RELATION OF PSYCHIC DISTRESS (THREATENED JOB LOSS) AND EMPLOYEE
ATTITUDES TOWARD THEIR ORGANIZATION AND JOB TASKS
In the years since 1980, during periods of financial stress and in several labor/management negotiations, the employees at Acklin Stamping (a stamping plant owned by a Fortune 500 Company) have been threatened with a plant closing. This means that their job security has been threatened for over 15 years. The proposed study is designed to examine whether the long term psychic distress associated with the factor of job insecurity has had a negative impact on employees' attitudes toward their organization and their job tasks.
The proposal begins with a brief introduction to the research. This introduction is then followed by a review of the relevant literature; the review ends with the formulation of research hypotheses. The final section of the proposal delineates and discusses all of the methods and procedures that will be used in both the collection and analysis of data.
There is fairly good evidence that the threat of job loss can produce both stress and psychic distress on employees. For example, in a study of 1,597 workers from four closing and 12 nonclosing General Motors plants, Hamilton, Broman, Hoffman and Renner (1990) interviewed employees approximately three months before scheduled plant closings. Dependent variables were baseline frequencies of somatic, depressive, and anxiety symptoms.
Three sample groups were formed by dividing workers at closing plants into those already laid off and those anticipating layoff; the third group was the control condition consisting of workers employed by nonclosing plants. Results revealed that workers anticipating lay-offs suffered from strong levels of psychic distress as measured by depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms.
Other studies have also observed a relationship between job insecurity and psychic distress. Abramis (1994), for exampl...