Francisco J. Gracia

Job Insecurity and Health-Related Outcomes among Different Types of Temporary Workers

Over the past few decades, the number of flexible workers has increased, a situation that has captured researchers’ attention. Traditionally, temporary workers were portrayed as being disadvantaged compared to permanent workers. But in the new era, temporary workers cannot be treated as a homogeneous group. This study distinguishes between four types of temporaries based on their contract preference and employability level. Furthermore, it compares them with a permanent group. Whether these groups differ on job insecurity and health-related outcomes in a sample of 383 Spanish employees was tested. Differences in well-being and life satisfaction were found, and the hypotheses were supported. The results point out that the temporary workforce is diverse. Therefore, in order to attain a better understanding of the experiences and situations of these workers, it is preferable not to consider them as one homogeneous group.

Moderating influence of organizational justice on the relationship between job insecurity and its outcomes: A multilevel analysis

A great amount of research has illustrated the evident prevalence of job insecurity in working life and its harmful outcomes for employees and organizations. Some authors have identified factors that can reduce this negative influence. However, up until now, most of these factors have only been studied at an individual level, without taking into account the fact that contextual conditions can play a moderating role in organizations. Following this perspective, this article analyses the moderator role of organizational justice and organizational justice climate in the relationship between job insecurity and its outcomes. The study was carried out with a sample of 942 employees from 47 Spanish organizations and a subsample composed of 597 employees from 29 of these organizations. The results showed that both organizational justice and organizational justice climate moderated the relationship between job insecurity and job satisfaction and intention to leave the organization.

Employability and Personal Initiative as Antecedents of Job Satisfaction

In a changing and flexible labour market it is important to clarify the role of environmental and personal variables that contribute to obtaining adequate levels of job satisfaction. The aim of the present study is to analyze the direct effects of employability and personal initiative on intrinsic, extrinsic and social job satisfaction, clarifying their cumulative and interactive effects. The study has been carried out in a sample of 1319 young Spanish workers. Hypotheses were tested by means of the moderated hierarchical regression analysis. Results show that employability and personal initiative predict in a cumulative way the intrinsic, extrinsic and social job satisfaction. Moreover, the interaction between employability and personal initiative increases the prediction of these two variables on intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. Results also indicate that higher values of employability when initiative is also high are associated to higher levels of intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. These results have implications for theory and practice in a context of new employment relations.

Testing the validity of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety culture model

This paper takes the first steps to empirically validate the widely used model of safety culture of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), composed of five dimensions, further specified by 37 attributes. To do so, three independent and complementary studies are presented. First, 290 students serve to collect evidence about the face validity of the model. Second, 48 experts in organizational behavior judge its content validity. And third, 468 workers in a Spanish nuclear power plant help to reveal how closely the theoretical five-dimensional model can be replicated. Our findings suggest that several attributes of the model may not be related to their corresponding dimensions. According to our results, a one-dimensional structure fits the data better than the five dimensions proposed by the IAEA. Moreover, the IAEA model, as it stands, seems to have rather moderate content validity and low face validity. Practical implications for researchers and practitioners are included.

The Safety Culture Enactment Questionnaire (SCEQ): Theoretical model and empirical validation

This paper presents the Safety Culture Enactment Questionnaire (SCEQ), designed to assess the degree to which safety is an enacted value in the day-to-day running of nuclear power plants (NPPs). The SCEQ is based on a theoretical safety culture model that is manifested in three fundamental components of the functioning and operation of any organization: strategic decisions, human resources practices, and daily activities and behaviors. The extent to which the importance of safety is enacted in each of these three components provides information about the pervasiveness of the safety culture in the NPP. To validate the SCEQ and the model on which it is based, two separate studies were carried out with data collection in 2008 and 2014, respectively. In Study 1, the SCEQ was administered to the employees of two Spanish NPPs (N=533) belonging to the same company. Participants in Study 2 included 598 employees from the same NPPs, who completed the SCEQ and other questionnaires measuring different safety outcomes (safety climate, safety satisfaction, job satisfaction and risky behaviors). Study 1 comprised item formulation and examination of the factorial structure and reliability of the SCEQ. Study 2 tested internal consistency and provided evidence of factorial validity, validity based on relationships with other variables, and discriminant validity between the SCEQ and safety climate. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) carried out in Study 1 revealed a three-factor solution corresponding to the three components of the theoretical model. Reliability analyses showed strong internal consistency for the three scales of the SCEQ, and each of the 21 items on the questionnaire contributed to the homogeneity of its theoretically developed scale. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) carried out in Study 2 supported the internal structure of the SCEQ; internal consistency of the scales was also supported. Furthermore, the three scales of the SCEQ showed the expected correlation patterns with the measured safety outcomes. Finally, results provided evidence of discriminant validity between the SCEQ and safety climate. We conclude that the SCEQ is a valid, reliable instrument supported by a theoretical framework, and it is useful to measure the enactment of safety culture in NPPs.

Cambios en la valoración del trabajo en jóvenes de primer empleo durante el proceso de socialización laboral

ResumenEl trabajo es una de las areas mas importantes en la vida para los seres humanos y un pilar basico en el funcionamiento de cualquier sociedad. El significado que la gente da al trabajo, y que aspectos son valorados del mismo, ha sido y es un tema de gran interes para los cientificos sociales. Dos dimensiones principales del significado del trabajo son «los resultados valorados del trabajo» y la «importancia de metas laborales». «Los resultados valorados del trabajo» son aquellos resultados que el individuo busca del trabjar o que funciones le son servidas a traves del trabajo. «La importancia de metas laborales» se refiere a la importancia que tiene para los individuos determinados aspectos del trabajo. El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar los cambios que se han producido en los valores laborales de los jovenes durante sus primeros anos de empleo. Nuestras hipotesis son que habran tenido lugar cambios en los valores laborales de los jovenes empleados y que una variable relevante para explicar di...