The relationship between trait anxiety, job insecurity and intention to ...

i

The relationship between trait anxiety, job insecurity and intention to quit

among employees at Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality.

BY

Bongiwe Morida Kavi

A mini-dissertation research proposal

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF COMMERCE

in

INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

in the Faculty of

MANAGEMENT AND COMMERCE

of the

UNIVERSITY OF FORT HARE

Supervisor: Prof QT Mjoli

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DECLARATION I, Bongiwe Morida Kavi declare that this research report on “An investigation on trait

anxiety, job insecurity and intention to quit among employees”. A case of Raymond

Mhlaba Local Municipality” is a result of my work. It has not been submitted anywhere

before for any degree purposes or examinations in any other university and that all the

sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged as complete

reference. It is being submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Commerce in Industrial Psychology at the University of Fort Hare,

Alice Campus.

I also hereby declare that I am fully aware of the University of Fort Hare’s policy on

plagiarism and I have taken every precaution to comply with the regulations.

Bongiwe Morida Kavi

Signature

13/03/2019

Date

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank God because without Him all of this wouldn’t be possible. I would like

to thank my supportive partner, who has always been there with me as I carried all sorts of

frustrations and anxiety. I also wish to thank my baby daughter, Uyanda. I acknowledge that it

was not always easy sacrificing your play times and that mother -to- child bonding sessions while

I was busy with the study. Thanks to the both of you for your infinite love and support during trying

times.

My friends, Loveness, Vicky, Forget, and my research tutor Tatenda Mhlanga and my family; the

Kavi family I thank you for providing moral support. They have supported me throughout my life

and their encouragement has assisted me through this journey. I realized they are truly my biggest

fans and I will always be grateful to them for all that they have provided.

I would also like to thank my supervisor, Prof Themba Mjoli for his motivation and

encouragement and assisting me in conducting my study. I am grateful for his guidance,

support, in developing me as a student in Industrial Psychology.

Thanks also to all the participants who agreed to take part, without them the project

could not have gone ahead.

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DEDICATIONS I dedicate this document to my beloved mother Mavis Nomawethu Kavi, my partner Mzwamadoda

Christopher Penisi, and my daughter Uyanda. I thank you with great appreciation and gratitude

from the bottom of my heart.

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Gender distribution of respondents Page 64

Figure 4.2 Ethnicity distributions of

respondents

Page 65

Figure 4.3 Age distribution of respondents Page 66

Figure 4.4 Occupational level distribution of

respondents

Page 67

Figure 4.5 Educational level distributions of

respondents

Page 68

Figure 4.6 Tenure distribution of respondents Page 69

Figure 4.7: Conceptual model and summary

hypothesized framework

Page 79

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LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Reliability Analysis 2

Table 4.2: Descriptive Statistics for Biographical

Variables

Page 63

Table 4.3 Summary of Descriptive Statistics of Main

variables

Page 70

Table 4.4: Spearman correlations (Rho) and significance

probabilities (P) for relations of intentions to quit to job

insecurity and trait anxiety

Page 71

Table 4.5 Simple Linear Regression Model Fit and

Summary for Job insecurity on Intention to quit.

Page 72

Table 4.6 Parameter Estimates for Job insecurity on

Intention to quit.

Page 73

Table 4.7 Simple Linear Regression Model Fit and

Summary for Trait anxiety on Intention to quit.

Page 73

Table 4.8 Parameter Estimates for Trait anxiety on

Intention to quit.

Page 74

Table 4.9: A summary of hierarchical multiple regression

analyses testing job insecurity and trait anxiety in the

prediction of intention to quit.

Page 75

Table 4.10 Regression model for trait anxiety, job

insecurity and the moderating.

Page 76

Table 4.11 Amount of variation explained by the model

effect on intention to quit.

Page 77

Table 4.12 Parameter Estimates. Page 77

Table 4.13 Summary of the hypotheses results. Page 78

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ABSTRACT There is relatively limited research based on trait anxiety, job insecurity and intention to

quit and the relationship thereof. Job insecurity and anxiety are all reported in this study

and in literature to have negative mental, emotional and even physical health hazards.

The general objective of this study was to determine the moderating effect of trait anxiety

on the relationship between job insecurity and intentions to quit. This study was solely

quantitative in nature. The sample consisted of 122 municipality employees. The results

emanating from the research indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship

between Trait anxiety, Job insecurity, and intention to quit among the sample of

employees selected to participate in the research, which negatively influences job

satisfaction, organisational commitment, job involvement and trust. The study also

concluded that trait anxiety was a significant moderator to the relationship between job

insecurity and employees’ intention to quit. However, adding job insecurity to trait anxiety

did not significantly add unique variance in predicting intention to quit. Thus, adding job

insecurity to trait anxiety as an additional predictor on intention to quit, results in a non-

significant increase in the amount of variation. The findings will aid human resource

officers, managers and practitioners who work with the objective of attracting, recruiting

and retaining the best staff, the study recommends these stakeholders to continuously

review the factors and aspects of the job that may invite the feeling of insecurity on the

part of employees.

Key words: Trait anxiety, Job insecurity, Intention to quit, Raymond Mhlaba Local

Municipality employees.

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LIST OF ACRONYMS AET - Affective Events Theory

CT – Cognitive Therapy

LOC – Locus of Control

IP AT Anxiety Scale

AACL - Affect Adjectives Checklist

STAI - State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

SPSS - Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

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Table of Contents DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................................... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................ iii

DEDICATIONS ............................................................................................................................................... iv

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................ v

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................. vi

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................... vii

LIST OF ACRONYMS .....................................................................................................................................viii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY ............................................................................................ 6

1.1. Introduction and Background to the Study ............................................................................................ 6

1.2. Problem statement ................................................................................................................................. 7

1.3. Aim and objectives of the study ............................................................................................................. 8

1.4. Hypotheses ............................................................................................................................................. 9

1.5. Significance of the study ......................................................................................................................... 9

1.6. Literature review .................................................................................................................................. 10

1.6.1 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................................... 10

1.6.1.1 Affective Events Theory (AET). ................................................................................................ 10

1.6.1.2 Cognitive Model (Clark & Beck, 2010) ..................................................................................... 11

1.6.2 Conceptual literature ...................................................................................................................... 12

1.6.2.1 Job Insecurity ........................................................................................................................... 12

1.6.2.2 Intention to Quit ...................................................................................................................... 13

1.6.2.3 Trait Anxiety ............................................................................................................................ 13

1.6.3 Empirical Literature ......................................................................................................................... 14

1.6.3.1 Job Insecurity and Turnover Intentions ................................................................................... 14

1.6.3.2 Trait Anxiety and Intention to Quit .......................................................................................... 15

1.6.3.3 Moderating Effect of Trait Anxiety .......................................................................................... 16

1.6.3.5 Assessment of the Literature ................................................................................................... 17

1.7. Research Methodology ........................................................................................................................ 17

1.7.1 Research Design .............................................................................................................................. 18

1.7.2 Population ....................................................................................................................................... 18

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1.7.3 Sampling Technique ........................................................................................................................ 18

1.7.4 Sample Size ..................................................................................................................................... 19

1.7.5 Research instrument ....................................................................................................................... 19

1.7.6 Data Collection ................................................................................................................................ 20

1.7.7 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 21

1.8. Delimitation of the study ...................................................................................................................... 21

1.9. Ethical Consideration ............................................................................................................................ 22

1.9.1 Approval to conduct the study ........................................................................................................ 22

1.9.2 Informed Consent and Voluntary Participation ............................................................................... 22

1.9.3 Openness and integrity ................................................................................................................... 22

1.9.4 Protection from harm ..................................................................................................................... 22

1.9.5 Confidentiality and Anonymity ........................................................................................................ 23

1.10. Dissertation Outline ............................................................................................................................ 23

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................... 24

2. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 24

2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................................. 24

2.1.1 Cognitive therapy ............................................................................................................................ 24

2.1.2 Cognitive Model .............................................................................................................................. 25

2.1.3 Affective Events Theory ................................................................................................................... 26

2.2 CONCEPTUAL LITERATURE .................................................................................................................... 27

2.2.1 Job insecurity defined ..................................................................................................................... 27

2.2.2 The insecurity conundrum .............................................................................................................. 28

2.2.3 Turnover Intention defined ............................................................................................................. 29

2.2.4 Trait anxiety defined ....................................................................................................................... 32

2.3. Job Insecurity ........................................................................................................................................ 33

2.3.1 Job insecurity subjective and objective components ....................................................................... 33

2.4 Antecedents of job insecurity ................................................................................................................ 34

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2.4.1 Workplace bullying and job insecurity ............................................................................................. 34

2.4.2 Subjective Predictors of Job Insecurity ............................................................................................ 35

2.4.3 Moderators of the Effects of Job Insecurity ..................................................................................... 37

2.5 Objective Predictors of Job Insecurity ................................................................................................... 38

2.6 INTENTION TO QUIT .............................................................................................................................. 41

2.6.1 Intention to quit defined ................................................................................................................. 41

2.6.2 Factors influencing employee’s intentions to quit ........................................................................... 43

2.6.3 Antecedents of intentions to quit .................................................................................................. 43

2.6.3.1 Workplace bullying and intentions to leave ............................................................................ 44

2.6.3.2 Employee engagement and intention to quit .......................................................................... 44

2.6.3.3 Transformational leadership and intention to quit ................................................................. 45

2.6.3.4 Job satisfaction and intention to quit ...................................................................................... 46

2.6.3.5 Remuneration, reward and recognition and intention to quit ................................................ 47

2.7 INTENTIONS TO QUIT CONSEQUENCES ................................................................................................. 48

2.7.1 Frequent Change and Turnover Intention: The Moderating Role of Ethical Leadership ................... 48

2.8 TRAIT ANXIETY ....................................................................................................................................... 49

2.8.1 Theoretical approaches to anxiety .................................................................................................. 49

2.8.2 Techniques used to measure anxiety .............................................................................................. 51

2.9 DIMENSIONS OF TRAIT ANXIETY ............................................................................................................ 52

2.9.1 Anxiety reactivity and Anxiety perseverations ................................................................................. 52

2.10 Empirical literature .............................................................................................................................. 53

2.10.1 Job insecurity and intentions to quit ............................................................................................. 53

2.12.2 Trait anxiety, job insecurity and intentions to quit ........................................................................ 54

2.12.3 Trait anxiety as a moderator of the relationship between job insecurity and intentions to quit .... 54

2.13 Chapter summary ................................................................................................................................ 55

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................... 56

3.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................................... 56

3.2 Research Design .................................................................................................................................... 56

3.3 Population of the study ......................................................................................................................... 57

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3.4 Sample ................................................................................................................................................... 57

3.5 Sampling Procedure .............................................................................................................................. 58

3.6 Sampling Technique .............................................................................................................................. 58

3.7 Sample Size and Sampling Frame .......................................................................................................... 58

3.8 Data Collection ...................................................................................................................................... 59

3.8.1 Data collection Instrument .............................................................................................................. 59

3.8.2 Description of Instrument ............................................................................................................... 60

3.8.2.1 Job insecurity questionnaire .................................................................................................... 60

3.8.2.2 Intention to quit questionnaire ............................................................................................... 60

3.8.2.3 Trait anxiety questionnaire ...................................................................................................... 60

3.9 Administration of the Instrument .......................................................................................................... 61

3.10. Data Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 61

3.10.1 Delimitation of the Study .............................................................................................................. 62

3.11. Ethical Consideration .......................................................................................................................... 62

3.12. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 63

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................. 64

4. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 64

4.1 Internal consistency .............................................................................................................................. 65

4.2 Biographical profile of the respondents ................................................................................................ 65

4.2.1 Gender Distribution......................................................................................................................... 67

4.2.2 Ethnicity Distribution ....................................................................................................................... 68

4.2.3 Age Distribution .............................................................................................................................. 69

4.2.4 Occupational level Distribution ....................................................................................................... 70

4.2.5 Educational Level Distribution ......................................................................................................... 71

4.2.6 Tenure Distribution ......................................................................................................................... 72

4.3 Descriptive Statistics of the Theoretical Variables of the Study ............................................................ 73

4.4 Hypotheses Testing ............................................................................................................................... 73

4.5 Hypothesis testing Using Simple Linear Regression Models .................................................................. 74

4.6 Chapter summary .................................................................................................................................. 82

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................... 83

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5.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................................... 83

5.2. Discussion of results ............................................................................................................................. 83

5.2.1. Hypothesis 1: The job insecurity and intention to quit hypothesis.................................................. 83

5.2.2 Hypothesis2: The trait anxiety and intention to quit hypothesis ...................................................... 84

5.2.3 Hypothesis 3: The job insecurity, trait anxiety and intention to quit hypothesis .............................. 85

5.2.4 Hypothesis 4: The moderating effect of Trait anxiety hypothesis .................................................... 86

5.3 Limitations ............................................................................................................................................. 88

5.4 Practical Recommendations .................................................................................................................. 89

5.4.1 Recommendations for human resource practitioners ..................................................................... 89

5.4.2 Recommendations to employees .................................................................................................... 89

5.4.3 Recommendations to policymakers/enforcers ................................................................................ 90

5.4.4 Recommendations for future research ............................................................................................ 90

5.5. Chapter Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 91

5.6 Research Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 91

REFERENCE LIST ........................................................................................................................................... 92

APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................................. 139

QUESTIONNAIRE ....................................................................................................................................... 140

ETHICAL CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE ............................................................................................................ 144

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

1.1. Introduction and Background to the Study High labour turnover is a phenomenon that exists in many organizations and has a

debilitating effect on organizational performance“(Stovel & Bontis, 2014). Many studies

have shown that job insecurity also prevails in many work organizations and is one of the

leading causes of high labour turnover“(Radebe & Dhurup, 2015). The study sought to

confirm if the relationship between job insecurity and high labour turnover indeed exists.

Like many previous studies, however, the study used intention to quit as a proxy variable

for labour turnover (Perryer, Jordan, Firns & Travaglione, 2010). The reason many studies

use intention to quit as a proxy for labour turnover is that the latter variable is notoriously

difficult and time-consuming to measure. Intention to quit, on the other hand, is easy to

measure and is said to be the most reliable predictor of actual labour turnover (Abbasi &

Hollman, 2000).””

The study was conducted in the Eastern Cape, probably the poorest province in South

Africa, “with a working-age population consisting mainly of unskilled persons, some of

whom are unemployed, while others work as migrant workers in the richer provinces of

the country (Eastern Cape Cooperation, 2015).”

According to 2014 estimates, about 41.4% of the Eastern Cape Province’s population are

unemployed (Statistics South Africa, 2014).“This could be due to the abundance of

unemployed persons who are always looking for employment, there is undoubtedly a high

level of job insecurity among those who are employed in the province, and this job

insecurity is likely to result in an equally high level of labour turnover, especially in view

of the availability of work opportunities with higher remuneration levels in other parts of

South Africa. These are the circumstances that led to the choice of the Eastern Cape as

the site of the study.”

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In addition to assessing the relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit, the

study also sought to establish if trait anxiety is a factor that predisposes people suffering

from job insecurity to be more prone to having intentions to quit their organizations.

Though trait anxiety is a personality characteristic and, therefore, an enduring individual

tendency “(Marin, Solanilla & Barreto, 2015) it is also an accepted fact that personality

characteristics can be modified through training (Kim, LaRose & Peng, 2009). Therefore,

if this study can successfully show that trait anxiety moderates the relationship between

job insecurity and intention to quit, this would indicate that people experiencing job

insecurity can be prevented from leaving their organizations through training aimed at

modifying their personalities by increasing their ability to withstand stress without suffering

undue anxiety.”

Hassan “(2015) defined job insecurity as an employee’s personal assessment of the

possibility of losing a job and becoming unemployed in the immediate future. Trait anxiety

has an unchanging personality characteristic or trait that reflects differences in individuals’

tendencies to experience, perceptions of situations that are deemed threatening (Cisler

& Koster, 2010). Authors such as Booth, Murray, Marples, and Batey (2013) and

Gramstad, Gjestad and Haver (2013) established a close relationship or association

between trait anxiety and neuroticism as a personality characteristic. Neuroticism as a

personality characteristic has an impact on the level of anxiety in any given individual.

Neuroticism accounts for differences in how individuals perceive situations to be

threatening.”

1.2. Problem statement The problem that was investigated in the study stemmed from the fact that job insecurity

is common in today's organizations due to various labour market conditions“(Radebe &

Dhurup, 2014). This insecurity is often associated with high labour turnover, which is a

popular feature of many organizations (Stander & Rothman, 2010).”

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Since it is extremely difficult to eliminate job insecurity from organizations, it seems

important that ways need to be found to reduce its undesirable effects such as a high rate

of labour turnover. “The study assumed that trait anxiety is one of the factors that

moderate the relationship between job insecurity and labour turnover and that the impact

of job insecurity on labour turnover or intention to quit can be reduced by reducing

employees’ trait anxiety levels. This study, therefore, sought to investigate the extent to

which trait anxiety moderates the relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit.”

1.3. Aim and objectives of the study The aim of the study was:

“To determine the moderating effect of trait anxiety on the relationship between job

insecurity and intentions to quit.”

To achieve this aim the objectives of the study were:

Secondary Objective

“To examine the role of trait anxiety as a moderator of the relationship between job

insecurity and intention to quit among employees at Raymond Mhlaba Local

Municipality.”

Primary Objectives

To explore the relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit among

employees at Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality.

To explore the relationship between trait anxiety and intention to quit among


To examine the relationship between trait anxiety and job insecurity among


To make suggestions and recommendations to the Raymond Mhlaba Local

Municipality on reducing employee intentions to quit.

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1.4. Hypotheses The hypotheses to be tested are as follows:

Hypothesis1

H0: “There is no significant positive relationship between job insecurity and intention to

quit.”

H1: “There is a significant positive relationship between job insecurity and intention to

quit.”

Hypothesis2

H0: “There is no significant positive relationship between trait anxiety and intention to quit.”

H1: There is a significant positive relationship between trait anxiety and intention to quit.

Hypothesis 3

H0: “Job insecurity and trait anxiety do not account for a significantly higher proportion of

variance in intention to quit than any of the two separately.

H1: Job insecurity and trait anxiety account for a significantly higher proportion of variance

in intention to quit than any of the two separately.”

Hypothesis 4

H0: “Trait anxiety does not significantly moderate the relationship between job insecurity

and intention to quit.”

H1: “Trait anxiety significantly moderates the relationship between job insecurity and

intention to quit.”

1.5. Significance of the study In many organizations, “job insecurity is difficult to completely eliminate, and it is often

associated with labour turnover, which, in turn, has undesirable organizational effects. It

is, therefore, important that ways need to be found to break or reduce the association

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between job insecurity and a high rate of labour turnover.” The study sought to

demonstrate that trait anxiety is a variable that can be used in this regard. The study,

therefore, not only has the potential to make a significant contribution to knowledge but it

can also contribute knowledge that is not only important in its own right, is of practical

managerial value and can be incorporated in the management policies of all workers

organizations.

1.6. Literature review This section is divided into three sections. The first section articulates the theoretical

framework; the second section outlines the conceptual literature while the last section

discusses the empirical literature.

1.6.1 Theoretical Framework This section presents a discussion of the theories that support the study with emphasis

placed on how these theories are related to the study. The two theories that form the

foundation of the study are Weiss and Cropanzano (1996) Affective Events Theory and

Clark and Beck’s (2010) Cognitive Model.

1.6.1.1 Affective Events Theory (AET).

The Affective Events Theory“(AET) by Weiss and Cropanzano (1996) is a psychological

model intended to explain how emotions and feelings in a workplace are connected with

job performance, job satisfaction, and workplace behaviours. The AET emphasises the

belief that individuals are emotional and individual behaviour is directed by emotions

(Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996).”The model holds that environmental pressures and

demands create affective events that generate emotional reactions among employees

that in turn control organisational employees’ attitudes and behaviours. The model was

designed to describe how moods and emotions influence the performance and

satisfaction of employees and behaviours at work.

According to this model affective work behaviours are described by organisational

members’ moods and emotions while cognitive-based behaviour predicts job satisfaction.

Positive inducing emotional incidents such as upliftments and negative inducing

emotional incidents such as hassles at work are two different constructs that have a

significant psychological effect on employee’s attitudes (Kanungo, 1982; Weiss, Nicholas

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& Daus, 1999). Such incidents result in lasting internal cognitive and emotional states

which lead to external affective reactions that are displayed through performance,

satisfaction and commitment. The model explains the connections that exist between the

organisational members’ internal influences which are cognitions, emotions and mental

states and their responses to things that happen in their workplace that will have an effect

on performance, commitment and satisfaction (Feather & Rauter, 2004).

Within the framework of this model, “the study examines emotional experiences as a

potential mediator or moderator between exposure to job insecurity and intention to quit.

The emphasis is on investigating the extent to which trait anxiety moderates the

relationship between these variables. The relationship between job insecurity and

intention to quit will be moderated by employee emotional experiences. Trait anxiety will

moderate the relationship between exposure to job insecurity and the intention to quit. In

this study, job insecurity is a negative inducing emotional incident that results in lasting

internal cognitive and emotional states that lead to external affective reactions displayed

through intention to quit behavior (Fischer, Oliveira, Nagai, Teixeira, Lombardi-Júnior,

Latorre, & Cooper,2005). The environmental pressures and demands at work will create

emotional reactions among the employees and such emotions will control the intended

behaviour which is an intention to quit. Job insecurity at work will result in negative

emotions that will esult in increased intentions to quit(Mak, & Mueller, 2000).”

1.6.1.2 Cognitive Model (Clark & Beck, 2010)

Clark and Beck’s“(2010) cognitive model proceeds from the premise that an individual's

reaction to situations or events are significantly influenced by how an individual views the

situation or event. The model proposes a connection between thoughts, feelings and

behaviour and further states that individuals can only move towards overcoming

threatening situations if they are able to change their thinking and behaviour (Clark &

Beck, 2010). This cognitive model of anxiety places emphasis on intensified helplessness

in activating attentional biases to threatening events or situations. Individuals react to their

interpretation of the event, not the event itself, and thoughts and beliefs greatly determine

how an individual responds to an event or situation that is threatening (Clark & Beck,

2010). According to this model, the way one thinks determines how one feels. People can

experience the same event, but they can react to the situation differently based on their

12

beliefs and thoughts on the situation. The model is based on the information processing

model that proposes that during a distressful situation an individual’s thinking gets rigid

and distorted and judgments become oversimplified.

In relation to the current study, the researcher’s proposition was that employees will react

differently to a threatening situation, which is job insecurity. Employees’ thoughts and

feelings will determine how they interpret and perceive the situation and this will guide

their behaviour. When employees in the organisation are faced with job insecurity they

might react to it differently. One can get angry because of the possibility of losing a job to

which one was thinking he would be promoted. Another employee can get anxious

because of the fear of the financial difficulties he or she will face after losing a job. Another

employee can be hopeful that new opportunities can come by when one loses a job. How

an employee perceives the situation will determine how they will react. Highly anxious

individuals will view the situation as stressful and intend to leave the organisation while

those low in anxiety will perceive the situation with calmness and may not intend to leave

the organisation. The level of anxiety and how an individual processes the job insecurity

situation will determine the reaction (Adams & Buck, 2010).

1.6.2 Conceptual literature

1.6.2.1 Job Insecurity

The subjective appraisal of the likelihood or possibility of losing one’s job in the immediate

future is referred to as job insecurity“(Schreurs, van Emmerik, Notelaers & De Witte,

2010; Hassan, 2015). Job insecurity is determined by an individual employee’s perception

of the stability of his or her job. Sora, Caballer, Peiro and Witte (2010) defined job

insecurity as the perceived helplessness or weakness to maintain desired continuity in a

job situation that is threatening.” Job insecurity consists of feelings that arise when an

individual employee becomes unable, incapable or powerless to accept the fact of what

the employer is offering (Staufenbiel & Konig, 2010; Martinez, De Cuyper & Hans De

Witte, 2010). The feelings also arise when the methods being used by an employer seem

to threaten the existence or security of one’s job (Stiglbauer, Selenko, Batinic &

Jodlbauer, 2012).“

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1.6.2.2 Intention to Quit

Intention to quit is defined as an individual’s subjective estimation regarding the likelihood

or possibility that he or she will leave an organisation in the near future“(Humaira, Ishtiaq,

Muhammad, Shehla, Mehvish & Saira, 2013). When conducting research, turnover

intentions are often used instead of actual turnover as turnover intentions often lead to

actual turnover“(Perryer, Jordan, Firns & Travaglione, 2010). Perryer et al. (2010) define

turnover intention as the conscious and deliberate intention to leave an organisation.”

Turnover intention is the conscious and deliberate wish to leave an organisation within

the immediate future (Samuel & Chipunza, 2009).”Similarly, Radebe and Dhurup“(2015)

view, intention to quit as the purposeful willingness by an employee to cut relations or

association, affiliation or attachment to a particular organisation. MacIntosh and Doherty

(2010) define intention to quit as an employee’s desire to leave an organisation often

known as a voluntary resignation. It can be noted that intention to quit refers to an

employee’s desire to voluntarily leave, resign or terminate employment with an

organisation.”

1.6.2.3 Trait Anxiety

A state of discomfort, uneasiness or unrest often labeled as nervousness is known as

anxiety (Cisler & Koster, 2010).“Fadaei, Rusnani, and Saidian (2011) view anxiety as

either the temporary emotional state nearly experienced by every individual or a

consistent personality attribute. From Fadaei et al. (2011) definition, anxiety is classified

into two categories, namely trait anxiety and state anxiety where trait anxiety is a

consistent personality attribute while state anxiety is a temporary emotional state.”

Meanwhile, Marín, Solanilla and Barreto“(2015) refers anxiety to the unpleasant feelings

experienced when a specific situation or pressure rises, which results in an individual

making a mental assessment of the threat posed by the situation or pressure (Raju,

Marks, Ching, & McAlindon, 2017).””The minute the pressure, situation or event that is

perceived to be threatening goes away, anxiety will not be experienced by the person,

therefore, it is a temporary condition in response to the threat perceived by an individual.

Similar to state anxiety, trait anxiety arises in response to a perceived threat, though the

intensity, duration and series of the situation in which it arises differ (Majtyka, 2015).”It is

14

the difference among individuals concerning their tendency to experience state anxiety in

response to a perceived threat; where people with a high level of trait anxiety experience

intense state anxiety in specific situations, thus making it a personality attribute, than a

feeling that is temporary as that of state anxiety (Majtyka, 2015).”

1.6.3 Empirical Literature This section presents literature relating to some previous research that has been done

in relation to the hypotheses of the study. This research is presented under the following

subheadings: job insecurity and ITQ, trait anxiety and ITQ and the moderating effect of

trait anxiety.

1.6.3.1 Job Insecurity and Turnover Intentions

There seems to be a positive association between job insecurity and intentions to quit.

William, Tahira, Swee-Lim, Cesar and Cornelius, (2010) showed that job insecurity

increases employee withdrawal behaviour which is evidenced by more absenteeism,

turnover intentions and eventual turnover. In support of these findings, a study by Radebe

and Dhurup (2015) proposes that the more employees are insecure about their jobs, the

more they search for new secure employment opportunities thus increased intentions to

leave an organisation. Supporting this view, Staufenbiel and König’s (2010) study

demonstrates that job search behaviour is positively associated with turnover intentions

and actual turnover.

According to a study by Stander and Rothmann (2010), “job insecurity feelings are

accompanied by feelings of distrust of the employer’s ability to take care of employees,

thus increased employee behavioural intentions to leave employment. A meta-analytic

study by Olivier and Rothmann (2009) indicates that when employees have feelings of

job insecurity, they do not trust the employer and such feelings are antecedents of

intentions to quit. Job insecurity is often referred as a breach of the psychological contract

by management and the lack of trust that is created between employees and

management increases employees’ intentions to leave an organisation (Thomas &

Cornelius, 2010).”

15

A positive association between job insecurity and turnover intention was also shown by

Staufenbiel and Konig“(2010) who in their study found that job insecurity is associated

with negative work attitudes which result in decreased employee performance and an

increase in employees’ absenteeism and intentions to leave an organisation.

Furthermore, Mauno, De Cuyper, Tolvanen, Kinnunen and Mäkikangas (2014)

demonstrate that employees who have insecurity feelings devote most of their energy

towards searching for alternative employment as they feel insecure in their jobs and their

intentions to leave the organisation are high. In this study,Mauno et al. (2014) state that

intends to quit is high among job insecure employees as they use it as a coping strategy

for their threatened employment.”

Nikolaou, Theodossiou, and Vasileiou (2014) suggest that job insecurity may lead to a

worsening of the employer-employee relationship as it is associated with decreased

employee wellbeing, dissatisfaction and increased turnover intentions. Similarly, job

insecurity was found to negatively affect employee commitment, thus increasing the

employees’ intentions to leave an organisation“(Jandaghi, Mokhles & Bahrami, 2011).

Job insecurity decreases employee satisfaction and job engagement which increases

their intentions to seek alternative employment (Vujicic, Jovicic, Lalic, Gagic & Cvejanov,

2015). Similarly, Borg and Elizur (2010) state that job insecurity influences employee

attitudes and as a consequence results in employee behaviours frequently related to

decreased commitment, mistrust in management and intention to leave an organisation.”

1.6.3.2 Trait Anxiety and Intention to Quit

Even in the scarcity of clear evidence around the cause and effect relations between trait

anxiety and turnover intentions, it has been found in earlier studies that trait anxiety

management is an effective strategy or intervention that can be adopted to solve career

indecision and turnover intentions (Peng, 2010).“In a study that focused on student’s

career indecision, it was reported that offering career education courses influence

learners' trait anxiety and impacts and will have a positive effect on them pursuing a

certain career (Peng, 2010). It has been reported earlier in the research that there is a

connection between trait anxiety and neuroticism which is one of the big five personality

16

traits (Scheler & Cattell, 1960). Therefore, the literature on the relationship between

neuroticism and turnover intention is also relevant here. In a study conducted by Teng

(2009), employees high on neuroticism were reported to be moody, volatile and anxious

and experience serious problems at work and have more intentions to leave an

organisation than emotionally stable individuals.”

Furthermore, Jam et al. (2012) found that emotionally unstable employees or employees

with high neuroticism find it difficult to form and maintain good working relations and as

a consequence display behaviours related to turnover intentions. According to Judge,

Bono, Ilies and Gerhardt (2002) neurotics or people who are emotionally unstable were

found to be negative, nervous, lack social skills and also lack trust in colleagues and

management and therefore often leave organisations. Similar to these findings, a

research study conducted by Duval and Duval (2013) argues that neurotics have a biased

view of the world and often perceive the organisation to be unfair to them and this

stimulates their decisions related to intentions to leave an organisation. Judge et al.

(2002) posit that neuroticism is a consistent negative predictor of job satisfaction that was

found to positively impact employees’ turnover intentions.

1.6.3.3 Moderating Effect of Trait Anxiety

“The are little literature on the moderating effect of trait anxiety with the relationship

between job insecurity and intentions. However, some studies on similar or related

variables have had suggestive results. Trait anxiety was found to moderate the

relationship in a study that focused on how state/trait anxiety moderates the relationship

between workplace bullying and job satisfaction on the one hand, and intention to quit on

the other (Glasø, Vie, Holmdal & Einarsen, 2011).“In the study stated, it was found that

the relationship between workplace bullying and job satisfaction, on the one hand, and

intention to quit, on the other, was mediated by the respondents’ emotional experiences

(Lutgen-Sandvik, 2006; Simons, 2008). Trait anxiety was also reported to moderate the

relationship between stress and intention to quit (Apolli, 2010) with employees on low

trait anxiety performing better under the uncertain situation compared to employees with

high trait anxiety.”””

17

In studies in the health sector, trait anxiety was reported to have a more significant

predictor effect than state anxiety“(Macher, Paechter, Papousek, Ruggeri, Freudenthaler

& Arendasy, 2013). State anxiety was found to exist during the beginning phases of a

stressful situation and to predict emotional instability during diagnosis and treatment in

hospitals (Macher et al., 2013). In a study that examined the moderating effect of

trait/state anxiety among employees to competition and aggressive behaviour, trait

anxiety was found to moderate the relationship between reaction and aggression

(Norman, Moreau, Welker & Carré, 2015). Davey, Harley and Elliott (2013) report that

state anxiety is higher when patients are referred for secondary examinations. A study

examining the relationship between personality and test anxiety found that trait anxiety

plays a significant role in how individuals react to stressful situations than state anxiety

(Thompson & Gaudreau, 2008).”

A study by Horikawa and Yagi“(2012) projects that people with high trait anxiety

experience more state anxiety under pressure conditions and this interferes with

performance. Anxiety has been reported to influence many decisions and career

decisions have been noted as one of them. Inconsistent results on how state and trait

anxiety influence career decisions have been reported by Fuqua, Seaworth and Newman

(2009) who found that career indecision is determined more by trait anxiety while, contrary

to these findings, Campagan and Curtis (2007) argue that state anxiety more strongly

predicts career indecision.”

1.6.3.5 Assessment of the Literature

There is a scarcity of studies that focused on the moderating role of trait anxiety with the

relationship between job insecurity and turnover intentions in the Republic of SA.

Therefore, the current study is aimed at examining how trait anxiety impacts the

relationship between job insecurity and turnover intentions in the site under study.

1.7. Research Methodology “There are three common research methodologies that a researcher can choose from;

namely qualitative, quantitative and mixed methodology (Babbie, 2013).”For the purpose

of this study, the researcher adopted quantitative methodology and emphasized the use

18

of the questionnaire as a research instrument to collect data from a large sample and

then statistically analyzed the obtained data.””

1.7.1 Research Design The study employed a non-experimental survey design, following the quantitative

methodology in this study. This particular design is descriptive and cross-sectional,

meaning that participants were examined once and conclusions made from the sampled

participants were generalised across the population of the study. The design was adopted

as it is a quantitative design that enabled the researcher to establish if there was a

connection between the study variables. In this study, there were three variables

concerned and attention was on establishing if some relationship existed between the

variables, therefore, justifying why this design was appropriate for this study.

1.7.2 Population The population consisted of all municipal officials within the Raymond Mhlaba Local

Municipality. “This study consisted of all the permanent municipal employees in the

Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality Main office situated in Fort Beaufort. According to

the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality Workplace skills plan (2017/18), the total number

of employees at the municipal main office was 178 employees at the time of the study.

These are the employees who made up the study population.”

1.7.3 Sampling Technique The simple random sampling technique of the probability sampling procedure is adopted

as the technique to sample the study participants. When using this technique, a sampling

frame, which is a list of all officials at Raymond Mhlaba municipality head office was

obtained from the human resources management office. After obtaining the list, simple

random sampling was utilised to obtain the sample size. This was done through allocating

numbers to the employees and randomly selecting the sample using the numbers

assigned to the employees. Employees whose assigned numbers were selected

participated in the study. This technique was easy because of the list of employees that

was readily available and a random sample was achieved thus allowing for generalisation

of study results across the study population.

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1.7.4 Sample Size The Raosoft sample calculator was used to regulate the size of the sample. “The aim was

to select a sample that ensured a 95% confidence level, a 50% response distribution and

a margin of error of 5%. Hence, the minimum suggested sample size in the proposed

study was 122 respondents.”

1.7.5 Research instrument Self-administered questionnaires were used as an instrument for collecting research data.

The questionnaire was chosen by the researcher as a research instrument due to the

fact that the instrument is deemed to be economical and fast when data was collected

from a sample of 122 respondents. Hence, the questionnaire was divided into the

following sections:

Section A: Information Section

In this section, demographic and occupational information was solicited from the

respondents. Participants were asked to provide details related to gender, age,

educational level, occupational level and years of employment.

Section B: The job insecurity questionnaire

Job insecurity was measured using the Job Insecurity Questionnaire”(JIQ) of De Witte

(2000). “The questionnaire consisted of 11 items which assessed the cognitive and

affective dimensions of job insecurity. Items of the questionnaire were arranged on a

Likert-type scale with responses ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree).

An example of a question asking the cognitive dimension is “I think that I will be able to

continue working here” and an example of the affective dimension is “I feel uncertain

about the future of my job”. The instrument was found to be a reliable measure of Job

Insecurity evidenced by a 0.92 Cronbach Alpha Coefficient (De Witte, 2000).””

Section C: Turnover Intention

Intention to quit was measured using the turnover intention scale developed by Tei and

Yamazaki”(2003) which was also reliable in determining the retention. Intention to quit

questionnaire was used as an alternative in measuring employee retention due to the

difficulties of measuring retention. In this study, an intention to quit scale was developed

20

used to measure intention to quit . The scale comprised 6 items that measured

employee’s intentions to leave the organisation. The response category was a 5-point

Likert scale ranging responses from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. The

Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.76.””

Section D: Trait Anxiety

Items from the self-report inventory developed by Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene

(1983)“was used to measure trait anxiety. The scale consisted of 40 items, where 20

items assessed state anxiety while the other 20 assessed trait anxiety. Only the 20 items

that assessed trait anxiety was used in the study. On a 4-point Likert scale, participants

were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statements.

Responses ranged from 1 (Almost Never) to 4 (Almost Always). The scale was found to

have a reliability coefficient of α = 0.81 and Watson and Clark (1984) found the scale to

have a reliability coefficient of α = 0.84 when they used it in their study.”

1.7.6 Data Collection Data collection is a process where the researcher interacts with respondents and

participants (McLeod, 2014).“It is unethical to enter the organisation and start collecting

data. Therefore, before collecting data, the audience was sought by the municipality’s

management. Once permission was granted and participants identified, the self-

administered questionnaires were administered personally to the selected participants

and during the administration, the study purpose was explained to the participants. The

researcher personally collected the completed questionnaires after a period of one week.

The questionnaire items were in English as municipal officials are considered to be literate

enough to read and understand the English language.”

Validity and reliability are concepts used to determine the quality of a research study

(Babbie, 2013). For this study, the researcher took the necessary steps to ensure that the

study was reliable and valid. To ensure reliability, the researcher used the Cronbach

alpha test. The alpha coefficient determined the reliability of the instrument and a

21

coefficient value above 0.70 indicated that the study was reliable. Factor analysis was

used to test the measuring instruments for validity.

1.7.7 Data Analysis Quantitative descriptive statistics such as“(means, standard deviations, bar charts and

tables, and inferential statistics), with correlation coefficient and regression analysis were

used to summarize the data and test the hypotheses. Data were analysed by means of

the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).“After obtaining data from the

research participants, questionnaires were thoroughly checked for completeness and the

information was coded on an excel spreadsheet. The data was then imported into the

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for analysis.””

Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the demographic and occupational

characteristics of the participants. “The information was expressed in the form of figures,

frequency tables, and percentages. The ChiSquare test was used to examine if a

relationship existed between the study variables. The level of significance of all statistical

tests was set at a P-value of 0.05 in relation to the study hypotheses. Also, Pearson

correlation coefficients were used to specify the relationships between the study

variables. Regression analysis was also used to test the relationship that existed between

the variables, as well as testing the moderating effect of trait anxiety on the relationship

between job insecurity and intentions to quit.”

1.8. Delimitation of the study Delimitations refer to limits within the control of the researcher (Simon, 2011). These are

factors or characteristics that a researcher can control to limit the scope or focus of the

study (Quinlan, 2011).“Such factors include the variables involved in the study, location

of study, research participants and study objectives. In the case of the study, the focus

was on trait anxiety as a moderator between job insecurity and intention to quit. Only

these variables and no other variables were assessed. The location of the study was the

selected local municipality head office. No other officials from other municipality head

offices besides the one selected were examined. These factors were the delimiting

population and delimiting variable characteristics.”

22

1.9. Ethical Consideration Ethics entails a researcher conducting himself or herself in behaviour that is deemed to

be correct (Simon, 2011). Various ethical principles discussed below were adhered by

the researcher while conducting the study.

1.9.1 Approval to conduct the study Approval to conduct the study was sought from the municipality management and

granted. “An application letter seeking approval to conduct the study was sent to

management. Approval was also obtained from the institutional ethics committee at the

University of Fort Hare. The permission letter from the municipality and the ethical

clearance certificate from the University of Fort Hare were attached to the final

dissertation as an Annexure.”

1.9.2 Informed Consent and Voluntary Participation Participation in the study was voluntary. Therefore, participants were informed of their

right to voluntarily participate. To enable participants decide to take part in the study or

not, sufficient information about the study was provided to the participants. The

researcher informed the participants about the title, aim, objectives, and the contents of

the questionnaire, besides explaining the potential contributions and benefits of the

study. Based on the information provided, participants voluntarily decided to participate

or not.

1.9.3 Openness and integrity Openness and honesty were vital while conducting the study. The researcher was open

and honest about the details of the study by giving participants information, responding

to their queries and behaving in a professional manner at all times. Participants were not

deceived in any way and the information provided was correct and accurate.

1.9.4 Protection from harm Avoiding any risks and protecting participants from any harm was the responsibility of the

researcher. The researcher minimized the risks of any physical or psychological harm

arising from any person by ensuring confidentiality and privacy during the research

process. Participants were allowed to complete the questionnaire in their spare time,

which did not exert any pressure on the research participants

23

1.9.5 Confidentiality and Anonymity The participants were informed that the information obtained from them would be kept

confidential and when reporting and when any publication would be done, their names

would not be revealed. The identities of the participants were withheld, and codes were

used to identify them. The questionnaires obtained were kept in a safe place.

1.10. Dissertation Outline Chapter 1: Introduction and Background to the study

The research context in relation to the study background is presented in this chapter

together with the problem statement, study’s significance, research aims, objectives and

the hypotheses to be tested. The definitions of the research concepts are also outlined in

this chapter.

Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature

The chapter outlines the theoretical framework and a detailed literature review of

state/trait anxiety, job insecurity and intention to quit.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology and Design

The research methods adopted in this study are described in this chapter. This entails a

description of the research methodology, population and sampling strategies, and data

collection methods with the data analysis techniques.

Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Research Results

The analysed data are interpreted and presented in this chapter. To aid with the analysis

and interpretation figures, tables and graphs are utilised. Where necessary, statistical

symbols are also used to illustrate the results.

Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations

A discussion of the results in relation to the hypotheses and to previous research results

is done in this chapter. “Conclusions are made and recommendations for future

researchers together with recommendations to the municipal management are also

provided in this chapter. Lastly, the study limitations are presented.”

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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2. Introduction This chapter focused on the literature that impacts the relationship between trait anxiety,

job insecurity, and intention to quit. An in-depth explanation of the variables in the study,

including trait anxiety, “job insecurity and intention to quit as well as factors influencing

them are addressed. Each variable is discussed separately, and the relationship between

the three variables of trait anxiety; job insecurity and intention to quit is critically analyzed

using previous related studies with special reference to the Raymond Mhlaba local

municipality.”

2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1.1 Cognitive therapy According to a research study that was done and developed in the early 1960’s by (Beck

& Hollon, 1993) which mainly focused on psycho-therapy which is now called cognitive

therapy. It is emphasised that the study now uses cognitive therapy synonymously with

"cognitive behavioural therapy" in many areas of expertise. “Beck, (1964) designed a

structured, short-term, reality-oriented psychotherapy for depression that aims to solve

current problems and change the mentality and behavior of dysfunction. Since then, he

and others have successfully applied this therapy to a surprisingly diverse group of

diseases and problems (Martell, Addis, & Jacobson,2001). These adaptations change the

focus, technique, and length of treatment, but the theoretical assumptions themselves

remain unchanged (Hayes, Follette, & Linehan,2004). Cognitive-behavioral therapy

stems from the Baker's model, which is based on cognitive representations, beliefs, and

behavioral strategies are characterized by a specific disease (Alford & Beck, 1997).”The

study utilized this theory to underpin the core of this research because the cognitive

therapy theory appreciates the reality of emotional depression as a result of many

contributing factors (Ledley, Marx, & Heimberg, 2005; Lewinsohn, Sullivan, & Grosscup,

1980). To an employee, these factors may be emanating from his/her relationship with

his/her job. The theory also recognizes the need to reduce the negative effects of certain

job factors, so that an employee may worthily be rewarded for respective contributions to

an organization through productivity (Dobson & Dobson, 2009).”

25

2.1.2 Cognitive Model Clark and Beck, (2010) developed a cognitive model which proposed a model-based

anxiety model that emphasizes a highly fragile state of threat in stimulating attention-

biased individuals. The concept of vulnerability is defined as “a person’s perception of

himself being influenced by internal or external dangers, and his control is lacking or

insufficient to make him feel safe” (Beck, Emery & Greenberg, 1985). In clinical syndrome,

vulnerability is magnified as the cognitive process of dysfunction (Beck, Emery &

Greenberg, 1985). Therefore, according to this model, anxious individuals are more likely

to exhibit threat-related biases that are exaggerated for neutral or innocuous stimuli, hints

or situations (Resick, & Schnicke, 1993).

The main threat assessment enhances the activation of the process. The response

through the original threat pattern triggers the activation of a more strategic and controlled

secondary reassessment phase (Meichenbaum, 1977). At this stage, five cognitive

processes have taken place: coping with resource assessments, finding safety cues,

constructive model thinking, raising concerns and reassessing threats (Harvey, Watkins,

Manse, & Shafran, 2004). However, in anxious individuals, once the original threat pattern

can immediately detect the threat, all strategies and control processes are prevented or

used to strengthen the pathology (Gonzalez-Benito & Gonzalez-Benito, 2006). In

summary, Clark and Beck’s (2010) cognitive models suggest that anxious individuals are

characterized by automatic selective attention to threats and situations.

At the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-1960s, (Beck & Hollon, 1993) created

subjective treatment. A methodology was then developed and at first it centred around

the examination and treatment of wretchedness (Beck, Emery, Rush & Shaw, 1979).

From that point forward, cognitive therapy has been utilized in a developing number of

clinical issues, for example, tension and fear (Beck, 1976). However, different

components incorporate the misuse of medication (Beck & Hollon, 1993) and

schizophrenia (Kingdon & Turkington, 2005). Clark, (2004) postulates about the fanatical

urgent issue, post-horrendous pressure issue (Taylor, 2006), wellbeing uneasiness issue

(Taylor & Asmundson, 2004), perpetual torment ((Winterowd, Beck, & Gruener, 2004),

bipolar turmoil (Basco & Rush, 2005), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Kinsella, 2007), Eating

Disorder (Fairburn, 2008), working with couples and families (Dattilio, 2010), gathering

26

(Bieling, McCabe, & Antony, 2006), mental inpatients (Wright, Bonett, & Sweeney, 1993),

Personality issue, children and younger generation (Stallard, 2002) and the elderly

(Laidlaw, Thompson, Dick-Siskin, & Gallagher-Thompson, 2003).”

Cognitive therapy is firmly committed to scientific empiricism to test its cognitive concepts

of various diseases “(such as panic, wellbeing anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder)

and its accompanying treatment options (Clark, 1996). Scientific research has shown that

there is a "Scientific-based psychotherapy" which clearly states the commitment to

empirically test each treatment principle and follow the data, no matter where they lead'

(Padesky & Beck, 2005: 188).”

2.1.3 Affective Events Theory Weiss and Cropanzano’s“(1996) Affective Event Theory (AET) is a psychological model

considered to clarify how emotions and feelings in the workplace are related to job

performance, job satisfaction, and workplace behaviour. The AET emphasizes that

personal emotions and personal behaviour are beliefs led by emotions (Weiss &

Cropanzano, 1996). The model holds that environmental pressures and demands create

affective events that generate emotional reactions among employees that in turn control

organizational employees’ attitudes and behaviours. The model was designed to describe

how moods and emotions influence the performance and satisfaction of employees and

behaviours at work.”

According to the AET model, affective work behaviours are described by organisational

members’ moods and emotions while cognitive-based behaviour predicts job satisfaction.

Positive inducing emotional incidents such as uplifts and negative inducing emotional

incidents such as hassles at work are two different constructs which have a significant

psychological effect on employee’s attitudes (Kanungo, 1982; Weiss, Nicholas & Daus,

1999). Such incidents result in lasting internal cognitivel and emotional states which lead

to external affective reactions which are displayed through performance, satisfaction and

commitment (Feather & Rauter, 2004).

27

Within the framework of this study, it seeks to examine emotional experiences as a

potential mediator or moderator between exposure to job insecurity and intention to quit.

The emphasis is on investigating the extent to which trait anxiety moderates the

relationship between these variables. “The relationship between job insecurity and

intention to quit will be moderated by employee emotional experiences. Trait anxiety will

moderate the relationship between exposure to job insecurity and the intention to quit. In

the study, job insecurity is a negative inducing emotional incident that results in lasting

internal cognitive and emotional states that lead to external affective reactions displayed

through intention to quit the behavior (Fischer et al.,2005). The environmental pressures

and demands at work will create emotional reactions among the employees and such

emotions will control the intended behaviour which is an intention to quit. Job insecurity

at work will result in negative emotions that will result in increased intentions to quit (Mak,

& Mueller, 2000).”

2.2 CONCEPTUAL LITERATURE

2.2.1 Job insecurity defined Job insecurity is caused by a broader process of more frequent/continuous change in the

organization“(Alvesson & Spicer, 2016). The second is that large organizations increase

the competitive environment to “take off” factories, departments or offices, thereby

increasing labour productivity through artificial competition and manufacturing uncertainty

(Doogan, 2009).”

Unsafe work can lead to a variety of results, such as increased emotional exhaustion, “

health problems, willingness to leave, reduced performance and work commitments

(Staufenbiel & König, 2010; Huang, Niu, Ashford & Lee, 2012; Schreurs, Hetty van

Emmerik, Günter, & Germeys, 2012; Vander Elst, Van den Broeck, De Witte & De Cuyper,

2012).””The most frequently mentioned concepts of job insecurity among the survivors of

scale reduction is proposed by Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984). The perception of

finding an unsafe job is a perceived threat to a person's overall work or work

characteristics and a powerless perception or non-control of an event that threatens a

person's total work, work characteristics or work situation (Barling, & Mendelson, 1999).

28

In addition, threats to job characteristics may take the form of access to strict restrictions

on resources previously available in the workplace (Ferris, Brown, Berry, & Lian, 2008).

“Brockner, Grover, Reed, and Dewitt (1992) conclude that the unsafe level of layoff

survivors should be taken into consideration when the perceived threat to work or job

characteristics is high as perceived power and control are low and the metrics for safe

work or unsafe work pose a threat to job characteristics or overall work and control or

inability to maintain ideal continuity in threatened work situations.”

Baruch”(1998) consider the expectation’s theory and social exchange theory that most

workers frequently feel that they give more administrative services to the organizations

and that they ought to be compensated by certain hierarchical prizes. Whitener, Brodt,

Korsgaard, and Werner“(1998) hypothesize that the outcomes given by businesses to

representatives are employer stability in return for worker hierarchical duty, devotion and

higher efficiency, with other alluring work practices.” However, social exchange

transactions do not imply economic returns, but implicit rewards in the form of mutual

commitment. This mutual reciprocity requires employers to focus on the job security of

their employees in exchange for their organizational commitment”(Baruch 1998,

Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison and Sowa 1986, Eisenberger, Fasolo and David-

LaMastro, 1990).””In addition, job security is an implicit expectation in a psychological

contract, that is, an unwritten mutual obligation between an employee and an employer.

It is voluntary and cannot be observed by one party. This possibility limits the parties' full

commitment to the effectiveness or the extent of the psychological contract, especially

when the organization is under competitive pressure to make changes that threaten

employees' perceptions of long-term work (Sims, 1994; Sussman, 2002).”””

2.2.2 The insecurity conundrum Researchers have found evidence from some countries that job insecurity increases, and

on the other hand, large data sets point to sustained enduring management tenure rates

(Gallie, Felstead, Green, & Inanc, 2017), using data from advanced economies (Doogan,

2009) and the analysis of Fevre (2007) on "irrational" argument indicated deregulation,

financialization and internal corporate debate in the last quarter of the 20th century.” The

emphasis on the insecurity conundrum explanation has emerged with regards to

29

investigating the sensitivity to job insecurity which is caused by a broader process of more

constant change in the organization(Alvesson & Spicer, 2016). Secondly, is that large

organizations generate uncertainty, promote a competitive environment for factories,

departments or offices increase labour productivity, although artificial competence and

the manual are uncertain (Doogan, 2009; Hui & Lee, Carswell, & Allen,2000). Several

kinds of research have argued that some countries that experience lots of job insecurity

also experience massive data of information regarding the intention to quit (Storseth,

2007).”

Labour market flexibility and unstable employment have become the stage for media

analysts, academic researchers and policymakers“(Bauman, 2001; Beck, 2000; Bevins,

2011; Castells, 1996; Holzer et al., 2011; Sennett, 2006).” ”

At the same time, “Doogan“(2009) argues that the awareness of increased security

reflects a broader shift that puts this growth in the context of globalization changes and

welfare states which leads to evidence of a large concentration of work. Doogan (2009)

believes that this is a consequence of greater exposure to market forces, reflecting

corporate strategy that promotes artificial internal and external competition with financial

and employment instability (Heery & Salmon, 2000; Sveningsson & Alvesson, 2016).”

2.2.3 Turnover Intention defined Employee turnover means that the organization cannot retain employees anymore and it

becomes a challenge as employee turnover, increases”(Van Rensburg, Boonzaier, &

Boonzaier, 2013). Employee turnover is well-defined as the percentage of employees

leaving the organization annually, which can be expressed by dividing the number of

employees remaining in the year by the total number of employees associated with the

total number of employees in the year “(Altarawmneh & Al-Kilani, 2010).”The intention to

leave is defined as "employees decision to leave their current job and continue looking

for another job in the near future"“(Rizwan, Arshd, Munir, Iqbal & Hussain, 2014). “This

result may be due to job dissatisfaction caused by working conditions, such as a lack of

work-life balance, reduced funding, tedious work, poor supervision, and lack of promotion

opportunities“(Smit, Stanz & Bussin, 2015).”

30

How employees, view work has changed so much that they no longer work to get

remunerated. Instead, employees prefer challenging jobs that provide opportunities for

growth and compensate for equity and work-life balance“(Meier, Austin and Crocker,

2010).“If the organization does not meet these needs, it may result in the employee's

intention to leave. However, for organisatins that have call centres operations there is a

possibility that call centre organizations cannot meet these needs as most call centre

employees are most likely to be job-hoppers and have a hard-time to create a work-life

balance (Simons & Buitendach, 2013). Therefore, managers must understand why

employees leave the organization so that they can plan how to respond to the situation

and employees’ intentions to quit (Khan & Du, 2014). By doing so, the organization will

avoid the potential costs associated with replacing employees (Van Rooyen, Du Toit,

Botha & Rothmann, 2010).”

South Africa consists of three tiers of government, namely, national, provincial and local

levels of government which all have legislative and executive authority in their domains

and South African public services departments have to provide excellent services to

citizens and are under immense pressure to perform well. Schlechter,Syce and Bussin

(2016) are of the view that highly skilled employees are in demand and difficult to source,

hence most professionals are migrating to other countries for better career growth and

good salaries. Government department that fail to compete with their rivals for talent,

encounter high turnover rates.

According to the Public Service Commission (PSC, 2008a), a human resource

manangement framework was introduced within the South African Public Service in 1999,

where Government departments are given the responsibility to develop and implement

their HR policies, practices and procedures and all policies established needed to guided

by a various regulatory framework such as Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000;

The Labour Relations Act, 1995; White paper on Human management in the Public

service; The Public Service Act, 1994, The Employment Equity Act, 1998, The Public

Service Regulation, 2001 and many other Acts under the regulatory framework.

31

For the purposes of this study, this definition was simplified in the process by which

employees left the organization. “The term “turnover” can be divided into voluntary and

involuntary, functional and dysfunctional, avoidable and inevitable“(Fleisher, 2011).

Voluntary resignation and involuntary resignations mean whether the termination of the

contract was initiated by an individual or an organization (Fleisher, 2011, Nagadevara,

Srinivasan & Valk, 2008, Takawira, Coetzee & Schreuder, 2014). The process of

voluntary separation begins with the employees, and the involuntary separation is initiated

by the organization (Allen, Bryant & Vardaman, 2010).””

Due to factors that the organization can change, such as higher returns, a replacement

can be avoided. “In contrast, inevitable turnover occurs because organizations cannot

control employee deaths (Allen, Bryant, & Vardaman, 2010). High turnover is one way to

lead to staff shortages, resulting in an increased workload for the remaining employees

and the continuous loss of planned funds (Batt, & Valcour, 2003). As new employees

need to be recruited, the entire interview, recruitment, placement and progress process

will further reduce the financial situation of the organization (Marinucci, Majigo, &

Wattleworth, 2013). The investigation of retention factors and turnover intentions began

to address the reasons for volunteering, avoidable and abnormal career transition

(McCullough, 1999).

The turnover intention is defined as “a subjective estimate of the likelihood of an individual

leaving the organization recently””(Kashyap & Rangnekar, 2014)” and focuses on the

decision of the employee to resign. Due to a lack of understanding, reduced funding,

tedious work, poor supervision or inability to take vacations, this decision may be

triggered by job dissatisfaction (Smit et al., 2015). The intention of turnover is caused by

a mismatch between the organization and the individual employees. This concept and the

organization match lead to job dissatisfaction. “When an organization is unable to provide

what employees need, or when employees are unable to meet organizational needs, then

the relationship between people and organizations is unbalanced (Jacobs & Roodt,

2011).””

32

The intention to turnover may result in voluntary separation because the decision is

initiated by the employee and the employer terminates the employee's contract”(Allen et

al., 2010).”The general decision of employees to leave the organization leads them to

seek other jobs or to seek employment opportunities from other organizations (Kashyap

& Rangnekar, 2014). Therefore, an employee retention is necessary because the

decision to leave or leave employees can be costly for the organization (Van Rooyen et

al., 2010), and suchuch a strategy is used to manage talented employees. In order for an

organization to thrive in a changing work environment, it is necessary to attract, develop

and retain talent, and use appropriate skills and knowledge to improve the effectiveness

and efficiency of the organization (Pierre & Tremblay 2011).

2.2.4 Trait anxiety defined There is already some evidence that individuals who obtain high trait anxiety scores show

a high probability of experiencing state anxiety reactions to stress, as measured by any

of the self-reports””(Turk, Heimberg, Luterek, Mennin & Fresco, 2005), or by physiological

indices (Phan, Fitzgerald, Nathan & Tancer, 2006). There is evidence, from research on

emotion regulation, that increased trait anxiety is characterized by disproportionately

prolonged anxiety reactions (Gross & Thompson, 2007; Mennin, Heimberg, Turk, &

Fresco, 2002).””However, it remains unclear whether the reactionaries of anxiety and the

perseveration of anxiety are merely concurrent expressions of a single dimension of

vulnerability to anxiety, or whether they represent dissociable facets of vulnerability to

anxiety, each of which could explain the independent variance in anxiety-trait scores.””

According to a study conducted by Pickering, Hadwin, & Kovshoff (2019), it showed

evidence that anxiety in adolescence was found to be strongly associated with some

adverse effects at age 30, with the adolescent anxiety significantly predicting poorer

adjustment in adulthood, lower life satisfaction, poor coping skills, and high chronic stress.

Moreover, the study also stipulated that the gender differences also exist such that

adolescent girls are at a high risk of developing anxiety disorders than boys.

33

2.3. Job Insecurity

2.3.1 Job insecurity subjective and objective components A study focusing on the subjective dimension of insecurity was conducted by researchers

who used the term “perceived job insecurity” as a risk of losing current employment. “In

contrast, the term insecurity refers to employees who perceive a high risk of becoming

unemployed, which means that they do not perceive a threat to their current job, but also

lack the confidence to find another job. Research on work and job insecurity has shown

that insecurity reduces physical and mental well-being (Sverke, Hellgren, & Naswall,

(2002);Virtanen, Vahtera, Kivimäki, Pentti & Ferrie, 2004).”

Job insecurity has also been shown to influence attitudes and job performance of

employees“(Staufenbiel & König, 2010, Sverke et al., 2002).””Although some strands of

research have considered coping strategies in psychological terms, such as cognitive

reassessment or self-claim (Jordan, Ashkanasy & Hartel, 2002; Mantler, Matejicek,

Matheson & Anisman, 2005), little attention has been paid to the practice and actions that

individuals can take to reduce insecurity (Cheng, Mauno, & Lee, 2014; Kalleberg,

2009).”””

One of the goals of the study is to fill this gap by examining a strategy that employees

can adopt which is participating in additional training (Barling & Kelloway, 1996). “ It is

assumed that through investment in human capital work and in employment, insecurity

can be reduced. On the one hand, more training helps keep skills updated and, therefore,

protects against dismissal (Lang, 2012).”Therefore, it is assumed that additional training

reduces the perception of job insecurity. On the other hand, it also helps in the case of

loss of employment, since it can increase the employability of the individual and avoid

experiencing unemployment (Smith, 2010). Consequently, the assumption is that

participation in the additional training also decreases the perceived insecurity.””

34

2.4 Antecedents of job insecurity The indicators for the current meta-analysis were those recently distinguished as

"indicators" or "antecedents" to job insecurity in the literature. “For instance, Kinnunen &

Natti,1994) distinguish potential foundation to job insecurity such as gender, age,

education, labour relations and organizational climate. Ito and Brotheridge (2007) label

the locus of control (LOC) and organizational change as a potential background for job

insecurity. In addition, Ashford, Lee and Bobko (1989) identify organizational change, role

ambiguity, role conflict and LOC as possible predictors. Sverke and Hellgren (2002) offer

an integrated model of job insecurity and classified potential predictors of job insecurity

as either subjective or objective.”

2.4.1 Workplace bullying and job insecurity Workplace bullying has grown drastically throughout the years and has become a

phenomenon which mainly stems from bad behaviour and continues to impact negatively

on individuals and organisations (Quine, 1999). “Workplace bullying is evidenced by

consistent occurrences of repeated negative behaviour, which is difficult to defend against

(Einarsen et al., 2011). Workplace bullying has several negatives, physical and

psychological health outcomes that impact the victims and people who witness bullying

(Vartia,2001). The negative physical outcomes of bullying comprise of sicknesses such

as headache and backaches (Moayed, Daraiseh,Shell, & Salem, 2006); whereas

negative psychological outcomes such as anxiety prevail as well (Hogh, Hoel, & Carneiro,

2011). Bullying behaviours may evoke concerns in individuals with regards to their

permanence in their employment due to the threatening work situation and this may lead

to employees to perceive the continuity of their job to be threatened and therefore to

display elevated levels of job insecurity (Harlos, & Axelrod, 2005; Mathisen, Einarsen, &

Mykletun, 2008).

Job insecurity, on the other hand, refers to expectations and concerns about the

permanence of the work situation, which has been defined as the incapability to maintain

the desired continuity in a threatened work situation"“(Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984),

or simply as expectations of continuity in a work situation '(Davy et al., 1997). “Some

researchers also distinguish between different dimensions of the construct for example,

35

Hellgren et al. (1999) argue that while worrying about losing one's job can be called

quantitative job insecurity, having concerns about valuable aspects of work, such as

unsatisfactory salary prospects, can be understood as qualitative job insecurity. Job

insecurity is usually described as a result of macro-level factors such as national levels

of unemployment or organizational change, factors related to individual work such as

length of service and personality traits such as the place of control ( Ashford et al., 1989;

De Witte, 2005).”

In combination, “workplace bullying and job insecurity is considered to result in the

possibility of losing any of the valuable labour aspects of the work itself, and the subjective

experience of job insecurity develops if the employee feels powerless to withstand the

labour threat (Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984; Ashford et al., 1989). More specifically,

there is a belief that exposure to intimidating behaviour in the workplace can lead an

employee to perceive the continuity of their work as a threat and therefore show high

levels of job insecurity which are mainly caused by workplace bullying (Fox & Stallworth,

2005).”

2.4.2 Subjective Predictors of Job Insecurity Psychological contracts give employees a sense of control or predictability“(Ashford et

al., 1989). Threats to an employee's sense of control can lead to negative outcomes,

including an increase in stress and work-related stresses, as well as damaging individual

health outcomes (Karasek, 1979; Lindstrom, Leino, Seitsamo, & Torstila, 1997). Any

perceived variable that threatens this control can induce feelings of job insecurity (Ashford

et al., 1989). That is, when an employee perceives less control over their future work, a

psychological violation of the contract and less job insecurity may occur. The

psychological gap in the contract is defined as the increase in perceptions of a breach of

a promise (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994). Previous studies have identified several

predictive factors that may threaten the sense of control and weaken the psychological

contract, thus serving as potential factors of job insecurity (Hellgren & Sverke, 2001,

Probst, 2003).””

36

The Locus of Control“(LOC) reflects the extent to which individuals view events in their

lives as determined primarily by their own behaviours (internal LOC) or factors in the

environment (external LOC) (Rotter, 1966). Several studies have reported significant

relationships between LOC and perceived job insecurity (Ashford et al., 1989).

Specifically, employees with an internal LOC feel more power over life events (Ashford et

al., 1989) and perceive that the continuity of their employment depends on them and not

on the organization, which results in less concern for the loss of jobs. The higher internal

parts are less likely to perceive a rupture of psychological contraction (Raja, Johns &

Ntalianis, 2004). As a result, these individuals are less likely to perceive the loss of control

of work and, therefore, less job insecurity.”

2.4.2.1 Role ambiguity and role conflict: Role ambiguity occurs when an individual is

uncertain or doesn’t know their responsibilities and goals for work“(Sawyer, 1992). Role

conflict occurs when employees experience demands from several sources that result in

greater uncertainty (Ameen, Jackson, Pasewark &Strawser, 1995). Employees with

greater levels of role ambiguity and role conflict end up not sure what their jobs are or

how to do their job well (Abramis,1994).”This can cause an increase in anxiety due to the

psychological contract, which would result in a lack of control over the future (Ashford et

al., 1989). Many studies have reported a significant relationship between role conflict and

role ambiguity with job insecurity (Ameen et al., 1995, Hellgren & Sverke, 2001, Iverson,

1996, Probst, 2003). Netemeyer, Boles, and McMurrian (1996) make a distinctin between

the work-family role conflict and family-work role conflict perspectives, this type of conflict

reflects the degree to which role responsibilities from the work and family domains are

incompatible, that is, "participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue

of participation in the family (work) role.”

2.4.2.2 Organizational communication:” Most organisations that experience poor

communication have made perceptions that it is caused by high levels of job insecurity

(Mauno & Kinnunen, 2002). Burke (1998) reported that recent graduates of business

schools who had observed "danger signals" in their organizations (for example, informal

rumours, changes in technologies) reported higher levels of job insecurity. “Access to

information and the quality of organizational communication have been associated with

37

lower levels of job insecurity (Kinnunen & Nätti, 1994, Parker, Axtell & Turner, 2001),

supporting the notion that the greater communication in an organization in frequency and

precision, the lowest job insecurity that an employee will experience. Therefore, poor

organizational communication can weaken the psychological contract by having an

employee question what is expected of the organization (Kyndt, & Baert, 2013). Greater

communication strengthens the psychological contract, offering control, predictability and,

therefore, results in more job security (Anderson & Schalk, 1998, Conway & Briner, 2005).

2.4.3 Moderators of the Effects of Job Insecurity As a subjectively experienced threat, job insecurity derives from objective threats through

individual cognitive processes“(Sverke et al., 2002). These cognitive processes are

influenced by individual variables and elements of the social environment (Lazarus &

Folkman, 1984). Over the years, researchers have shown great interest in identifying both

individual differences and functioning that can cushion the negative effects of job

insecurity on employee performance outcomes (see the review by Greenhalgh &

Rosenblatt, 2010). For instance, job insecurity seems to have a stronger negative

association with job performance among employees with low self-efficacy than among

those with high self-efficacy (Feng, Lu and Siu, 2008). Job insecurity had a more negative

effect on the behaviour of organizational citizenship for employees with more traditional

values (Wang, Lu & Lu, 2014).”

With respect to contextual moderators of work, it was found that job-based support

reduces the association between job insecurity and nonconforming behaviour of

employees“(Lim, 1997). In addition, for employees who experienced a low quality of

exchange of leaders and members, the relationship between job insecurity and altruism

was more negative (Loi, Ngo, Zhang, & Lau, 2011). Compared to research on the

moderators of individual differences, research examining how labour contexts moderate

the effects of job insecurity on employees' work behaviours remains inadequate (Rosen,

& Chang, Jennifer & Erwin, Lynne & Carrier, Mark & Cheever, Nancy, 2010). It is

important to conduct more research that identifies working conditions in which the work

performance of employees is negatively affected by job insecurity since these findings

would be useful for the design and provision of management interventions.”

38

2.5 Objective Predictors of Job Insecurity Previous research has suggested that some individuals“(for example, elders, women) are

more likely to experience a psychological contract break (Bocchino, Hartman & Foley,

2003, Turnley & Feldman, 2000). Job security is a crucial piece of any psychological

contract, however, it is likely that the propensity to experience a violation coexists with a

greater perception of job insecurity (Hartley, Jacobson, Klandermans, & van

Vuuren,1991). Unlike the predictors identified in the previous section, these variables are

more objective in nature. These include organizational change and the type of work

contract (Sverke & Hellgren, 2002), as well as demographic variables such as employee

age, gender and education (Kinnunen & Natti, 1994).”

2.5.1 Organizational change/downsizing/re-organization: “Experiencing staff reductions,

layoffs and other organizational changes can make employees feel that the psychological

contract they have with their employer is broken (Probst & Lawler, 2006). The lack of

predictability and control in times of uncertainty can be associated with an unfulfilled

psychological contract and a greater perception of job insecurity (Armstrong-Stassen,

2005, Osthus, 2007, Probst & Lawler, 2006). It has even been shown that the anticipated

organizational change is positively associated with the perception of job insecurity

(Burke, 1998; Ito & Brotheridge, 2007).”

2.5.2 Age: Conflicting results have been observed regarding the relationship between the

age of employees and job insecurity. Kinnunen and Nätti“(1994) report a non-significant

relationship between age and job insecurity, while (Roskies & Louis-Guerin, 1990) state

that younger employees experience greater job insecurity than senior employees. In

addition, Fullerton and Wallace (2007) identify a curvilinear relationship between age and

job insecurity, where younger and older workers felt more secure in their jobs and middle-

aged workers felt less confident about their jobs. However, older employees may depend

more on their work than younger employees for financial stability and family, therefore,

they may experience greater financial instability (Cheng & Chan, 2008).”

39

It has been shown that older employees have lower levels of perceived labour mobility as

compared to younger employees“(Kuhnert & Vance, 1992), which leads to greater

dependence on work and greater susceptibility to perceiving their work as insecure

(Cheng & Chan, 2008).”The displacement of work for older workers can cause more loss

of wages (Albert, García-Serrano, & Hernanz, 2010), and more difficulties in finding work

due to the specific skills of the occupation that many older workers have, which generates

a greater fear of job loss and its harmful consequential effect (Farber & Doolin, 2011;

Bockerman, 2004).”

In addition, older employees are more likely to perceive a psychological breach in

contracts than younger employees, perhaps because they have different expectations of

their employers “(Bocchino, Hartman & Foley, 2003). In fact, older employees are likely

to have "strong" psychological contracts with high demands from both employer and

employee, while younger employees are likely to have "unrelated" psychological

contracts with lower expectations (Janssens, Sels &Van Den Brande, 2003). In other

words, older employees have higher expectations and are more likely to experience a

violation when those expectations are not met (Barling & MacEwan, 1992).””””

2.5.3 Gender: Research related to gender differences and perceptions of job insecurity

has also been unclear. Some studies have shown that women are more insecure in

experience than men“(Mauno & Kinnunen, 2002, Emberland &Rundmo, 2010). However,

other studies have not observed gender differences in job insecurity (Roskies & Louis-

Guerin, 1990; Bernston, Näswall, Sverke, 2010). Even within a single study, Näswall and

De Witte (2003) observed contradictory results in their analysis of the relationship

between gender and job insecurity, with only one of their four samples, grouped by

country, revealing a significant relationship. Another study by (Johnson, Bobko &

Hartenian, 1992), showed that women often have less power in the labour market and

they may experience less control over their employment futures, perceive that job loss is

more stressful and expect more from their relationship with the employer (Bellou, 2009;

Davis, 2016). Research has shown that women are more likely to experience

psychological hiring and have lower expectations of their employers (Edwards, Rust,

McKinley & Moon; 2003, Turnley & Feldman, 2000).”

40

2.5.4 Education: Most studies conducted on education and job security have shown a

positive relationship exists between the two variables. One study proved that educated

employees feel more job security than the uneducated employees and that in return

enhances psychological contract “(Hellgren & Sverke, 2003; Moore, Grunberg &

Greenberg, 2004), although some studies have reported opposite results (Kinnunen,

Mauno, & Siltaloppi, 2010). More educated employees may feel that they have more

options in the labour market (Naswall & De Witte, 2003) and greater expectations of their

employer with respect to the psychological contract (Bellou, 2009). Employees with less

education are likely to form a "loyal" psychological contract in which employee loyalty is

exchanged for long-term participation (Janssens, Sels, & Van Den Brande, 2003).

2.5.5 Job type: Previous research studies indicated that white-collar employees have less

job insecurity than blue-collar employees (Uchitelle, 2006). Perhaps this is because

workers traditionally work in industries that are more prone to layoffs for example,

manufacturing, and that they have an ever-decreasing demand for less skilled workers

due to technological changes and international trade (Krugman & Lawrence,

1993).””Blue-collar workers may also have fewer resources to find another job if they lose

their current job (Näswall & De Witte, 2003). Due to the nature of their work (for example,

factory tasks), blue-collar employees are less likely to heavily rely on communication and

feedback to complete the task than white-collar employees (Ellis, 2007), which leaves

more room for ambiguity.”””””

In addition, “white-collar employees can actively seek feedback from supervisors (King,

2000), while blue-collar employees can obtain automatic performance feedback“(Ferrie,

Shipley, Marmot, Stansfeld, & Davey, 1998; Ellis, 2007).“The increased reliance on

communication from white-collar employees could help strengthen the psychological

contract with the employer, indicating less job insecurity (King, 2000). Like education,

bluecollar workers could form "loyal" psychological contracts in which employees

exchange for long-term participation (Janssens et al., 2003). Considering the recent

increase in the prevalence of high unemployment, underemployment and underutilization

41

in the labour force (Sum & Khatiwada, 2010), it is possible that highly educated people

are in worker positions.”

2.5.6 Nature of formal job contract and employment status:“It is not surprising that

temporary employees “(Kinnunen & Natti, 1994) and part-time employees (Felstead &

Gallie, 2004) have reported higher levels of job insecurity than their permanent and full-

time counterparts. This may be because temporary and part-time employees are not

linked to an organization (Naswall & De Witte, 2003) or are protected by the organization

(Sparks, Faragher & Cooper, 2001). When a reduction or restructuring occurs, part-time

employees feel that the organization will only retain full-time employees (Naswall & De

Witte, 2003).”In a similar vein, employees hired for a fixed period and on-call employees

have reported higher levels of job insecurity than full-time and part-time employees

(Bernhard- Oettel, Sverke & De Witte, 2005).”

2.6 INTENTION TO QUIT

2.6.1 Intention to quit defined According to Bothma and Roodt“(2013), the variable that depends on the intention of

rotation is the way in which an employee leaves a company because he or she can no

longer identify with the job. In a quantitative and descriptive study that examined the

salary, performance, and turnover of superintendents in the Missouri Department of

Elementary and Secondary Education, (Grissom & Mitani, 2016; Sekaran & Bougie,

2013) described turnover as one of two types, such as an employee contemplating

moving to a similar position, or an employee contemplating leaving the company. In

addition, Omar (2015) defines the intention to quit as the employee's desire to leave their

current position because there is a better opportunity available. More recent studies such

as the one conducted by (McInerney, Ganotice, King, Marsh & Morin, 2015) use a more

basic definition of the intention of rotation when referring to the desire or attempt of an

employee to leave an organization. Bothma and Roodt (2013) argue that staff turnover is

a step in the process that employees go through when considering whether to leave an

organization.”

42

Saridakis and Cooper“(2016) described the steps in the process. Foremost the employee

is likely to assess the current job. Secondly, evaluate his or her level of satisfaction with

the company and the job. Thirdly, evaluates the costs and consequences associated with

leaving the company, and assesses the jobs available to compare and contrast the pros

and cons of each. Dwivedi (2015) agrees that turnover intention was a cognitive process

that included a series of mental decisions before the employee terminated his or her

employment from an organization.”ar

On the contrary, in a quantitative study that used structural data analysis of 527 financial

services employees, Hollingsworth and Valentine (2014), did not see it as a series of

steps, besides identifying the attitude of employees towards the broader organization as

the pillar behind the intention of the employee to stay or leave a company. Ahmad and

Rainyee (2014) conducted a qualitative historical study and reviewed articles that

addressed how various elements predicted the intention to quit; and several researchers

provided feedback on the association between turnover intentions, job satisfaction and

organizational commitment. However, these researchers did not show a consistent area

on which these elements had a greater impact on the decrease in the intention of

employee turnover.”

Furthermore, in Wong, Wong and Wong“(2015) quantitative and quasi-experimental

study on the effects of turnover on the performance of employees in three joint ventures,

they highlighted the limitation that the scale used in measuring - the intention of turnover

only revealed the number of employees that wanted to leave, not the number of

employees who actually leave.”

Moreover, according to Demirtas and Akdogan“(2015), turnover is a consequence of

turnover intention; however, it starts with employee dissatisfaction, leads to research and

a search for alternative jobs, an evaluation and comparison of the jobs available, and an

exit from the company if the pros for the new job outweigh the cons of the current job.”

43

2.6.2 Factors influencing employee’s intentions to quit To better understand and address the intention of turnover from a cost perspective,

“companies analyze the voluntary and non-monetary costs associated with voluntary

turnover, which may include the costs of hiring and training new employees, an increase

in pay and benefits, lower production and lower moral changes in the employee’s

workplace (Saridakis & Cooper, 2016). According to Wang, Tsai, Ru Lei, Chio and Lai

(2016), their quantitative correlation study examines the relationship between job

satisfaction, organizational commitment and change intentions. Their study concluded

that voluntary turnover is the decision of an employee to leave a company job for reasons

such as promotion, retirement, health-related issues, or educational advancement. From

a corporate perspective, companies measure turnover by dividing the total number of

voluntary layoffs of full-time employees by the total number of full-time employees

(Cohen, Blake, & Goodman, 2016).”

“Meanwhile, business leaders analyze turnover from a corporate perspective as the

actions of employees leaving the company to always impacts the bottom line, but the

leaders’ measure turnover intention from an individual standpoint, as it is a correctable

expense (Fabi, Lacoursiere, & Raymond, 2015).”

2.6.3 Antecedents of intentions to quit “Bullying in the workplace is the process by which an employee is subjected to frequent

negative acts by colleagues or superiors over a period, against whom the defence or

retaliation is hampered by the recognition of an imbalance of formal or informal power

(Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, & Cooper, 2011). The acts involved can be related to both the work

and the person, and involve direct acts, such as verbal aggression, obstruction of work

tasks and physical violence, as well as indirect behaviours, such as social exclusion or

undercover sabotage (Bartlett & Bartlett, 2011).”

One of the many detrimental outcomes proposed for bullying individual is the risk of

exclusion from work“(Leymann, 1992; Berthelsen et al., 2011). The term work exclusion

may reflect any illegitimate distance between an employee and the work for which he or

she was hired. For example, if the bullying situation is seen as a disciplinary problem on

the part of the employer, the target can be discharged or internally relocated (Leymann,

44

1992; MacIntosh, 2005). In other cases, the individual experiencing bullying in the

workplace may suffer from health problems with sick leave, or may choose to leave

'voluntarily' due to the adverse nature of the working conditions in which such employer

work. (Berthelsen et al., 2011)

2.6.3.1 Workplace bullying and intentions to leave

Workplace bullying can result in employee turnover because employees experiencing

workplace bullying can no longer withstand such difficult working conditions and may

choose to voluntarily leave work (Berthelsen et al., 2011). One way to address this

problem is to observe the intention to leave among employees, which has been shown to

be a solid precedent for staff turnover (Bedeian et al., 1991). The hypothetical association

between bullying in the workplace and the intention to leave is supported by theoretical

explanations of turnover, such as the deployment turnover model (Lee et al., 1999;

Holtom et al., 2005).”

According to Zapf and Gross, (2001), bullying and harassment in the workplace has been

identified as precursors to job dissatisfaction, which in turn has been shown to antedate

the turnover intention (Frank et al., 1999). In fact, it has been suggested that there are

equal levels of job dissatisfaction. The intention to leave work may be more likely when

job satisfaction decreases (Chen et al., 2011; Saunders, Huynh, & Goodman-Delahunty,

2007), a notion that is also in line with a hypothetical association between the workplace

intimidation and the intention to leave, as job satisfaction is likely to decrease over time

as the bullying continues.”

2.6.3.2 Employee engagement and intention to quit

According to Jamrog“(2004), organizations must create strategies to build a culture that

retains and involves their qualified employees, thereby relying less on traditional

payments and benefits than creating a more working environment that allows employees

to grow and develop. Through growth and development, employees are enriched, which

afterwards improve their levels of satisfaction. Line managers and supervisors are the

key stakeholders to ensure employee participation by providing training, professional

development opportunities, feedback and communication related to the organization's

mission and value statements (Chan & Auster, 2003).”

45

Robinson, Perryman, & Hayday. (2003) developed the attitude survey published by the

Institute for Employment Studies in 2003 which provided that more than 10,000

employees in 14 organizations confirmed several positive reactions to commitment,

namely a positive attitude and pride in the organization; a belief in the products or services

of the organization; a perception that the organization allows the employee to perform

well; and the willingness to behave altruistically and be a good team player (Marshall,

2011).”

According to Schaufeli and Bakker“(2004), it is likely that committed employees have a

greater link to their organization and a lower tendency to leave their organization. In

addition, employee participation positively affects operating income, operating margin,

net profit margin, employee retention, errors of absenteeism and quality, and provides

evidence that employees have a significant positive effect in the success of the

organization (Cook & Green, 2011). Clayton (2011) confirms that committed employees

are willing to represent a variety of behaviours that add to organizational success,

commitment, participation, enthusiasm, initiative, honesty, promotion and creativity.

However, in return, the expectations of employees committed to their line managers and

colleagues, respect, adequate leadership, meaningful work, recognition and feeling

valued and supported. It has been found that employee engagement is positively related

to organizational commitment and negatively with the intention to quit, and is believed to

be related to job performance and additional role behaviour (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004;

Sonnentag, 2003).”

2.6.3.3 Transformational leadership and intention to quit

According to Buckingham and Coffman“(1999), the commitment within an organization

can thrive in environments where employees feel cared for and valued, which translates

into meaningful and safe environments. This is an integral part of a transformational

leader. Therefore, it can be argued that leaders can influence commitment levels by

formulating an attractive vision statement that gives employees meaning (Cook & Green,

2011). “Transformational leadership is known to empower subordinates by delegating

meaningful authority to individuals, developing subordinate skills and self-confidence,

creating self-managed teams, providing direct access to sensitive information, eliminating

46

unnecessary controls and building a strong culture to support the empowerment (Yukl,

2006). In addition, by training subordinates and increasing their self-confidence,

managers can increase their job satisfaction (Singh & Sinha, 2013). Job satisfaction in

this study is seen as a multidimensional phenomenon that also emphasizes the

satisfaction that employees experienced with their supervisors.”

Schlechter “(2005) states that numerous scholars have discovered that transformational

leadership is empirically related to a variety of variables of organizational success and

performance. These include employee satisfaction, organizational commitment,

satisfaction levels with line managers, employee effectiveness, lower intention to change,

organizational citizenship behaviour, general employee performance, effective leadership

and trust. Therefore, research has shown to distinguish the relationship between

transformational leadership and job satisfaction, as well as organizational commitment. A

study by Larrabee, Janney, Ostrow, Withrow, Hobbs and Burant (2003) reported that job

dissatisfaction was an important factor in the intention to stop smoking. As noted,

transformational leadership has been linked to job satisfaction (Firth et al., 2004; Tepper,

2000) and it is believed that transformational leadership can reduce the intention to quit

by employees and creating a work environment where employees experience job

satisfaction.”

2.6.3.4 Job satisfaction and intention to quit

It is believed that one of the main variables that influence retention is job satisfaction.

Pienaar and Bester“(2008) and Oehley (2007) reiterated this relationship by reporting

that there are several studies that link low levels of job satisfaction with the increase in

labour turnover. However, Steers (1977) argues that there is an unresolved debate about

whether there has been a direct effect on turnover, or if it is moderated through

organizational commitment, which might still be unresolved since many researchers are

continuously investigating the links. It is very likely that high levels of dissatisfaction may

influence employees to consider alternative work options. If an employee will leave an

organization in such a case, or if the intention is evident, in most cases it is determined

by alternative opportunities in the labour market (Spector, 1997).

47

Job dissatisfaction not only influences the organization, as it increases the intention of

quitting by employees (Umi Narimawati, 2007), but it also reduces the employee's

contribution to the organization, which has a direct effect on the success of the

organization (Lok & Crawford, 2003).”

2.6.3.5 Remuneration, reward and recognition and intention to quit

Irvine“(2010) reports that recognition of success in the workplace requires a strategic

initiative with practical objectives and measurable results that integrate a positive

reception into the culture of the organization. Regardless of the industry, senior

management must continually explore the best way to reward and recognize employee

achievements, as employees perceive recognition as a sign of appreciation of their

contribution.”

A survey conducted by“(Salary.com) reported that 34.2% of employees felt that there was

insufficient recognition or appreciation of their work, talents and abilities, and provided

this as the reason for leaving their jobs (Janas, 2009). Rosser (2004) argues that

perceptions of worklife, including rewards, have a direct impact on job satisfaction and

intentions to leave. Giles (2004) suggests that managers should try to understand the

motivation of employees and the role of recognition in retaining key employees. When

employees feel appreciated and are a priority for their organization, they can contribute

to a positive organizational culture. For an organization to implement a successful reward

and recognition policy, it is important to determine from its employees what they value

and to align the policy to be solid, fair and competitive.”

Park, Erwin and Knapp“(1997) argue that although compensation provides some

recognition, non-monetary recognition is also important. Employees may require greater

commitment and tend to remain in the organization when they feel that their abilities,

efforts and performance contributions are recognized and appreciated (Davies, 2001).

Line managers also need to play an important role in employees' perception of

compensation, reward and recognition, as Tulgan (2003) recognizes that employees

depend on their immediate line manager to consider, recommend, promote and transmit

recognition, and promotions of employees and other rewards. A survey conducted at

Prudential Financials confirmed that recognition is not only an important part of the

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employee's performance equation, but is equally important in the retention equation

(Parus, 2002).”

Each generation wants to earn more money, although money is not always the most

important part of retaining Generation Y employees“(Cave, 2002; Fallon, 2009). Making

a lot of money seems to be less motivated for this generation, contributing to society,

raising families well and enjoying a full and balanced life seems to be more motivated

(Burmeister, 2009, Fallon, 2009, Ferri-Reed, 2010). Dinnell (2007) affirmed that

remuneration is important for Generation Y, but that they also long for a non-monetary

recognition since it feeds their self-esteem. Roy and Kreiss (2008) point out that the next-

generation workforce does not believe in the old equation of time put on equal promotions,

but considers their individual contribution to the organization and the team as a metric for

promotion and rewards for merit. According to Tulgan (2003), the critical element to

reward Generation Y is to clearly communicate that the rewards are linked to concrete

actions within their own direct control, replacing the previous reward method, where

employees received payments based on the work they completed. As mentioned by Irvine

(2010), strategic recognition must be frequent and timely, which will satisfy the needs of

Generation X and Y while avoiding the difficulties of micromanagement.”

2.7 INTENTIONS TO QUIT CONSEQUENCES

2.7.1 Frequent Change and Turnover Intention: The Moderating Role of Ethical Leadership For several decades, “addressing voluntary turnover of employees remains a critical

challenge for both academics and professionals. This is largely due to the high personal

and organizational costs associated with voluntary turnovers, such as the costs of losing

specific human capital of the organization, hiring and training of substitute employees,

reducing the quality of service and other related costs. (Allen et al., 2010, Glebbeck &Bax

2004, Hancock et al 2013, Mitchell et al 2001, Wright and Bonett 2007). In this sense, the

voluntary turnover of employees has been considered a negative indicator of the

effectiveness of the organizations (Glebbeck & Bax 2004, Griffeth & Hom 2001).”

49

Consequently, a large number of studies have been based on the understanding of

turnover intention to address the retention of valuable employees and increase

organizational effectiveness“(Hom, Mitchell, Lee, & Griffeth, 2012). This is not surprising

since turnover (that is, the willingness to voluntarily leave the organization, (Tett & Meyer,

1993) has been systematically considered as a predictor of actual turnover (Fugate,

Prussia, & Kinicki, 2012; Griffeth et al., 2000; Hom et al., 1992; Vandenberg, Richardson,

& Eastman, 1999). Although the relationship between turnover intention is not perfect,

the first indicates a potential withdrawal problem, therefore, more volatile than the latter.

Understanding the cause of change is essential in building effective retention policies

and organizational effectiveness (Griffeth & Hom 2001) because with such importance

organizations increase the confidence of employees towards the organization’s goals

and to successfully adapt to the present changes in the work environment as well as to

maintain competitiveness (Chen et al., 2011), research is beginning to focus more on

change management as more organizations are constantly changing and somehow

create an unstable work environment and the frequent change, on the other hand

influences turnover intention, so it is important for organizations to take note of such

indicators of change because that will help in terms of adjustment of employees to

organizational change (Amiot et al., 2006).”

2.8 TRAIT ANXIETY

2.8.1 Theoretical approaches to anxiety Writing Anxiety

Anxiety is an emotional state that emerges in accordance with the impotence felt when

preparing for a recognized danger“(Ellis, 1994). Writing anxiety is a type of situational

anxiety since the student has developed it just before writing. However, writing anxiety is

a type of language anxiety as well (Cheng, Horwitz & Schallert, 1999). McLoad (1987)

addresses writing anxiety as a type of anxiety associated with situations in which a person

has difficulties during the writing process, despite having the necessary writing skills.”

One of the factors that lead to writing anxiety is that the written material will be evaluated

(Daly, 1978; Wilson, Larson, & Stone, 1993). “Anxiety about writing can manifest

50

emotionally as sadness, anger and fear; or physically as various cramps when a person

is required to write (Ozbay & Zorbaz, 2011). Grabe and Kaplan (1996) claim that writing

is composed of many components. The fact that the act of writing generates anxiety can

be attributed to the complex nature of the writing. In addition, Daly (1978) associate writing

anxiety with individual differences in writing tendencies. Factors such as personality traits,

students 'opinions about their writing competence, teachers' opinions, the interaction

between students and teachers, classroom environment and exams are some of the

sources of writing anxiety ( Karakaya & Ülper, 2011).”

From the relevant literature, Yaman“(2010) identifies two types of anxiety: anxiety whose

negative effects block learning activities and anxiety that facilitate learning by providing

motivation. The latter type of anxiety can be understood through students' writing success

to a certain extent. Citing Brand and Leckie (1988) as well as Petzel and Wenzel (1993),

Yaman (2010) notes that the negative type of writing leads to procrastination, fear,

tension, loss of self-confidence and power, and interruption of the thinking process.

Bruning and Horn (2000) ascertained that checking written material carelessly increases

writing anxiety and that this anxiety harms students cognitively and effectively as well as

decreasing their motivation.”

In anxiety studies, Aydın & Zengin (2008) maintains that students with high levels of

anxiety have been found to experience lower levels of success “. Studies of anxiety in

Turkish writing include identification studies (Iseri & Unal, 2012, Karakoç Ozturk, 2012,

Tiryaki, 2011), scale development (Karakaya & Ulper, 2011; Yaman, 2010; Ozbay &

Zorbaz, 2011) and presentation of scale (Zorbaz, 2011). This study examines the effect

of the process writing model of Flower and Hayes (1981) on the anxiety and success of

writing. It is thought that the focus of the writing process has a positive impact on the

writing and the success of the students due to its characteristics.”

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2.8.2 Techniques used to measure anxiety The term "anxiety" refers to individual differences in the propensity to anxiety as a

personality trait. People with a high level of anxiety“(A-Trait) are more willing to manifest

anxiety states than non-anxious people. Neurotic people, for example, are high in trait A

and are more likely to respond to situations involving self-esteem with higher elevations

in the intensity of A-state than people with little trait anxiety (Ortega,Jiménez, & Acosta,

2015). Neurotics also have a greater tendency to worry than non-neurotics, even in

circumstances where there is little or no external stress. Most measures of anxiety that

are widely used in current research, such as the Taylor Anxiety Scale developed by

(Taylor, 1953) and Cattell's (1957) IP AT Anxiety Scale, provide reasonable measures of

trait anxiety. On the other hand, several of its subtests seem to measure trait A

(Spielberger, 1971).”

Zuckerman and his colleagues developed the Affect Adjectives Checklist“(AACL) to

measure anxiety (Zuckerman, 1960; Zuckerman & Biase, 1962). A state measure is

impressive. However, the AACL A-Trait measure is not highly correlated with other

measures of A-Trait (Spielberger, Gorsuch & Lushene, 1970). Spielberger and his

associates Spielberger and Gorsuch (1966) with Spielberger et al. (1970) developed the

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to provide reliable, relatively brief self-report

measures, both A-State as of A- Trait. The STAI A-State scale consists of 20 statements

that ask people to describe how they feel at a particular time. The essential qualities

evaluated by this scale involve the intensity of a person's feelings of tension,

nervousness, worry and apprehension. The STAI A-Trait scale also consists of 20

statements that are required to answer by indicating, on a four-point rating scale, the

frequency with which they experience specific symptoms of anxiety. This scale measures

the individual differences in the propensity to anxiety; that is, the general tendency to

worry, especially in social situations that represent a threat to self-esteem.”

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2.9 DIMENSIONS OF TRAIT ANXIETY

2.9.1 Anxiety reactivity and Anxiety perseverations “Trait anxiety is typically considered as a unitary construction that reflects individual

differences in the willingness to experience high state anxiety. The disposition of traits for

emotion is usually evaluated by having the participants report on how much time they

spend experiencing this emotional state. Therefore, trait anxiety is commonly measured

using questionnaire instruments such as the trait version of the State Anxiety Inventory-

Spielberger Trait (STAI-T, Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, and Jacobs, 1983),

which requires that respondents specify how much of the time they experience specific

symptoms of anxiety on a scale that goes from almost never until almost always. Scores

on the STAI-T are usually distributed within the population (Spielberger et al., 1983), with

higher scores indicating higher levels of trait anxiety. However, in principle, two different

types of anxious disposition could make an independent contribution to the variation in

the trait-anxiety STAI-T scores.”

“The high scores of STAI-T could result from a disposition that reflects the higher

probability of experiencing state anxiety reactions in the face of the stresses, which will

have a greater reactivity of anxiety, but the high scores of the STAI-T could also result to

a willingness of experience particularly prolonged states (Spielberger, O’Neil, &

Hansen,1971). The anxiety reactions, which we have stressed, have increased anxiety.

Any of the provisions would increase the amount of time spent experiencing state anxiety,

and thus inflate the trait anxiety scores in the STAI-T. There is already some evidence

that individuals who obtain high trait anxiety scores to show a high probability of

experiencing state anxiety reactions to stress, as measured by any of the self-reports

(Turk, Heimberg, Luterek, Mennin & Fresco, 2005), or by physiological indices (Phan,

Fitzgerald, Nathan & Tancer, 2006).”

There is evidence, from research on emotion regulation, that increased trait anxiety and

is characterized by disproportionately prolonged anxiety reactions“(Gross & Thompson,

2007; Mennin, Heimberg, Turk, & Fresco, 2002). However, it remains unclear whether

the reactionaries of anxiety and the perseveration of anxiety are mere concurrent

expressions of a single dimension of vulnerability to anxiety, or whether they represent

53

dissociable facets of vulnerability to anxiety, each of which could explain the independent

variance in anxiety-trait scores. Consequently, the main objective of this study is to solve

this problem. Participants were therefore asked three questions about each of the 20

symptoms related to anxiety contained in the STAI-T.”

2.10 Empirical literature

2.10.1 Job insecurity and intentions to quit According to a study by Stander and Rothmann“(2010), feelings of job insecurity are

accompanied by feelings of distrust in the employer's ability to care for employees, which

increases the intentions of employees to leave their jobs. A meta-analytical study

conducted by Olivier and Rothmann (2009) reported that when employees have feelings

of insecurity, they do not trust the employer and such feelings are a precursor to the

intention to quit. Job insecurity is often referred as a breach of the psychological contract

by management and the lack of trust that is created between employees and

management increases the intentions of employees to leave an organization (Thomas &

Cornelius, 2010).”

Staufenbiel and Konig“(2010) also showed a positive association between job insecurity

and the intention of staff turnover, which was found in their study that job insecurity is

associated with negative work attitudes that resulted in a decrease in employee

performance and an increase in absenteeism with the intentions of the organizational

employees. In addition, Mauno et al. (2014) found that employees who have feelings of

insecurity dedicate most of their energy to seek alternative employment since they feel

insecure in their work and their intentions to leave the organization are high. Hence,

Mauno et al. (2014) study found that the intention to resign is high among employees with

job insecurity since they used it as a coping strategy for their threatened employment.”

Nikolaou, Theodossiou and Vasileiou (2014) found that job insecurity can worsen the

relationship between employer and employee, as it is associated with a decrease in

employee wellbeing, dissatisfaction and increased turnover intentions and abandoning

an organization (Jandaghi, Mokhles & Bahrami, 2011). Job insecurity decreases

employee satisfaction and work commitment, which increases their intentions to seek

54

alternative employment (Vujicic et al., 2015). Borg and Elizur (2010) found that job

insecurity influences the attitudes of employees as a result, employee behaviours are

frequently related to decreased commitment, distrust in management and intention to

leave an organization.

2.12.2 Trait anxiety, job insecurity and intentions to quit The empirical evidence has been summarized in several general articles and book

chapters by“Leka & Jain (2010) and that show that studies on the perception of job

insecurity are stressors of work, with negative consequences for a variety of health and

well-being indicators, such as job satisfaction, labour commitment, labour exhaustion,

mental well-being and a multiplicity of somatic variables ranging from receptivity to colds

and flu to non-fatal heart attacks. As a stress factor at work, job insecurity is among the

most prominent psychosocial risks in the workplace, together with aspects such as

workload, lack of control, role ambiguity, role conflicts and poor interpersonal

relationships at work (Matteson, & Ivancevich, 1987).”

2.12.3 Trait anxiety as a moderator of the relationship between job insecurity and

intentions to quit There is a scarcity of literature on the moderating effect of trait anxiety on the relationship

between job insecurity and intentions to quit. However, some studies on similar or related

variables have had suggestive results. In a study that focused on how state and trait

anxiety, moderate the relationship between workplace bullying and job satisfaction on the

one hand, and intention to quit on the other, trait anxiety was found to moderate this

relationship (Glaso, Vie, Holmdal & Einarsen, 2011). “Accumulated evidence suggests

that anxiety is associated with performance deficiencies in working memory tasks (that

is, tasks that have storage and processing requirements) that involve the central

executive (Eysenck, 1992). Miyake and Colleagues (2000) identify three independent

executive functions: inhibition (the process of deliberately inhibiting dominant responses),

change (the process of alternating between tasks or changing task requirements) and

updating (the process of updating and relevant monitoring information). Empirical

research has shown that higher levels of anxiety are associated with poor performance

in inhibitory processes as assessed by the go / no go task (Righi, Mecacci & Viggiano,

2009).”

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2.13 Chapter summary This chapter provides the theoretical framework and literature review of the three

variables related to the present study. “It identified potential antecedents of job insecurity

such as gender, age, education, employment relationship and organizational climate, etc.

On the other hand, the intention to quit antecedents such as workplace bullying, employee

commitment, transformational leadership, job satisfaction and compensation, reward and

recognition were also identified. Studies suggesting that trait anxiety moderates the

relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit were also reviewed. In the next

chapter the research design and the methodology will be discussed and to be included in

that discussion is the target population sampling, data collection method, measuring

instruments and the validity and reliability.”

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction This chapter will highlight how the research problem was explored, with specific reference

made to how the respondents were selected and the procedure followed to gather the

data. The research design, population, sampling methods, measuring instruments and

statistical techniques used to analyze data are also discussed.””

The format of the plan depends on the nature of the research being carried out. The

research objectives outlined in chapter 1 of the study should, therefore, be translated into

specific data needs. “The researcher thus specifies what data is required for the research

and determines from which sources the data will be obtained. This research obtained

information from the primary sources. This chapter focused on the methodology that was

followed to carry out the research. This takes into consideration aspects such as the

research design, population of the study, sample, and sampling procedure, the data

collection method, description of the instrument, administration of the instrument, and how

the data were analyzed.”

3.2 Research Design A study requires the appropriate research design that effectively gives a coherent

structure connecting the study from problem identification to the making of conclusions

(Cant, 2011; McNabb, 2011). This study follows the argument by Gray (2014) who states

that certain necessary principles should be adhered to in order to objectively set research

questions based on hypothetical orientations, select respondents, collect and report

results. In this study, the moderating effect of trait anxiety on the relationship between job

insecurity and intentions to quit have been established. This association of variables fits

the descriptive research design as explained by Creswell“(2014) who argues that

descriptive research is to be appropriate when the research objectives include

determining the degree to which variables are associated and making predictions

regarding the occurrences of the phenomena under study which is the general objective

of this study.”

57

The quantitative research approach was utilised in this study because the collection of

data was from numerous respondents, which was analyzed using statistical methods and

conclusions that were generalized across the population were made (Shiu, Hair, Bush,

& Ortinau, 2009). In addition, the study took a non-experimental survey design as the

data was collected from respondents in their natural setting (Saunders, Mark, Lewis,

Phillip & Thornhill, 2009).

3.3 Population of the study According to Hair, Lukas and Miller (2012) the study population has to be clearly

described to fit the purposes of the study. Furthermore, if possible the exact number of

the population has to be determined together with the population characteristics. This is

important in situations where a sample will be used in collecting data and when

comparisons are needed in the analysis report (Yin, 2009). In this particular study, the

population included all municipal officials within the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality.

This consisted of all the permanent municipal employees in Fort Beaufort main office.

According to the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality Workplace skills plan (2017/18),

the total number of employees in the mentioned municipal area was 178.

3.4 Sample The nature and size of the population often make it impractical to collect data from all the

units in the population (Hair et al., 2012). Time and monetary constraints are some of the

factors identified to limit a researcher from collecting data from the entire population

(Leedy & Ormrod, 2010). With this in mind, the sample for this study was selected from

the described population. In determining the population size, Hair et al. (2012) advise that

the sample size should be large enough for the sake of representativeness. In this way,

the research is able to make inferences about the population of the data collected from

the sample (Spatz & Kardas, 2008).“”Fouch`e and Delport (2002), indicate that in most

cases a 10% sample should be sufficient for controlling sampling error. However, Raosoft

sample size calculator is commonly used as it takes into account sampling error, non-

responsiveness of respondents and confidence interval. This study utilised the Raosoft

sample size calculator and a sample of n = 122 employees comprising of males and

females with permanent employees of Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality are utilised.

58

The procedures and techniques that were used to obtain the sample are discussed

below.””

3.5 Sampling Procedure There are two sampling procedures that can be used in research: one that produces

probability samples and another that produces non-probability samples“(Myers, 2013).

This study employs the probability sampling procedure for the reason that it reduces

sampling error by giving each element or individual in the group or population a probability

for selection and inclusion in a study (Gupta & Gupta, 2011). Probability sampling is

controlled and every individual in the population is guaranteed an equal chance of

selection (Hair et al., 2012).”

3.6 Sampling Technique The simple random sampling technique of the probability sampling procedure was

adopted as the technique to sample the study participants. According to Neuman (2011),

simple random sampling is a technique that uses probability and every member of the

population has a chance for selection. This is because a simple random sampling

technique has ease of use, reduces sampling bias and produces a high degree of sample

representativeness of the population (Churchill & Brown, 2004). The study employed this

technique in conjunction with the Raosoft sample size calculator.

3.7 Sample Size and Sampling Frame According to Bless & Higson-Smith (2000), sample size refers to the number of

respondents that should be included in the investigation and is an important consideration

for research because the size of the sample drawn affects the quality and generalizability

of the data. The aim was to select a sample that ensures a 95% confidence level, a 50%

response distribution and a margin of error of 5%. Therefore, the minimum recommended

sample size in this study was 122 respondents.” To obtain 122 respondents, a sampling

frame which was a list of all officials within the Raymond Mhlaba municipality main office

was obtained from the human resource management office. After obtaining the list,

simple random sampling was utilised to obtain the sample size. This was done through

allocating numbers to the research participants and randomly selecting those using the

59

numbers assigned to them. Employees whose assigned numbers were selected to

participate in this study.

3.8 Data Collection Data collection is a process where the researcher interacts with respondents and

participants (McLeod, 2014). It was going to be unethical to enter into the organization

and start collecting data without first obtaining permission to do so. Therefore, before

collecting data, the audience was sought by the municipality’s management. Once

permission was granted and participants identified, the self-administered questionnaires

were administered personally to the selected respondents and during the administration,

the study purpose was explained to the respondents. The researcher personally collected

the completed questionnaires after a period of one week. The questionnaire items were

in English as municipal officials are considered to be literate enough to read and

understand the English language.

Validity and reliability are concepts used to determine the quality of a research study

(Babbie, 2013). In the current study, the researcher took the necessary steps to ensure

the study is reliable and valid. However, to ensure reliability, the researcher used the

Cronbach alpha test. The alpha coefficient determines the reliability of the instrument and

a coefficient value above 0.70 indicated the study is reliable.

3.8.1 Data collection Instrument For this study, the self-administered questionnaire was the data collection instrument

that was used. Self-administered questionnaires are one of the most inexpensive ways

of gathering data from a large number of respondents. “The instrument contained, closed

questions. Closed questions, provide a set of predetermined answers from which the

respondents have to choose applicable answers. Although some questions, probes to

explore, most are targeted to obtain information or to establish a relationship between

certain variables, for example, the relationship between trait anxiety, job insecurity and

intention to quit among employees. Leedy and Ormrod (2001) note that closed questions,

seek knowledge or fact of phenomena, prediction of behaviour and expression of opinion,

or statements to agree or to disagree with a given statement.”

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3.8.2 Description of Instrument

3.8.2.1 Job insecurity questionnaire

Job insecurity was measured using the Job Insecurity Questionnaire“(JIQ) of De Witte

(2000).“The questionnaire consists of 11 items which assess the cognitive and affective

dimensions of job insecurity. Items of the questionnaire are arranged in a Likert-type scale

with responses ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). An example of

a question asking the cognitive dimension is “I think that I will be able to continue working

here” and an example of the affective dimension is “I feel uncertain about the future of my

job”. The instrument was found to be a reliable measure of Job Insecurity evidenced by

a 0.92 Cronbach Alpha Coefficient (De Witte, 2000).””

3.8.2.2 Intention to quit questionnaire

Intention to quit will be measured using the turnover intention scale developed by Tei and

Yamazaki“(2003) which is also reliable in measuring retention. Intention to quit

questionnaire is used as an alternative to measuring employee retention due to the

difficulties associated with measuring retention. The scale comprises of 6 items which

measure employee’s intentions to leave the organisation. The response format is a 5-

point Likert scale ranging responses from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree, while

the Cronbach’s alpha for this scale is 0.76.”

3.8.2.3 Trait anxiety questionnaire

Items from the self-report inventory developed by Spielberger et al.“(1983) were used to

measure trait anxiety. The scale consists of 40 items, where 20 items assess state anxiety

while the other 20 assess trait anxiety. Only the 20 items that assess trait anxiety were

used in the study. On a 4-point Likert scale, respondents were asked to indicate the extent

to which they agreed or disagreed with the statements. Responses range from 1 (Almost

never) to 4 (Almost always). The scale was found to have a reliability coefficient of α =

0.81 and also Watson and Clark (1984) found the scale to have a reliability coefficient of

α = 0.84 when they used it in their study.”

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3.9 Administration of the Instrument Questionnaires were distributed to employees representing different departments within

the organisation. “Individuals were randomly chosen from each department. Respondents

completed a self-report questionnaire pack, which incorporated the measures of trait

anxiety, job insecurity and intention to quit among employees. In addition, personal and

demographic data relating to gender, race, age group, occupational level, educational

level and length of service were also collected.”

In this study, “the researcher made use of questionnaires, as they are inexpensive and

enable data to be collected quickly and easily over a wide geographical area, as opposed

to in-depth interviews, which can be time-consuming (Kumar, 2011).”

Questionnaires allowed the researcher to pose the same questions to different

respondents, “thereby minimizing any possibility of unintended bias. In this respect,

questionnaires differ from focus group discussions, in which discussions can be

dominated by a few individuals (Kumar, 2011).“The questionnaires also have the added

advantage of enabling researchers to obtain information from subjects who may be

beyond their physical reach (Leedy, 1989). The responses to most of the questions were

measured using a checklist which consisted of thirty-seven items. To ensure the

avoidance of bias in the survey questions, the researcher avoided posing negative

questions.””

Furthermore, questionnaires also offered a great deal of anonymity, as the names of the

participants were not recorded. The completed questionnaires could be recognised only

from the way in which they were numbered. The researcher informed the participants

about confidentiality issues and that they had the right to withdraw from the study at any

time and any stage.

3.10. Data Analysis Quantitative descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviations and inferential

statistics such as correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to summarize

the data and test the hypotheses. Data were analysed by means of the Statistical

Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).“After obtaining data from the research

62

respondents, questionnaires were thoroughly checked for completeness and the

information was coded on the excel spreadsheet. The data were then imported into the

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for analysis.”

Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the demographic and occupational

characteristics of the respondents. “The information was expressed in the form of figures,

frequency tables and percentages. The ChiSquare test was used to examine if a

relationship exists between the study variables. The level of significance of all statistical

tests was set at a P-value of 0.05 in relation to the study hypotheses. In addition, the

Pearson correlation coefficients were used to specify the relationships between the study

variables. Regression analysis was also used to test the relationship that exists between

the variables. To test the moderating effect of trait anxiety on the relationship between

job insecurity and intentions to quit, regression analysis was used.”

3.10.1 Delimitation of the Study Delimitations refer to limits that are within the control of the researcher“(Simon, 2011).

These are factors or characteristics that a researcher can control to limit the scope or

focus of the study (Quinlan, 2011). Such factors include the variables involved in the

study, location of the study, research participants and the study objectives. In the case of

this study, the focus was on trait anxiety as a moderator between job insecurity and

intention to quit. Only these variables and no other variables were assessed. The location

of the study was the selected local municipal offices, however, no other officials from

other municipality offices besides the ones selected were examined.”

3.11. Ethical Consideration The researcher asked for permission from the Human Resource Department or the

Branch Manager to carry out the research. “The researcher orally supplied the

respondents with the essential information about the research also with the means of the

covering letter that accompanied the questionnaire. Confidentiality of information was

also guaranteed as the questionnaire was filled anonymously. No identifying information

(such as the name) was recorded to ensure anonymity. Individuals were provided with

envelopes to ensure confidentiality. In addition, respondents were given information on

the research and its procedures, the reasons for the study and what was expected of

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them. Participation was voluntary and there was no discrimination, either of race, sex or

ethnicity, and individuals were not forced to answer questions which they were

uncomfortable with.”

3.12. Conclusion This chapter presented an outline of the research study and detailed the research design

and the research methodologies which were employed. A quantitative approach was

adopted for collecting data. The data were collected through the distribution of self-

administered questionnaires. The statistical techniques used in this study were

discussed. The following chapter presents the results of the statistical analysis.

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CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS

4. Introduction

The previous chapter described the research methodology of the study. “The sample was

made up to 122 respondents and the questionnaires were distributed among them. The

data collected was in line with the objectives of the study highlighted in chapter one. This

chapter presents the results obtained based on the employed analysis methods. Internal

consistencies in terms of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the three variables (trait anxiety,

job insecurity and intention to quit) are presented in the first part of this chapter. The

second part of the chapter presents descriptive statistics for demographic characteristics

such as gender, age, educational level, occupational level and years of employment. The

results relating to the inferential statistical analysis relevant to the hypotheses of the study

are presented, and the chapter is concluded with a summary.”

Moreover, SPSS version 24 was used for data analysis. Tests were carried out at 5%

level of significance. A descriptive analysis was used to describe the study’s demographic

features. “A correlation analysis coupled with a simple linear regression analysis was

utilized to determine whether job insecurity and trait anxiety are significantly related to

intention to quit. In order to identify if job insecurity and trait anxiety account for a

significantly higher proportion of variance in intention to quit than any of the two

separately, a multiple linear regression model was used. Multiple linear regression

models were used to test the moderating effect of trait anxiety on the relationship between

job insecurity and intention to quit by assessing the interaction effects. Tests for normality

were done using the normal plots of the standardized residuals. In accessing these plots,

it was found that the points of the expected against the observed cumulative probabilities

were lying on the line, hence the normality assumption for linear regression modelling

was satisfied. Also, assumptions dealing with outliers, homoscedasticity, and auto-

correlation of errors were met, suggesting a robust sample.”

65

4.1 Internal consistency As a rule of thumb, for the Cronbach alpha coefficient to be considered reliable, it must

be 0.7 or higher. The Cronbach alpha coefficient for all the scales used in this study,

which are shown in Table 4.1 is reliable. “Below are the results for the internal consistency

of the data collection instrument. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to test for

the reliability of the research instrument. Table 4.1 illustrates the reliability of each scale

as it relates to the variable measured. The Cronbach’s alpha shows high-reliability

coefficients for the scales measuring the study’s main variables, that is, job insecurity (α

= 0.837), trait anxiety (α = 0.885) and intention to quit (α = 0.766).”

Table 4.1: Reliability Analysis

Main Theoretical Variables Valid N Items Used Cronbach’s α

Job insecurity 122 11 0.837**

Trait anxiety 122 20 0.885**

Intention to quit 122 6 0.766**

**p<.001; Significantly acceptable reliability

4.2 Biographical profile of the respondents Before a detailed analysis of the data was done, basic distributions according to gender,

educational level, ethnicity, the position at work and specialization were initially

performed. A descriptive approach was used to describe the demographic variables of

the study (see Table 4.2).

66

Table 4.2: Descriptive Statistics for Biographical Variables

Variable Levels Df n Valid %

Gender Male 1 48 39.3 Female 74 60.7

Ethnicity Black 4 85 69.7 White 8 6.6 Coloured 23 18.9 Indian 3 2.5

Other 3 2.5

Age Under 21 years 4 5 4.1

21 – 30 years 34 27.9

31 – 40 years 34 27.9

41 – 50 years 34 27.9

51+ years 15 12.3

Educational Level Below grade 12 4 11 9.0

Grade 12 13 10.7

Diploma 34 27.9

Degree 26 21.3

Postgraduate degree 38 31.1

Occupational Level Managers 4 13 10.7

Professionals 16 13.1

Technician & Trade 16 13.1

Community & Service 21 17.2

Clerical & Admin 38 31.1

Machine operators/Drivers 18 14.8

Tenure Less than 1 year 4 3 2.5

1 – 5 years 62 50.8

6 – 10 years 31 25.4

11 – 15 years 12 9.8

16+ years 14 11.5 N=12

A graphical presentation and description of the descriptive statistics of the biographical

information is outlined below.

67

4.2.1 Gender Distribution Figure 4.1 shows the gender distribution of respondents. The majority of the respondents

were female employees“(61%; n=74) while male respondents constituted 39% (n=48) of

the total number of respondents.”

Figure 4.1 Gender distribution of respondents

39%

61%

Gender

Male

Female

68

4.2.2 Ethnicity Distribution

Figure 4.2 Ethnicity distributions of respondents

Figure 4.2 depicts the distribution of respondents in relation to their ethnicity within the

organisation. Most of the respondents“(69.7%, n = 85) were Black followed by Coloured

who constitute 18.9% (n = 23) of the sample. Those categorized as White respondents

constituted 6.6% (n=8). Both Indians and Other race constituted 2.5% (n =3) each of the

sample respectively.”

Black White Coloured Indian Other

69,7%

6,6%

18,9%

2,5% 2,5%

Race

69

4.2.3 Age Distribution

Figure 4.3 Age distribution of respondents

Figure 4.3 illustrates the age categories of the respondents to the study. The figure shows

that 34 respondents“(27.9%) were from 21 to 30 years old, another 34 were from the 30

to 40 years category, and the last 34 were from 41 to 50 years old. Fifteen respondents

(12.3%) were aged 51 years and above and only five respondents (4.1%) were below 21

years old.”

Under 21 years 21 - 30 years 31 - 40 years 41 - 50 years 51 + years

4,1%

27,9% 27,9% 27,9%

12,3%

Age

70

4.2.4 Occupational level Distribution

Figure 4.4 Occupational level distribution of respondents

Figure 4.4 illustrates the distribution of respondents in relation to their positions within the

organisation. The highest number of the respondents”(31.1%, n = 38) worked as clerical

and administrative employees, 17.2% (n = 21) as a community and personal service

workers, 14.8% each (n = 18) as machine operators, drivers and elementary workers.

Employees who worked as professionals and those who worked as technicians and trade

workers constituted 13% (n=16) of the total number of respondents respectively. Only

10.7% (n = 13) worked as managers.””

10,7%13,1% 13,1%

17,2%

31,1%

14,8%

Occupational Level

71

4.2.5 Educational Level Distribution Figure 4.5 shows that the highest number of the respondents (31.1%, n = 38) had a

postgraduate degree, 29.7% (n=34) of the respondents had a diploma, 21.3% (n=26) had

a degree while 10.7% (n= 13) had a Grade 12 education qualification. Only eleven

respondents (9%) had a lower than Grade 12 certificate.

Figure 4.5 Educational level distribution of respondents

Below grade 12 Grade 12 Diploma Degree Post graduatedegree

9%10,7%

27,9%

21,3%

31,1%

Educational Level

72

4.2.6 Tenure Distribution Figure 4.6 illustrates the period of employment in the present job of the respondents. The

graph shows that 50.8%“(n=62) of the respondents had worked since 1 to 5 years in their

present job, 25.4% (n=31) had worked since 6 to 10 years in their present job, 11.5%

(n=14) had worked since 16 years or more in their current job, 9.8% (n=12) had worked

since 11 to 15 years in their present job and only 2.5% (n=3) had been in their present

job for less than a year.”

Figure 4.6 Tenure distribution of respondents

Less than 1 year 1 - 5 years 6 - 10 years 11 - 15 years 16+ years

2,5%

50,8%

25,4%

9,8%11,5%

Tenure

73

4.3 Descriptive Statistics of the Theoretical Variables of the Study A summary of the descriptive statistics is shown in“(Table 4.3) of the study’s main

theoretical variables. Data is displayed in terms of the total number of respondents,

minimum, maximum, mean scores and standard deviation of the data set of the sample.

It shows the mean levels of the main variables which are job insecurity“(mean = 2.6967;

SD = 0.59523), trait anxiety (mean = 2.4719; SD = 0.49883) and intention to quit (mean

= 2.7199; SD = 0.66985).” It should be noted that job insecurity and intention to quit were

measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Both variables were generally moderately low among

the respondents. Trait anxiety was measured on a 4-point Likert scale and the mean level

shows that the respondents had moderately high levels of trait anxiety.”

Table 4.3 Summary of Descriptive Statistics of Main variables

Variable N Min Max Mean S.D

Job insecurity 122 1.00 4.00 2.6967 0.59523

Trait anxiety 121 1.20 3.45 2.4719 0.49883

Intention to quit 122 1.17 4.67 2.7199 0.66985

4.4 Hypotheses Testing First, it was necessary to check whether there was a linear relationship in the data which

allowed for linear regression analysis. “To achieve this a non-parametric Spearman’s Rho

correlation coefficient (one-tailed test) was used. Table 4.4 shows the correlations (Rho)

and significance probabilities for the relations of the main theoretical constructs of the

study that were considered in the hypotheses. For the linear relations, the results suggest

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that intention to quit had moderate positive significant linear relationships with job

insecurity (r = 0.392; p = <0.0001) and trait anxiety (r = 0.521; p = <0.0001).”

Table 4.4: Spearman correlations (Rho) and significance probabilities (P) for relations of

intentions to quit to job insecurity and trait anxiety

Personality Traits R P

Job insecurity 0.392 <0.0001**

Trait anxiety 0.521 <0.0001**

** Correlation is remarkable when the significance level is 0.01(One-tailed test).

4.5 Hypothesis testing Using Simple Linear Regression Models From the three hypothesized frameworks, “the results of the correlation analysis

demonstrate that there exist statistically significant correlations between intention to quit

and job insecurity as well as trait anxiety. It is also imperative to use simple linear

regression models to test these hypothesized frameworks. The Durbin-Watson test for

auto-correlation was used and to test the assumption of homoscedasticity and normality

of residuals, special plots (Q-Q plots) were used. The results of the simple linear

regression models are presented below.”

Hypothesis 1: The job insecurity and intention to quit hypothesis

H10: There is no significant positive relationship between job insecurity and intention to

quit.

H11: There is a significant positive relationship between job insecurity and intention to

quit.

75

Table 4.5 Simple Linear Regression Model Fit and Summary for Job insecurity on

Intention to quit.

*Significant fit. Note: Dependent Variable: Intention to quit;

Predictors: (Constant), Job insecurity

To determine whether job insecurity exerts a positive effect on the intention to quit, a

simple linear regression model was examined. Job insecurity was modelled as an

explanatory variable and this resulted in a significant model“(F = 22.579; p = <0.0001).

The model fit and model summary statistics are presented in Table 4.5. In this model, job

insecurity explained a significant amount of the variance in intention to quit (R2 =

0.158, R2 Adjusted = 0.151). The Durbin-Watson d = 1.984, is between the two critical

values of 1.5 < d < 2.5 and, therefore, we can assume that there is no firstorder linear

auto-correlation in our linear regression data.”

Table 4.6 shows that the unstandardized parameter estimates of the resultant model on

both the constant term“(β0 = 1.512; t = 5.811; p = <0.0001) and the main effect of job

insecurity trait (β1 = 0.448; t = 4.752; p = <0.0001) are statistically significant. Since the β1

coefficient is positive and significant, there is sufficient evidence at a 5% level of

Source df Sum of Squares Mean Square F Value Pr>F

Regression 1 8.598 8.598 22.579 <0.0001*

Residual 120 45.695 0.381

Total 121 54.293

Model Summary

Observations 122

R (Est. Standard Error) 0.398(0.61708)

)

R2 (Adjusted R2) 0.158(0.151)

F Change (Sig. F Change) 22.579(<0.0001*)

Durbin-Watson Test- Test for auto-correlation 1.984

76

significance to conclude that job insecurity does exert a positive effect on the intention to

quit. Thus, the resultant unstandardized regression equation is:”

Intention to quit= 1.512 + 0.448*Job insecurity + residual

Table 4.6 Parameter Estimates for Job insecurity on Intention to quit.

Dependent Variable: Intention to quit

Hypothesis2: The trait anxiety and intention to quit hypothesis

H20: There is no significant positive relationship between trait anxiety and intention to quit.

H21: There is a significant positive relationship between trait anxiety and intention to quit.

Trait anxiety was modelled as an independent variable on the intention to quit determining

if there exists any statistically significant positive effect on the intention to quit. “Table 4.7

shows the simple linear regression model summary and overall fit statistics. We find that

the R² of our model is 0.318 which means that the linear regression explains only 31.8%

of the variance in the dependent variable. The resultant model revealed a significant fit (F

= 55.402; p = <0.0001). The test for auto-correlation shows that there is no firstorder linear

auto-correlation in our data (d =2.038).”

Parameter

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients T Sig

B Std Error B

Constant 1.512 0.260 5.811 <0.0001*

Job insecurity 0.448 0.094 0.398 4.752 <0.0001*

77

Table 4.7 Simple Linear Regression Model Fit and Summary for Trait anxiety on

Intention to quit

*Significant fit. Note: Dependent Variable: Intention to quit

Predictors: (Constant), Trait anxiety

The unstandardized parameter estimates in Table 4.8 reveal that trait anxiety has a

statistically significant positive effect on the intention to quit“(β1 = 0.757; t = 7.442; p =

<0.0001). Thus, at the 5% level of significance, it can be concluded that trait anxiety exerts

a positive effect on the intention to quit. The resultant model is;”

Intention to quit= 0.843 + 0.757*Trait anxiety+ residual

Table 4.8 Parameter Estimates for Trait anxiety on Intention to quit.

Dependent Variable: Intention to quit

Source Df Sum of Squares Mean Square F Value Pr>F

Regression 1 17.127 17.127 55.402 <0.0001*

Residual 119 36.787 0.309

Total 120 53.913

Model Summary

Observations 121

R (Est. Standard Error) 0.564(0.55600)

)

R2 (Adjusted R2) 0.318(0.312)

F Change (Sig. F Change) 55.402(<0.0001*)

Durbin-Watson Test- Test for auto-correlation 2.038

Parameter

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients T Sig

B Std Error B

Constant 0.843 0.257 3.285 0.001*

Trait anxiety 0.757 0.102 0.564 7.443 <0.0001*

78

Hypothesis 3: The job insecurity, trait anxiety and intention to quit hypothesis

H30: Job insecurity and trait anxiety do not account for a significantly higher proportion of


H31: Job insecurity and trait anxiety account for a significantly higher proportion of


To examine if job insecurity and trait anxiety account for a significantly higher proportion

of variance in the intention to quit than any of the two separately, hierarchical multiple

regression models were used. “The predicting variables which are job insecurity and trait

anxiety were foremost added as explanatory variables. An additional explanatory variable

was then added to the model, and the change in R2 was noted. A hypothesis test using

the F-test was done to test whether the change in R2 is significant after the addition of

each of the explanatory variables.”

Table 4.9: A summary of hierarchical multiple regression analyses testing job insecurity and trait anxiety in the prediction of intention to quit

Independent Variables

Intention to quit

F Adjusted

R2 R2 R2 df2 Sig. F

aJob Insecurity 22.241 0.150 0.157 0.157 119 <0.0001*

Job Insecurity + Trait Anxiety 31.255 0.323 0.334 0.176 118 <0.0001*

bTrait Anxiety 55.402 0.312 0.318 0.318 119 <0.0001*

Trait Anxiety + Job Insecurity 2.875 0.323 0.334 0.016 118 0.093

*Significant change in the amount of variation of dependent variable being explained by the predictors.

79

Table 4.9 shows that job insecurity alone explained 15.7% of the variance in the

dependent variables“(R2 = 0.15.7). Combined with trait anxiety, the resultant model

accounted for a total of 33.4% of the variance in intention to quit. This means adding trait

anxiety to job insecurity as independent variables on the intention to quit results in a

significant increase in the amount of variance explained by the model (∆R2 = 0.176; ∆F =

31.255; Sig ∆F = <0.0001). Inversely, adding job insecurity to trait anxiety did not

significantly add unique variance in predicting intention to quit. Thus, adding job insecurity

to trait anxiety as an additional predictor of intention to quit, results in a non-significant

increase in the amount of variation explained by the model (∆R2 = 0.016; ∆F = 2.875; Sig

∆F = 0.093).”

Hypothesis 4: The moderating effect of Trait anxiety hypothesis

H40: Trait anxiety does not significantly moderate the relationship between job insecurity

and intention to quit.

H41: Trait anxiety significantly moderates the relationship between job insecurity and

intention to quit.

A linear regression analysis on the moderating effect of trait anxiety on the relationship

between job insecurity and intention to quit was carried out. “The linear regression model

(Table 4.10) yielded a significance level of F statistics (F = 31.128; df = 2; P =

<0.0001).Table 4.11 shows, that the overall R2 is 0.345, revealing that the resultant model

can explain 34.5% of the variation on the intention to quit. In Table 4.12, the variance

inflation factor (VIF) of each independent variable indicates that a collinearity problem

80

does not exist among variables. Thus, in the regression model, a collinearity problem

does not exist among variables.”

Table 4.10 Regression model for trait anxiety, job insecurity and the moderating

effect on the intention to quit

* Significant fit. Note: Independent variables: (constant), Trait anxiety, Job insecurity and Moderator (Trait anxiety *Job insecurity); Dependent variable: Intention to quit

Table 4.11 Amount of variation explained by the model

Note: Independent variables: (constant), Trait anxiety, Job insecurity and Moderator (Trait anxiety *Job insecurity); Dependent variable: Intention to quit

The table of parameter estimates indicates that the estimated regression equation is;

Intention to quit = 2.105 – 2.423*Job Insecurity+ 0.238*(Job Insecurity* Trait Anxiety) + residual

The parameter estimate shows that the interaction term“(β3 = 0.238; t = 6.318; p =

<0.0001) has a positive significant effect in the model. Thus, there is sufficient evidence

at 5% significance level to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that trait anxiety has a

positive moderating effect on the relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit

among employees at Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality.”

Source df Sum of Squares Mean Square F Value Pr>F

Model 2 18.620 9.310 31.128 <0.0001*

Error 118 35.293 0.299

Correlated Total 120 53.913

R R2 Adjusted R2 Est. Standard Error Durbin-Watson Test

0.588 0.345 0.334 0.54689 2.036

81

Table 4.12 Parameter Estimates

* Significant fit. Note: Independent variables: (constant), Trait anxiety, Job insecurity and Moderator (Trait anxiety *Job insecurity); Dependent variable: Intention to quit

A summary of the simple linear regression hypotheses, results is presented in Table 4.13

and Figure 4.7.

Table 4.13 Summary of the hypotheses, results

Alpha = 0.05 (reject the Null Hypothesis when the P-value < Alpha

Parameter

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients T Sig

Collinearity

Diagnostics B Standard

Error

B Tol VIF

Constant 2.105 0.207 10.152 0.000

Job Insecurity -2.423 0.868 -0.387 -2.791 0.006 0.879 1.258

Interaction 0.238 0.038 0.876 6.318 0.000 0.884 1.777

Description (Null Hypothesis) Test Statistic P-value Decision

H1

There is no significant positive relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit.

β1=0.448 0.000 Reject

H2 There is no significant positive relationship between trait anxiety and intention to quit.

β1=0.757 0.000 Reject

H3

Job insecurity and trait anxiety do not account for a significantly higher proportion of variance in intention to quit than any of the two separately.

∆F = 31.255

∆F = 2.875

0.000

0.093

Unexpected result; partially reject

H4

Trait anxiety does not significantly moderate the relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit.

β2=0.238 0.000 Reject

82

H3

H2

Figure 4.7: Conceptual model and summary for the hypothesized frameworks

4.6 Chapter summary This chapter presented the results of the analysis of the demographic variables in the

form of bar graphs, pie chart and tables. Inferential statistics were then used to analyze

the results in terms of the hypotheses. “The chapter also presented the decisions reached

in terms of rejecting or accepting the study hypotheses. A discussion of the findings, the

recommendations, the limitations of the study and conclusions are presented in the next

chapter.”

Trait

anxiety(Moderating

Variable)

H1:

β1=0.448

p=<0.0001

H4:

β3 =0.238

p = <0.0001

H2:

β2= 0.757

p=<0.0001

Job insecurity

(Independent Variable) Intention to quit

(Dependent Variable)

Moderating Effect

Direct Effect

Direct Effect of

Moderating Variable

83

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Introduction The previous chapter presented the results of the data analysis of the study, that is

the relationship between trait anxiety, job insecurity, and intention to quit among

employees at Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality. “This chapter discusses the results

in relation to the hypotheses of the study and previous research findings. The chapter

focuses on the conclusions, limitations, recommendations and future research

directions in related studies.”

5.2. Discussion of results The main purpose of this study was to investigate the association between trait

anxiety, job insecurity, and intention to quit among employees at the Raymond Mhlaba

Local Municipality. In this regard, the findings of the study are discussed below in

relation to the hypotheses and previous research findings.

5.2.1. Hypothesis 1: The job insecurity and intention to quit hypothesis H10: There is no significant positive relationship between job insecurity and intention

to quit.

H11: There is a significant positive relationship between job insecurity and intention to

quit.

In testing this hypothesis, the linear regression results show that the unstandardized

parameter estimates the resultant model of both the constant term“(β0 = 1.512; t =

5.811; p = <0.0001) and the main effect of job insecurity (β1 = 0.448; t = 4.752; p =

<0.0001) were all statistically significant. Since the β1 coefficient is positive and

significant, thus there is sufficient evidence at a 5% level of significance to conclude

that job insecurity is significantly positively related to intention to quit. Thus, the

resultant unstandardized regression equation is:”

84

Intention to quit= 1.512 + 0.448*Job insecurity + residual

The conclusion that job insecurity is positively related to intention to quit is consistent

with existing literature on the subject of job security and employee turnover. Many

authors“(Cheng & Chan, 2008; Gilboa et al., 2008; Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 2010;

Huang et al., 2013) report that job insecurity is a major job stressor and negatively

influences job satisfaction, organisational commitment, job involvement and trust, as

well as ultimately causing the employee to quit. On the other hand, Huang et al. (2013)

argue that as much as job insecurity affects some job facets, it is a common work-

place phenomenon that does not necessarily push an employee to want to quit the

job. Staufenbiel and Konig (2010) also add that increased work effort may quickly iron

out the severity of job insecurity and it may, therefore, not lead to the intention to quit.

Despite some few authors playing down the influence of job insecurity on the intention

to quit, it is clear that an increasingly insecure employee about his/her job without the

presence of other factors may increasingly consider the option to quit the job (Steel &

Ovalle, 1984).”

5.2.2 Hypothesis2: The trait anxiety and intention to quit hypothesis H20: There is no significant positive relationship between trait anxiety and intention to

quit.

H21: There is a significant positive relationship between trait anxiety and intention to

quit.

Linear regression results reveal that trait anxiety is significantly positively a related

intention to quit (β1 = 0.757; t = 7.442; p = <0.0001). The resultant model is;

Intention to quit= 0.843 + 0.757*Trait anxiety+ residual

The result that trait anxiety is significantly positively related to intention to quit is similar

to previous findings. Heightened anxiety and anxiety perseverations transcend to

85

stress and emotional burnout which ultimately translates to voluntary disengagement

from work activities“(De Witte et al., 2015; Karakaya & Ulper, 2011; Van Wyk &

Pienaar, 2008; Westman, Etzion, & Danon, 2001). In addition, Gross and Thompson

(2007) agree that anxiety may lead to intention to quit because anxiety is an emotional

state that may grow to affect the mental health and willingness to participate in the

productivity aspects of one’s job. Phan et al. (2006) also emphasize that high trait

anxiety makes one react more negatively to the stress inherent in the job and ultimately

lose interest in the job, thus consider quitting. On the other hand, a few authors

(Probst, 2008; Sverte et al., 2010) contend that trait anxiety on its own may not

significantly influence an employee’s decision to quit, but it is the combination of

numerous job factors that ultimately pushes an employee to voluntarily quit.”

5.2.3 Hypothesis 3: The job insecurity, trait anxiety and intention to quit hypothesis H30: Job insecurity and trait anxiety do not account for a significantly higher proportion

of variance in intention to quit than any of the two separately.

H31: Job insecurity and trait anxiety account for a significantly higher proportion of


The results of linear regression show that job insecurity alone explained 15.7% of the

variance in the dependent variables“(R2 = 0.15.7). Combined with trait anxiety, the

resultant model accounted for a total of 33.4% of the variance in intention to quit. This

means adding trait anxiety to job insecurity as independent variables on the intention

to quit results in a significant increase in the amount of variance explained by the

model (∆R2 = 0.176; ∆F = 31.255; Sig ∆F = <0.0001). Inversely, adding job insecurity

to trait anxiety did not significantly add unique variance in predicting intention to quit.

Thus, adding job insecurity to trait anxiety as an additional predictor on the intention

to quit, results in a non-significant increase in the amount of variation explained by the

86

model (∆R2 = 0.016; ∆F = 2.875; Sig ∆F = 0.093). Since only adding job insecurity

added significant unique variance in predicting intention to quit, we have a case of an

unexpected result.”

The adding of trait anxiety to job insecurity proved to significantly increase the variance

in the intention to quit. Put differently, when an employee is feeling insecure about

his/her job, there are chances of considering to quit the job (Klandermans, & van

Vuuren,1999). The propensity to quit is increased if the job insecurity meets with

anxiety build-up. Thus, the emotional stress is escalated such that the employee may

no longer consider his/her job to be valuable or worth keeping (Wilson, Larson, &

Stone, 1993). This finding is consistent with existing research because De Witte et al.

(2010) report job insecurity to be a work stressor that has negative effects like burnout

and mental strain whilst Reisel and Probst (2010) emphasize that trait anxiety may be

tantamount to negative work attitudes. Subsequently, both variables may lead to

employee turnover. The multiplicity or working together of these psychological and

emotional variables may lead to an increased conviction for an employee to consider

quitting his/her job (Leka & Jain, 2010). Other studies also report lower levels of work

engagement due to increased job insecurity and trait anxiety (Chen et al., 2011;

Fugate et al., 2012; Karakaya & Ulper, 2011). However, no studies could be located

that stated otherwise.

5.2.4 Hypothesis 4: The moderating effect of Trait anxiety hypothesis H40: Trait anxiety does not significantly moderate the relationship between job

insecurity and intention to quit.

H41: Trait anxiety significantly moderates the relationship between job insecurity and

intention to quit.

87

The table of parameter estimates indicates that the estimated regression equation is;

Intention to quit = 2.105 – 2.423*Job Insecurity+ 0.238*(Job Insecurity* Trait Anxiety) + residual

The parameter estimate shows that the interaction term (β3 = 0.238; t = 6.318; p =

<0.0001) has a positive significant effect in the model. Thus, there is sufficient

evidence at 5% significance level to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that trait

anxiety has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between job insecurity and

intention to quit among the selected sample.

The significant moderating effect trait anxiety has on the relationship between job

insecurity and intention to quit shows that whenever an employee is feeling insecure

about the job, the build-up of trait anxiety magnifies the total effect, that is, the

employees’ propensity to quit their jobs. This means that even though trait anxiety is

reported by some few researchers not to be significantly related with intention to quit,

the increase of the feeling of anxiety in an individual already insecure about his/her

job reduces the employee’s willingness to stay with the job. Despite the scarcity of

literature on the moderating role of trait anxiety, Glaso et al. (2011) and Derakshan

and Eysenck (2009) had similar results showing growth in the variance of the

employee’s intention to quit when trait anxiety is introduced in the relationship between

workplace bullying and job satisfaction on the one hand and intention to quit on the

other. In other words, trait anxiety reduces the advantage that positive work aspects

like satisfaction and engagement have on the retention of employees (Marshall, 2011).

In a reverse manner, trait anxiety tends to increase the disadvantage that negative

work aspects like stress and insecurity have on the retention of employees (Andrew,

Cohen, Salgaonkar, & Patel, 2012).

88

5.3 Limitations This study was largely successful, even though there were some limitations noted.

The limitations are briefly discussed below;

The first limitation that the study was faced with which affected a number of

other activities pertaining to the study were the unavailability of funds for the

research.

The sample size was quite small because of financial and time restraints. This

does not allow generalisation of findings from this study

This study focused on the permanent employees at Raymond Mhlaba Local

Municipality. The other Municipalities were not included in this study. The

organisational context of this study does not allow the results to be generalised

among other Municipalities in South Africa. The population in this study may

not represent all the Municipality employees in South Africa.

The study is solely quantitative in nature. An in-depth investigation of the actual

experience of the respondents using qualitative methods would have been

valuable in understanding the relationship among the variables “trait anxiety”,

“job insecurity” and “intention to quit”.

As with all similar studies, the use of data which relies on self-reports are

potentially problematic“(Heppner, Wampold, Owen, Thompson & Wang, 2016).

The reliance on self-report data leaves open the possibility of distortion. The

use of shortened versions of job insecurity and intention to quit measures may

also limit the ability to detect significant associations (Edwards, 2010).”

89

5.4 Practical Recommendations

5.4.1 Recommendations for human resource practitioners The study concluded that job insecurity significantly positively relates to the

employee’s intention to quit. Since human resources officers, managers and

practitioners work with the objective of attracting, recruiting and retaining the best staff,

the study recommends these stakeholders to continuously review the factors and

aspects of the job that may invite the feeling of insecurity on the part of employees.

When changes are identified, the human resources unit may then recommend the

employer to change the employee remuneration package or working environment or

any other aspect of concern. Research has it that job security makes an employee be

more engaged in the job and probably also be more productive (Loi et al., 2011;

Probst, 2003; Wang et al., 2014).

In the same manner, the study recommends that human resources personnel should

continue reviewing programs and services that are designed to combat the emotional

and mental well-being of employees. This is because the study found that trait anxiety

actively combines with job insecurity to widen the variance in the employee’s intention

to quit their jobs. Many authors agree that trait anxiety is tantamount to negative work

behaviours, mental strain and emotional burnout (De Witte et al., 2010; Berntson et

al., 2011; Kalyal et al., 2010; Ouyang, 2009).

5.4.2 Recommendations to employees Job insecurity and anxiety are all reported in this study and in the literature to have

negative mental, emotional and even physical health hazards (Berntson et al., 2011;

Kalyal et al., 2010). Anxiety perseverance leads to mood swings, less self-confidence,

short temper as well as negative interpersonal relationships (Janas, 2009; Rosser,

2004). The study, therefore, recommends employees and any other professional to

90

quickly seek therapy, advice and alternative help when these variables persist in their

systems in order to avoid the long-term hazardous effects to one’s well-being.

Comparison of one’s job and its aspects/environment may need to be compared with

similar jobs in the same organization or even externally in order to make sure that

insecurity and anxiety are not a personal evil to an employee. Again, effective

progression in one’s career is built upon the interdependence of one person and the

other. Persistent insecurities at work and anxieties may weaken one’s ability to

properly relate with others and his/her effectiveness as a team player. Lastly, in

systems where productivity and pay are related, job insecurity and anxiety may not be

desirable aspects to creep in because they may lower one’s. Career counsellors may

also need to be consulted in cases of constant occurrences of these aspects.

5.4.3 Recommendations to policymakers/enforcers Since there are legal standards set by the state to regulate organisations or other

responsible bodies to govern the employee or employer treatment and the work

environment, the study recommends these responsible authorities to consider the

results of this research and similar literature in setting labour policies. Such policies

may help create similar work environments that promote productivity, humanity and

the macro-economy. The study also recommends the policymakers to also review the

enforcement of policies already in place given that the rightful implementation of these

policies combat job insecurity, anxiety and employee’s intention to quit.”

5.4.4 Recommendations for future research Despite the limitations found in this study, “the results may have important implications

in future research. It is recommended that the study is done across all Municipalities

in South Africa using a randomized sampling design to help cross-validate findings of

the factors influencing trait anxiety, job insecurity and intention to quit. To improve the

91

generalizability of findings, the researcher recommends the use of a larger sample

size.”

5.5. Chapter Conclusion This chapter gave a summary of the findings relating to the main hypotheses of the

study, giving details on the conclusion reached on each of them. “In short, job

insecurity and trait anxiety were found to be significantly related to employee’s

intention to quit. Trait anxiety was also found to be a significant moderator of the

relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit. A section of the discussion of

the findings followed each hypothesis with the study citing how the findings fit in with

the related literature. The chapter also highlighted the major limitations to the study so

that users of the study results may be cautious. Recommendations based on the

findings of the study were made to human resources practitioners,

employees/professionals, labour policy-makers and future researchers.”

5.6 Research Conclusion This study set out to determine the relationship between job insecurity and intention

to quit among employees in the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality Offices, Eastern

Cape. “The study also aimed to determine whether trait anxiety could moderate the

relationship between job insecurity and intention to quit. In order to achieve this, the

study utilized reliable instruments to measure the variables and statistical analysis

processes were effected on the data collected. The results emanating from the

research indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship between Trait

anxiety, Job insecurity, and intention to quit among the sample of employees selected

to participate in the research. The study also concluded that trait anxiety was a

significant moderator to the relationship between job insecurity and employee’s

intention to quit. Recommendations were made to respective stakeholders.”

92

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APPENDIX

My name is Bongiwe Morida Kavi, I am a master’s student in the department of

Industrial Psychology at the University of Fort hare. As required for the

completion of my studies, I am conducting a study titled “The relationship

between trait anxiety, job insecurity and intention to quit among employees

at the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality”

The research is solely for academic purposes and all information obtained will be

kept in the strictness of confidence. Your name is not required and there is no

right or wrong answer. Completing the questionnaire may take you about 20

minutes, thank you.

Your contributions are highly appreciated.

Thank you

140

QUESTIONNAIRE:

SECTION A: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Instruction: Tick the correct answer by making an X in the box of your choice.

1 Gender Male Female

2 Race Black White Coloured Indian Other

3 Age

Group

Under

21

21-30 31-40 41-50 51+

4 Occupational

level

Managers Professionals Technician

and

Trade

Workers

Community

And

Personal

Service

Workers

Clerical and

Administrative

Workers

Machine

Operators,

Drivers

and

Elementary

Workers

5 Educational level No formal

education

Below

grade

12

Grade

12

Diploma Degree Post

graduate

degree

6 length of service in years Less than

1 year

1- 5

years

6-10

years

11-15

years

16 +

years

141

SECTION B: JOB INSECURITY INVENTORY(JII)

Please read carefully through the statements and answer them as honestly as possible, using the

Following scale: 1 = Disagree strongly. 2 = Disagree. 3 = neither disagree nor agree. 4 = Agree. 5

= Agree strongly

Statement

Str

on

gly

Dis

ag

ree

Dis

ag

ree

Neu

tral

Ag

ree

Str

on

gly

Ag

ree

1 I think that I will be able to continue working here. 1 2 3 4 5

2 There is only a small chance that I will become

unemployed.

1 2 3 4 5

3 I am certain/sure of my job environment. 1 2 3 4 5

4 I am very sure that I will be able to keep my job. 1 2 3 4 5

5 It makes me anxious that I might become unemployed. 1 2 3 4 5

6 I feel uncertain about the future of my job. 1 2 3 4 5

7 I worry about the continuation of my career. 1 2 3 4 5

8 I fear that I might lose my job. 1 2 3 4 5

9 I fear that I might get fired. 1 2 3 4 5

10 There is a possibility that I might lose my job in the near

future.

1 2 3 4 5

11 I think that I might be dismissed in the future. 1 2 3 4 5

142

SECTION C: MEASURING TURNOVER INTENTION


Following scale: 1 = Disagree strongly. 2 = Disagree. 3 = neither disagree nor agree. 4 = Agree. 5

= Agree strongly

Statement

Str

on

gly

Dis

ag

ree

Dis

ag

ree

Neu

tral

Ag

ree

Str

on

gly

Ag

ree

I am fed up with my current job and am earnestly gathering

information to find a new job.

1 2 3 4 5

I would quit my job at this municipality without a second

thought.

1 2 3 4 5

If I found another job with conditions that suited me, I think I

would quit my job immediately.

1 2 3 4 5

I am so fed up with my job that I might not be able to endure it

any longer.

1 2 3 4 5

I am fed up enough with my job to consider being intentionally

absent or late for work.

1 2 3 4 5

I have talked seriously with my family or close friends about

quitting or changing my job

1 2 3 4 5

143

SECTION D: TRAIT ANXIETY INVENTORY


Following scale: 1 = Almost never. 2 = Sometimes. 3 = Often. 4 = Almost always.

Statement

Alm

ost

nev

er

So

met

imes

Oft

en

Alm

ost

alw

ay

s

1 I feel pleasant. 1 2 3 4

2 I feel nervous and restless. 1 2 3 4

3 I feel satisfied with myself. 1 2 3 4

4 I wish I could be happy as others seem to be. 1 2 3 4

5 I feel like a failure. 1 2 3 4

6 I feel rested. 1 2 3 4

7 I am cool, calm and collected”. 1 2 3 4

8 I feel that difficulties are piling up so that I cannot

overcome them.

1 2 3 4

9 I worry too much over something that really doesn’t matter. 1 2 3 4

10 I am happy. 1 2 3 4

11 I have disturbing thoughts. 1 2 3 4

12 I lack self- confidence. 1 2 3 4

13 I feel secure. 1 2 3 4

14 I make decisions easily. 1 2 3 4

15 I feel inadequate. 1 2 3 4

16 I am content. 1 2 3 4

17 Some unimportant thoughts run through my mind and

bothers me.

1 2 3 4

18 I take disappointments so keenly that I can’t put them out

of my mind.

1 2 3 4

19 I am a steady person. 1 2 3 4

20 I get in a state of tension or turmoil as I think over my recent

concerns and interests.

1 2 3 4

144

University of Fort Hare

Together in Excellence

ETHICAL CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE

REC-270710-028-RA Level 01

Certificate Reference Number: MJ0071 SKAVOI

Project title: The relationship between trait anxiety, job

insecurity and intention to quit among

employees at the Raymond Mhlaba Local

Municipality Head office.

Nature of Project Master of Commerce: Industrial Psychology

Principal Researcher: Bongiwe M. Kavi

Supervisor: Prof T. Q. Mjoli

Co-supervisor: N/A

On behalf of the University of Fort Hare's Research Ethics Committee (UREC) I hereby

give ethical approval in respect of the undertakings contained in the abovementioned

project and research instrument(s). Should any other instruments be used, these

require separate authorization. The Researcher may therefore commence with the

research as from the date of this certificate, using the reference number indicated

above. This certificate is valid for a year from the date of approval; thereafter, the

Principal investigator/s will be expected to apply for renewal.

Please note that the UREC must be informed immediately of

Any material changes in the conditions or undertakings mentioned in the

document;

Any material breaches of ethical undertakings or events that impact

upon the ethical conduct of the research.

145

The Principal Researcher must report to the UREC in the prescribed format, where

applicable, annually, and at the end of the project, in respect of ethical compliance.

Special conditions: Research that includes children as per the official regulations of the act must take the following into account:

Note: The UREC is aware of the provisions of Department of Health Charter of Ethics

in Health Research Principles, Processes and Structures; DOH 2015, signed by the

Minister of Health in March 2015. This certificate is granted in terms

of the provisions of the above-mentioned document.

The UREC retains the right to

Withdraw or amend this Ethical Clearance Certificate if o Any unethical

principal or practices are revealed or suspected; o Relevant information has

been withheld or misrepresented; o Regulatory changes of whatsoever nature

so require; o The conditions contained in the Certificate have not been

adhered to.

Request access to any information or data at any time during the course

or after completion of the project.

In addition to the need to comply with the highest level of ethical

conduct principle investigators must report back annually as an evaluation and

monitoring mechanism on the progress being made by the research. Such a

report must be sent to the Dean of Research's office.

The Ethics Committee wished you well in your research.

Yours sincerely

Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola

Dean of Research

12 November 2018

146

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TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

AUTHOR: BONGIWE MORIDA KAVI

DOCUMENT TITLE: A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANXIETY, JOB INSECURITY AND

INTENTION TO QUIT AMONG EMPLOYEES AT RAYMOND MHLABA LOCAL MUNICIPALITY.

DATE ISSUED: 19 - 02 - 2020

STUDENT’S NUMBER: 201317227

I hereby certify that the above thesis was proofread and edited by

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The document was edited for proper English language, grammar, punctuation and spelling.

I also ensured that the author’s intended meaning was not altered

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The author also has the final responsibility to accept or reject each

change in the thesis.

Sincerely,

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