Disrupting the Social and Time Vacuum: A Systemic and Lifespan Perspective on Job Insecurity

Abstract

In their lead article, Klug et al. conceptualize job insecurity as a multilevel construct whereby individuals are situated in meso- and macro-level contexts. Their resulting model highlights that the experience of job insecurity, as well as reactions to job insecurity, are not only affected by factors emanating from individuals' direct environment (i.e., at the individual level) but also from different higher-level contexts. In our article, we advocate deepening the current conceptual model with two partially intertwined perspectives. First, we suggest adding a systemic perspective at the mesolevel that considers individuals' nestedness in family and relationship systems, thus looking into how individuals' job insecurity affects close others (i.e., [romantic] partners, family members) and how close others affect individuals' experience of and reactions to job insecurity. To illustrate our propositions, we draw on the crossover model and the systemictransactional model of stress processes within romantic couples. Second, we suggest adding a lifespan perspective that considers biographic time as a facet of the individual level in addition to historic time on the macrolevel. In doing so, we draw on the notion of path dependence and processes related to social learning. We advocate for future research taking into account the various, intertwined levels on which job insecurity operates to fully understand job insecurity as well as its consequences and remedies.