Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 March 2019
The present study examines an important contemporary stressor: Job insecurity, both in terms of losing one’s job as such (i.e. quantitative job insecurity) and losing one’s valued job aspects (i.e., qualitative job insecurity). Moreover, we study whether humor assists in offsetting the negative associations of these types of job insecurity with employee well-being. Specifically, by drawing up the conservation of resources theory, self-enhancing and affiliative humor are framed as personal resources buffering the detrimental relationship of both types of job insecurity with burnout (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism) and work engagement (i.e., vigor and dedication) in a large heterogeneous sample of Belgian employees (N = 3,254). Results evidenced the detrimental main effects of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity as well as the beneficial relations of self-enhancing and affilitative humor on burnout and work engagement. In addition, the buffering role of affiliative humor was supported in the relationships of both quantitative and qualitative job insecurity with burnout. Self-enhancing humor only interacted with qualitative job insecurity in the prediction of exhaustion. The discussion centers around the importance of personal resources attenuating the negative associations of quantitative and quantitative job insecurity, and highlights the different roles of humor for employees’ work-related well-being.
2nd affiliation for Anja Van den Broeck and Hans De Witte is Optentia Research Focus Area, Vanderbijlpark Campus, North-West University, South Africa.
2nd affiliation for Tinne Vander Elst is IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work.
Van den Broeck, A., Van Hootegem, A., Vander Elst, T., & De Witte, H. (2019). Do self-enhancing and affiliative humor buffer for the negative associations of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity? The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 22. e8. Doi:10.1017/sjp.2019.7