voluntary turnover: a means of reducing perceived job insecurity? a propensity score matching procedure applied on swiss data

Abstract

The investigation of job insecurity has been a growing field of research. However, little is known about the strategies employees adopt to reduce job insecurity. Former research has shown that employees who perceive high job insecurity tend to engage in voluntary turnover. Yet, we do not know whether such a strategy is successful in reducing perceived job insecurity. Based on the Swiss Household Panel (SHP), a general population survey in Switzerland, a propensity score matching procedure is applied to investigate whether voluntary turnover successfully reduces feelings of job insecurity for employees who previously perceived an above-average level of job insecurity. Assuming that individual and family conditions are important factors explaining the success of this strategy it is distinguished between men and women with high, equally shared, or low financial responsibilities and of different age and educational groups. The results show that voluntary turnover indeed reduces perceived job insecurity. Whereas the individual factors do not moderate this relationship, the level of financial responsibilities does: employees who equally share financial responsibilities with their partners are most successful in reducing perceived job insecurity through voluntary turnover. The use of a propensity score matching procedure has proven fruitful as the bias caused by differing pre-turnover characteristics can be reduced considerably.