The contribution of demographic, dispositional, and situational variables to job loss reactions: A test of several structural models
Description
Job loss and layoffs have become an economic fact of life as a result of constant mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, and general economic malaise. As a consequence, researchers have examined behavioral, physiological, and cognitive reactions of the unemployed. The purposes of this study were to examine the role of age and education in predicting career and employment expectancies, various demographic variables in predicting financial strain and subsequent negative affect, hostility as a result of justice perceptions, and expectations, job loss attributions, and affect as predicted by various attributional styles. 424 job losers who were corporate sponsored outplacement clients of a nation-wide career consulting firm completed a survey involving antecedents of, and behavioral and cognitive reactions to, job loss Analyses were conducted using causal modeling techniques. Older job losers were found to have generally lower vocational expectancies involving their career and prospects for re-employment, particularly with respect to anticipated changes in industries and fields. Education was not found to be a particularly good predictor of either vocational expectancies, nor its components. Job losers with lower salaries and greater number of dependents experienced greater financial strain, and subsequent anxiety, depression, and hostility. Gender and marital status were not predictive of financial strain. Perceptions of justice were found to be multi-factorial, involving both procedural justice and interactional justice. Although both procedural justice and interactional justice were predictive of hostility, interactional justice was a better predictor Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as reliability analysis indicated that the Attributional Style Questionnaire (Peterson, Semmel, Von Bayer, Abramson, Metelsky, & Seligman, 1982) was psychometrically unsound. Employment expectancies involving comparison to others with similar skills, age, and education, and expectancies involving chances for a better or similar salary were negatively related to anxiety. Job loss attributions involving changes in technology, management, obsolescence, and the external factors of labor market and general economic conditions were not predictive of affective reactions. However, job losers blaming their job loss on effort, performance, job demands, inability to fit into the organization's culture, and interpersonal skills, did report experiencing guilt