The changing significance of di€erent stressors after the announcement of bankruptcy: a longitudinal investigation with special emphasis on job insecurity

Journal of Organizational Behavior J. Organiz. Behav. 21, 337-359 (2000)

GISELA B. MOHR

The author investigates the e€ect of job insecurity and other job stressors on the mental
health of steel workers. Levels of job stress and mental health were measured seven years
before and seven months after the company at which they worked had gone into
receivership, a method that can be described as a quasi-experimental ®eld study with a
sample of blue-collar non-supervisory male workers. Two out of four job stressors were
found to be at a lower level when the second wave of research took place. Regression
analyses showed that the correlation between these job stressors and psychosomatic
complaints is now lower than during the ®rst wave but that they reach the former level
when job insecurity is added. Job insecurity was mainly connected to an increase in
psychosomatic complaints and in anxiety. Self-esteem, depression, and irascibility
showed no important relationship to job insecurity when the variables were controlled
for mental health status before the onset of job insecurity. Social support, opportunities
in the labor market, and duration of contract in the company are identi®ed as
moderating the relation between mental health and job insecurity. One conclusion is that
positive health e€ects due to reduction in the stress level may be o€set by acute job
insecurity.

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