Zehava Rosenblatt

A test of a multidimensional model of job insecurity: the case of Israeli teachers

Summary The research reported here adopted a multidimensional approach to studying job insecurity, using Israeli teachers as a case in point. Based on two determinants of job insecurity-unionization and kibbutz affiliation-four distinct employment types were identified: unionized city teachers, unionized kibbutz members, unionized kibbutz hirees, and non-unionized personal contract teachers. The a priori job insecurity status of the four employment types matched the subjective reports of these teachers, supporting the external validity of the job insecurity scale used. The study explored the effect of job insecurity on work attitudes. Results indicated that job insecurity had an adverse effect on organizational commitment, perceived performance, perceived organizational support, intention to quit and resistance to change, supporting predictions in related literature. The results of this study have implications on the management of job insecurity in changing environments.

A Gender-based Framework of the Experience of Job Insecurity and Its Effects on Work Attitudes

Gender effects on job insecurity and other work attitudes (organizational commitment, tendency to quit, resistance to change, perceived performance, and perceived organizational support) were investigated, with Israeli schoolteachers as a case in point. On a multidimensional measure of job insecurity, males and females significantly differed in their level and profile of job insecurity: Males were more insecure and emphasized financial concerns, whereas females expressed concerns about intrinsic facets of their jobs as well as financial concerns. Gender effects on work attitudes exceeded the effects of job insecurity and other demographic characteristics for most of the work attitudes studied. Moreover, job insecurity affected work attitudes differently for men and women: For females, all job attitudes were adversely affected by job insecurity; for males, only organizational commitment, intention to leave, and resistance to change were affected. Gender theories are applied to explain the differences found...

Evolution of Research on Job Insecurity

This paper provides an overview of how theory and research on job insecurity have evolved in the past 25 years. We trace the Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984) model to its origins in a large-scale action research project, summarize the subsequent theoretical and empirical developments of the model, and suggest directions for future research to understand the perpetually important phenomenon of job insecurity.

Teachers’ Multiple Roles and Skill Flexibility: Effects on Work Attitudes

This study investigated the mediating effect of teachers’skill flexibility (the mastery and utilization of various skills) on the relationship between holding multiple roles (extrateaching school roles) and work attitudes (burnout, tendency to quit, and organizational commitment). In this study, skill flexibility was composed of three components: skill utilization, skill variety, and multiskilling orientation. SEM path analysis revealed that skill utilization mediated the effect of holding multiple roles on all three work attitudes, and skill variety mediated the effect of holding multiple roles on burnout. Multiskilling orientation added little explanation to the final model. Skill flexibility components also mediated the effects of demographic variables (age, education, nationality, and school size) on all three work attitudes. These results contribute to the conceptualization of skill flexibility, which has been relatively underresearched in the organizational literature. Implications for teachers’work design are discussed.

Sabbatical Leave: Who Gains and How Much?

A rigorous quasi-experiment tested the ameliorative effects of a sabbatical leave, a special case of respite from routine work. We hypothesized that (a) respite increases resource level and well-being and (b) individual differences and respite features moderate respite effects. A sample of 129 faculty members on sabbatical and 129 matched controls completed measures of resource gain, resource loss, and well-being before, during, and after the sabbatical. Among the sabbatees, resource loss declined and resource gain and well-being rose during the sabbatical. The comparison group showed no change. Moderation analysis revealed that those who reported higher respite self-efficacy and greater control, were more detached, had a more positive sabbatical experience, and spent their sabbatical outside their home country enjoyed more enhanced well-being than others.

School ethical climate and parental involvement

Using structural equations modeling, this study explored the association between school ethical climate (characterized by values of caring, rules and a professional code) and two types of parental involvement: cooperation‐based and conflict‐based. The mediating effects of perceived parental influence and trust and parents’ socioeconomic (SES) level were considered as well. School‐level data were obtained from 157 teachers representing 20 elementary schools in Israel, and individual‐level data were obtained from 936 parents. Results showed that an ethical climate characterized by rules and a professional code was more common and more strongly related to parental involvement than a caring climate. Different patterns were detected for the two SES groups: high‐SES parents tended to be less involved (both cooperation‐wise and conflict‐wise) than low‐SES ones when the school climate was perceived as more ethical. Results have implications for research on school values and school culture.

Early‐Warning‐Signals Management: A Lesson from the Barings Crisis

The collapse of Barings was not an isolated event of its type. Rather, it characterizes an increasingly prevalent aspect of business settings as we approach the end of the second millennium. This paper surveys theoretical references in the crisis-and-decline literature to factors triggering crises. In particular, it emphasizes perceived organizational failure to notice and act on early-warning-signals (EWS). The paper presents a framework of organizational crisis-causal factors. These factors are tabulated to form a basis for models illustrating causes of organizational crises and poor EWS management. Validity and usefulness of the framework are tested through application to the Barings crisis.The presentation of some causal factors framework provides a diagnostic/predictive tool for use by crisis management (CM) strategists and regulators. It permits the un-learning of a frequent, yet detrimental, repercussion of managerial ineptitude. The paper proceeds by, first, discussing EWS management as contributing to the CM theory base. These contributions are presented as general categories of crisis-creating and EWS management-averting factors. Categories of crisis sources and pertinent key issues are then tabulated, followed by formal propositions. Next, the paper presents, and analyses against the background of crisis-causal factors, the case of the Barings debacle of 1995. A research agenda is proposed aimed at enhancing the empirical approach to studying EWS. Finally, comment is offered on the validity of the framework presented in the paper and the ways in which it might be used by CM strategists.

Skill flexibility among schoolteachers: operationalization and organizational implications

This study is an empirical investigation into the effect of skill flexibility on work attitudes and performance and into managerial attitudes toward skill flexibility. Secondary schools in Israel were used as a case in point, and skill flexibility of teachers was operationalized, distinguishing between role flexibility (the combination of teaching and other school roles) and functional flexibility (the combination of several teaching areas). It was found that both role and functional flexibility were associated with improved teachers’ work performance. Role flexibility was also linked to high organizational commitment and low powerlessness. The findings of the study are supported by interviews with principals, who were generally appreciative of skill‐flexible teachers, but raised practical difficulties related to organizational support of skill flexibility.

Organizational Ethics and Teachers’ Intent to Leave: An Integrative Approach

Purpose: The present study focuses on developing a conceptual framework that explores the relationships between teachers’ intent to leave and a spectrum of ethics perceptions. The authors argue that these relationships are mediated by organizational commitment (affective and normative). Research Design: Organizational ethics was measured by teachers’ perceptions of ethical climate (caring and formal), organizational justice (distributive and procedural), and tendency to misbehave. Participants were 1,016 schoolteachers from 35 schools affiliated with a secondary-level school network in Israel. Findings: Results of a multilevel analysis reveal direct relationships between intent to leave and dimensions of all three ethical constructs. The mediation effect of affective and normative commitment was full for caring climate and partial for procedural justice and tendency to misbehave. Conclusions: The contribution of this study is the integrative approach to organizational ethics as predicting teachers’ intent to leave, an approach rarely taken in previous research. The results may have implications for educational policies that focus on improving ethical perceptions while containing teachers’ voluntary turnover.

Job insecurity among Israeli schoolteachers: Sectoral profiles and organizational implications

In light of environmental and organizational trends toward privatization, and in response to changes in sectoral traditional differences, this paper investigated job insecurity (JI) of secondary schoolteachers in the public and private sectors in Israel. The study sample consisted of 326 Israeli schoolteachers. Using a multi‐dimensional measure of JI, where various job facets were addressed, two distinct JI profiles were found: public‐sector schoolteachers tended to emphasize intrinsic job features, while private‐sector schoolteachers tended to emphasize extrinsic ones. Sectoral differences were also found in regard to the adverse effect of JI on work attitudes: in the public sector JI affected organizational commitment, perceived organizational support, and tendency to quit, and in the private sector only tendency to quit was affected. These findings are partly explained by differences in employment structures, and have implications for human resource strategies regarding the provision of job security.