LOCUS OF CONTROL JOB STATUS GENDER AND PERCEIVED JOB INSECURITY AMONG BANK WORKERS

ABSTRACT

This study investigated locus of control, job status and gender as predictors of perceived job insecurity among bank workers. Two hundred (200) bank workers (122 males and 78 females) drawn from first bank Plc, fidelity bank Plc, zenith bank Plc, Union bank Plc and Access bank Plc all in Nsukka, Enugu state participated  in  the  study.  Locus  of  control  scale  (LCS)  and  Job  insecurity inventory (JII) were used for data collection. It was hypothesized that locus of control, job status and gender as predictors of perceived  job insecurity. Results of correlation matrix showed that Locus of controls, Job status and gender are not significant predictors of cognitive and affective job insecurity. Implications and Limitations of the study were discussed and suggestions made for further studies.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

It is widely believed that the changing world of work and its implications as well as the demand on organizations for better performance and competitiveness are taking their tolls on the emotional well-being of employees (De Witte, 1999). The effect is large-scale work force reduction, job insecurity, and unemployment. Moses  (1998)  argues  that  once  valued  social  contract  that  guaranteed  job insecurity has been replaced by a reality that employees remain employed as long as they can make a contribution and skills and  knowledge are needed by the organization. According to Moses (1998), the work roles have changed so much that workers have lost their sense of protection. In the past, organization provided a sense of security, allowing employees to belong to something bigger than themselves as well as identification with people that are like-minded and working for a common purpose that instills pride and meaningfulness (Moses, 1998).

Investment in medium and large scale manufacturing enterprise by Nigerian entrepreneurs has continued to grow but little is known about their organization and its management in general and the nature of working conditions and employee commitment in particular. A study by Dieker (1997), which examined the relationship between working conditions and employee commitments in twenty indigenous owned private manufacturing firms in South east Nigeria shows that these firms have the potentials to contribute to the industrial future of the country.

However, a substantial number of their workers are dissatisfied with the extrinsic and equity factors of their work which are stronger predictors of employee commitment than the intrinsic responsibility component. To build a viable workforce for enterprise success and industrial development, entrepreneur should invest in the long- term goals of their workers and learn to balance their own interests with those of their employees.

In Nigeria, May Day is celebrated like any other countries in the world but, her citizens have been confronted with massive unemployment especially among youths. Thousands of university graduates are roaming the streets without jobs while thousands of Nigerian bankers have lost their jobs. Even those at work face inequality and  this has become a major challenge. All these are issues which successive governments in Nigeria have failed to address on May Day. The consolidation reforms under Professor Charles Soludo in 2005, streamlined banks in the country to just twenty five with strong capital base with high expectations that the industry would take its driver’s seat in growing the economy. This dream was shattered by poor corporate governance, credit indiscipline and financial recklessness. Major sectors of Nigerian organization, manufacturing industries, energy and basic infrastructures continue to suffer.

More importantly, despite the effort of competent hands in some institutions and industries, virtually all the banks, insurance and financial empires have entrenched policies that are definitely antithetical to security of jobs, its creation

and welfare of the workers. A clear example is the perennial lay off of workers as redundant. Job insecurity and unemployment have become a major threat to the future of trade unions. Employees continue to lose jobs even when employers do not engage new employees.

Due to the violation of the trade union acts in Nigeria, new employees are made to sign bond that they would not belong to trade union. This has not been challenged because new employees would rather protect their jobs than belonging to trade union. The inability of the Nigerian government to create an enabling environment for the companies, has led to  hash economic climate despite the positive reforms which the National Union of Petroleum and Gas (NUPENG) has recorded. NUPENG, like many other unions in the private sector, had to contend with casualisation which leaves the employees vulnerable to all sorts of abuses in the workplace.

In the last two years, the negotiation of a new national minimum wage has been in focus. Although, that has been done by President Goodluck Jonathan, its implementation has thrown up a constitutional issues. Even when privatization has created employment in Nigeria, the level of job insecurity is at an alarming rate. Entrepreneurs failing to adhere to the trade union’s acts, employment of incompetent workers, bringing in rigidity in the industrial work content, low level of employee’s participation in organizational decisions, extrinsic incentives like wages,  promotions  and  fringe  benefits  are  all  found  wanting  in  Nigerian’s

employers.  This  amounts  threats  not  only  to  the  employees  but  also  to  the organizations.

Harbison and Mayers (1965), once pointed out that the wealth of a country is based on its’ power to develop and to effectively utilize the innate capacities of her people. Though that statement has become a cliché, it is an overstatement to say that human effort is the foundation of national development. Consequently, national development occurs through the effective utilization of human resources. Therefore, the international Institute for Human Factor Development (IIHFP) has stated that Nigeria, being one of the developing countries has not been successful in achieving proper development and utilization of their human resources because the government has failed to create an enabling environment and as a result of this, the companies fail to respect trade unions acts which make working environment better for employees, leaving workers with fear of loss of jobs. This fear of job loss has the potential of creating job insecurity in employees.

Job insecurity has been found to affect employees motivation and the ability to perform a task effectively and efficiently reduce production, and increase an induce illnesses, absenteeism and turnover, Owens (1995). It is therefore defined as the employee’s negative reactions to the changes concerning their jobs as well as the fear that they may loss their jobs (De Witte,1989; Dary, Kinicki & Sheck,

1997).  Job  insecurity  has  also  been  defined  as  the  worry  experienced  by  an individual in  relation to  the  continuation of  the present job  (De  Witte, 1999;

Hartley, 1999; Swerke  &  Hellgren, 2002; Rosenbalt &  Ruvio, 1986; Heaney, Isreal & House, 1994). Hui and Lee (2002) added that job insecurity encompasses the lack of control to maintain desired continuity in a threatened job situation. It has   been   conceptualized   from   two   points   of   view   (as   global   and   as multidimensional concept). In most instances, job insecurity has been defined, according to the global view point, signifying the threat of job loss or job discontinuity  (Caplan,  French,  Harrison  &  Pinneay,  1980).  Generally,  this definition has been applied in the context of organizational crises or change, in which job insecurity is considered as a phase of the process of job loss (Ferrie,

1997;  Jeolson  &  Wahiquist,  1987).  From  a  global  perspective,  Van  Vuuren, (1990), emphasized that job insecurity has the following components:

a.        It is a subjective experience or perception, as different employees might perceive the same situation differently.

b.       It is an implication of uncertainty regarding the future and doubts about the continuation of the job as such. The component of uncertainty inherent in job insecurity makes it a potent work stressor. It is argued that the lack of predictability or knowledge or what is to come is reference to the present job would give rise to distress in the individual. Several research studies have suggested that job insecurity should be related to different negative outcomes. These may roughly categorized as attitudinal, health-related and behavioural (Ashford, 1989; Dekker & Schaifeli, 1995; Heaney et al, 1994; Hellgren & Sverke, 2002; Hellgren,   Sverke & isakksson, 1999, Probst,

2000; Rosembalt,  Mohren, Sverke & Hellgren 2001;Sverke, Hellgren & Haswall, 2002; swaen Van Amelsvoort, Talmud & Ruvid, 1999).

The negative impact of job insecurity on the well being of job incumbents as well as the effect on organizational effectiveness necessitates research about job insecurity and  the factors related  to job insecurity (De Witte, 1999).  Burchell (1999) stated that it has significant negative influence on the emotional well being of   the   individual.   It   reduces   the   level   of   job   satisfaction   and   leads   to psychosomatic complaints. Job  insecurity  has generally  been considered a job stressor (Muano & Khnunen, 1999), prolonged job insecurity is more detrimental and acts as a chronic stressor whose negative effect become more potent as time goes by (Dekker & Schaufeli, 1995). They also suggested that perceived threats concerning the nature and continued existence of a job may have as detrimental consequences as job loss itself. Perceived job insecurity had consistently been found to associate with a number of attitudinal reactions. The most commonly researched outcome in this context is job satisfaction. For instance, Ashford et al (1989) showed that employees who feel insecure about their future employment are more dissatisfied with their jobs as compared to those who perceived their job situation as more secured. Therefore, weiten (1989) suggested that job insecurity is a job circumstance that threatens or perceived to threaten our well being thereby tax our coping ability.

It is on the above note that the researcher takes a step towards investigating the role of locus of control, gender and job status in predicting job insecurity. Although locus of control has been linked with psychopathology (Lipp, Kolstore, James & Randal, 1968), its relationship to job insecurity seems to have attracted the attention of many researchers. In this study therefore, locus of control will be measured and its role in predicting job insecurity will be investigated. The concept of     locus     of     control     has     to     do     with     how     individuals     View themselves with regard to having control over events and situations in their lives.

The  term  has also  been  conceptualized  as either  internal  or external in orientation. Those who are self-directed and perceived themselves as the primary determinants of their own fate are said to hold internal control expectancies. In other words, a worker who has an internal locus of control believes that his/her rewards in the organization are, guided by his/her own decisions and efforts (Neill,

2006). On the other hand, those who perceived chance or luck, as the primary determinants of their destinies are said to hold external control expectancies (Lefcourt, 1976; Rotter 1966). For examples, an employee with external locus of control who does not receive promotion as a result of his/her performance may conclude   that  there  is   a   poor  job  description   and   the   management  was incompetent. He/she will now blame the performance on the external factors that were  out  of  his/her  control  and  do  not  see  the  need  to  try  harder  (Grantz,

2000).External orientation can be re- orientated through attribution training which concentrates  on  strengthening  the   workers’  internal  orientation  to   increase

motivation  (Grantz,  2000).  According  to  him,  workers  can  be  trained  into believing that they have the control to change events.

Internal orientation has been found to be positively associated with such psychological adjustment indicators as resistance to influence, and the ability to cope with failure (Wolfle &  Robershaw, 1982). Differences in locus of control have  been  related   to  much  behaviour  including  organizational  behaviours (Spector, 1982). In this work therefore, effort will be made to relate the concept to perceived job insecurity.

Another variable under study is job status which has been acknowledged in psychology  by  various  researchers  as  one  of  the  important  problems  that challenges, perceived job insecurity (David, Kinicki &  Sheck, 1997). Different individuals are exposed to different kinds of stressors in work organizations and the job status also determines the task required of the individuals occupying these positions. It can therefore contribute to the worker’s stress. Different occupations and  job  status  have  been  identified  as  stressful  (Burke  &   Belcourt,  1974). Directors and other high level executives in their desire to achieve their ambitions and attain self-actualization pay dearly in terms of both physical and emotional costs.  Executives were  described  by Bruno  (1993) as “Workaholics”  who  are continuously, working to improve the entire organization and are always striving to meet deadlines. All these tend to expose them to intense stress which could lead to job insecurity. Also lower or junior workers who are on the assembling line attending to several parts of automated machines or other areas in the organization

continuously receiving orders from their superiors, are also under intense stress which could also lead to job insecurity. How these different categories of workers react to job insecurity-induced stress is of interest to the researcher.

The last variable under study is gender. Ever continuous increase in women employment in recent years suggested that more system analysis of how work- related stress affect females in comparison to their male counterparts. Many research evidences indicate that in the same work setting men and women experience job  insecurity differently (Greenglass,  1982). Finally in this  study, gender differences in predicting job insecurity will be investigated.

Statement of the Problem

In this research however, effort will be made to identify how workers generally react to job insecurity from its global view and multidimensional view. Also the role of locus of control, job status and gender in predicting perceived job insecurity is of interest to the researcher. Therefore, in this study, attempt will be made to provide answers to the following questions.

1.       Does locus of control play a role in predicting perceived job insecurity?

2.       Does job status of an individual in an organization play a role in predicting perceived job insecurity?

3.       Does gender play role in predicting perceived job insecurity?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research is to examine the role of individual’s locus of control on perceived job insecurity. Also the study will investigate the role of job

status (senior vs. junior workers) in perceived job insecurity. The role of gender in perceived job insecurity will also be investigated.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

To have a clear understanding and minimize ambiguity, the definition of terms used in this research is hereby presented as follow

Locus of control – This refers to a person’s belief about what causes the good or bad result in his or her life either in general or in specific areas such as organizational work settings or how one views him/her self as regards to having control over events and situations in life. It is measured by internal-external locus of control scale developed by Rotter in 1966.

Job insecurity –    This refers to as inconsistencies in the organizational motives, assurances, decision making, job description and contractual agreement which amount to threat, hope lost and fear of job lost. It is measured by De Witte’s Cognitive-Affective Job Insecurity scale developed in 2000.

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