importance of job security higher than males did. The explanation to this fining therefore is that job insecurity is a fact for both males and females, and not an issue for a particular gender. Using a multidimensional measure of job insecurity, it was found that men and women significantly differed in their level and profile of job insecurity. Therefore, psychological factors sometimes account for why job insecurity may be higher for a particular gender in a given area.
The theory of gendered occupations and jobs is very relevant in explaining this finding. According to the theory, a major discomminant factor between male – dominated and female – dominated occupations is income level. In “pink Collar” profession, accordingly, both sexes are discontent (Hunt, 1993). Also, in terms of job insecurity, females should experience less job security in general but in female –dominated occupations, such as teaching, male should also experience job insecurity, at least in regard to the aspects of their environment. Therefore, economic status, priorities attached to both work and life are all factors in deciding whether it is the male or female that should feel insecure in job.
Implications of the Study
The findings of this study can be helpful to financial organizations such as micro – finance banks, mortgage banks, insurance companies, central bank of Nigeria and Federal ministry of finance. Although the finding of this study showed that locus of control, job status and gender are not significant predictors of job insecurity, there is need for all bank related agencies to address the issue of job insecurity especially with regards to the modern trends of Banking systems. The central bank of Nigeria should come up with good policies, programmes and workshops in tandem with current global realities to ensure that bank workers in
Nigeria are adequately provided for.
More so, managements of different banks whether mega or micro should endeavour to evaluate when necessary their workers and give corrections when necessary. They should also take cognizance of workers when implementing
delicate policies.
Limitations of the Study
This research work had some limitations. The sample size for this study was limited. Larger sample size may be necessary for more generalization and possible conclusions. Another limitation is the choice of using only banks in Nsukka town. Although they are bankers of interest for the study, the use of bankers form other towns/cities such as Enugu, Onitsha, Port-Harcourt, Lagos, Abuja etc may be
efficient.
The researcher also encountered difficulties assessing the participants (bank workers) because of the protocols and time constraints involved in banking.
Suggestion for Further Studies
In view of these limitations above, the researcher makes the following suggestions for further or future research. Future studies should look at other variables like leadership style, abusive supervision, locality, personality type as factors or antecedents in job insecurity. The inclusion of larger sample size is necessary to give room for more generalization and conclusion. Sample sizes involving bank workers of other cities in Nigeria can be used for better generalization of findings.
Summary and Conclusion
The present study investigated locus of control, job status and gender as predictors of perceived job insecurity among bank workers. Three hypotheses were stated and tested. The first hypothesis was, locus of control will not predict perceived job insecurity. Results of correlation matrix showed that locus of control is not a significant predictor of perceived job insecurity (P>.05). The second prosthesis was, job status will not predict perceived job insecurity. It was also found that job status is not a significant predictor of perceived job insecurity (p>.05). The third hypothesis was, gender will not predict perceived job insecurity. And the results of correlation matrix also showed that gender s not a significant predictor of perceived job insecurity. (P>.05). the data were collected using the locus of control sale (LCS) and job insecurity inventory (JII). Two hundred (200) bank workers made up of males and females participated. Correlation was used for data analysis. There was no interaction prediction of perceived job insecurity by locus of control, job status and gender (P>.05). The findings were interpreted against the background of theoretical and empirically related studies. The implications of the findings were enumerated, the limitations were stated and suggestions were made for further investigation.
