Subtle Cutback Management and Exhaustion: Qualitative Job Insecurity as a Mediator in a Sample of Dutch and Belgian Employees

Subtle Cutback Management and Exhaustion: Qualitative Job Insecurity as a Mediator in a Sample of Dutch and Belgian Employees

As an answer to crises such as COVID-19, organizations implemented more subtle forms of cutback measures such as wage moderation, loan sacrifice and recruitment freezes aimed at maintaining a financially healthy organization. In this study, the association between subtle cutback management and emplo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 20; no. 9; p. 5684
Main Authors: Akkermans, Yvette, Stynen, Dave
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 28-04-2023
MDPI
Subjects:
Belgium
Burnout
Coronaviruses
Costs
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Employees
Employment
Fear
Humans
Job Satisfaction
Mediation
Medical research
Organizational change
Organizations
Pandemics
Regression analysis
Wages & salaries
Working conditions
Workplace
Belgium
Netherlands
exhaustion
cutback measures
qualitative job insecurity
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Summary:As an answer to crises such as COVID-19, organizations implemented more subtle forms of cutback measures such as wage moderation, loan sacrifice and recruitment freezes aimed at maintaining a financially healthy organization. In this study, the association between subtle cutback management and employee exhaustion was studied, and it was investigated whether this potential linkage can be explained by employee perceptions of increased qualitative job insecurity or the fear that valued features of the job will decrease in the near future. This research thereby extends prior research on the consequences of cutback management as well as regarding the antecedents of qualitative job insecurity. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted on a sample of workers (N = 218) active in various organizations in the Netherlands and Belgium. Regression analysis was applied to test hypotheses. Mediation was investigated by means of Hayes PROCESS macro. The results of the study indicate that there is no direct relationship between subtle cutback measures deployed at the workplace and employee exhaustion. However, the analyses further reveal that subtle cutback management is positively related to the experience of qualitative job insecurity in workers and that enhanced qualitative job insecurity is positively related to employee exhaustion. Qualitative job insecurity fully mediates the relationship between subtle cutback management and employee exhaustion.
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ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph20095684