Committee Chair

Cunningham, Christopher J. L.

Committee Member

Deepak; Pratibha; Black, Kristen Jennings, 1991-

Department

Dept. of Psychology

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Job insecurity has become a more prevalent and harmful issue across many advanced economies. The present study was designed to investigate two ways in which employees may respond to perceived job insecurity. We hypothesized that employees experiencing job insecurity engage in impression management tactics directed at their supervisor (SFIM) or social undermining tactics directed at their coworkers. We further hypothesized that these processes or effects were moderated by employees’ core self-evaluations (CSE). Data were gathered through targeted sampling to workers in the federal government (Sample 1, N = 91), as well as convenience sampling (Sample 2, N = 146). Results from hierarchical regression indicate that the type of job insecurity plays a role. In Sample 1, quantitative job insecurity positively predicted SFIM and negatively predicted social undermining, while qualitative job insecurity negatively predicted SFIM and positively predicted social undermining. We did not find support for the moderating effect of CSE.

Acknowledgments

I want to especially thank the chair of my thesis, Dr. Chris Cunningham, with whom I spent countless hours meeting, emailing, and sending drafts. His support and endless insight were tremendously meaningful. I want to also thank Dr. Kristen Black for serving on my second thesis committee. Her continued support and mentorship since I first became her undergraduate TA in Spring 2022 has been so impactful. I want to thank Dr. Pratibha Deepak for also serving on my committee and allowing me to see nonsignificant results as “inconclusive” rather than “null.” On a personal level, I want to thank everyone who has loved and supported me through this long process, including the many late nights and weekends spent working on it. Thank you for being patient with me. I also want to thank my parents for believing in me and always trying their best to explain I-O psychology to friends and coworkers.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2026

Subject

Job security; Self-evaluation; Supervision of employees; United States--Officials and employees--Attitudes

Keyword

Job insecurity; impression management; social undermining; core self-evaluations; social exchange relationships

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

xiii; 94 leaves

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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