Perception of job security – empirical evidence fromSlovenia*Tatjana Kozjek, Marko Ferjan, Anja Žnidaršič**

Traditionally, it is assumed that gender and the type of employment contract affect the percep-tion of job security. The research presented in this article was conducted by surveying 1,009Slovenian private and public sector employees, and it includes data about six types of securi-ty. Their estimates were compared between employees with permanent and flexible employ-ment contracts and according to gender. First, the normality of variables was evaluated ac-cording to skewness and kurtosis values in conjunction with histograms and Q-Q plots. Thedifferences were then tested with a one-sided Independent Samples t-test and its non-paramet-ric alternative, the Mann-Whitney test. Employees with permanent jobs evaluated the possi-bilities of an individual to access workplace training higher than employees with flexible con-tracts did. Men evaluated an individual’s level of job security, the opportunity to have re-sources for a decent life, safe working conditions, and well-being in the workplace higherthan women did.

Keywords: job security, economic security, security of income, gender, employment contractJEL J28, J31, J41

IntroductionAccording to Ignjatović (2012), the recent developments in European labourmarket(s) and societies are part of more profound long-term changes concerningthe emphasis a particular form of security has for the members of European so-cieties. As modern labour markets are becoming more dynamic, the probabilityof retaining one’s job for a longer time is becoming smaller for a growing pro-portion of the workforce. Developed EU countries predominantly use part-timeemployment as a form of flexible employment. It offers higher job security andlower income than temporary employment and self-employment. In contrast,less developed new members from Central and Eastern Europe do not have high

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* Manuscript received: 12.05.2015, accepted: 19.05.2016, 1 revision.** Tatjana Kozjek (Corresponding author), Ph.D., Senior lecturer, Faculty of Administration,

University of Ljubljana, Gosarjeva 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Email: [email protected]. Main research interests: Flexibility and security in the field of work,work-life balance, gender equality.Marko Ferjan, Ph.D., Full professor, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University ofMaribor, Kidriceva 55 a, 4000 Kranj, Slovenia. Email: [email protected]. Mainresearch interests: HRM, communication processes in organizations, educational planning.Anja Žnidaršič, Ph.D., Assistant professor, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Universityof Maribor, Kidriceva 55 a, 4000 Kranj, Slovenia. Email: [email protected] research interests: Social network analysis, measurement issues of network data, non-response treatments, micro-enterprises and information-communication technology, stu-dents’ performance in methodological courses and their competencies, employees’ percep-tions of job security.

334 Perception of job security – empirical evidence from Slovenia

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shares of flexible forms of employment at all. Kanjuo Mrčela and Ignjatović(2012) made an analysis of Eurostat and IMAD data (2011) and found that thelevels of male (6.3%) and female (10.3%) part-time employment in Slovenia arelower than EU27 averages (at 7.1% for men and 30.7% for women). The tempo-rary employment rate for women in Slovenia is considerably higher than the cor-responding EU27 average rate for women, as well as the rate for men in Slove-nia. Kanjuo Mrčela and Ignjatović (2015) made another analysis of Eurostat data(2015) and SURS data (1991-2014) and found that the Slovenian labour marketis relatively rigid and inflexible compared to other markets in the EU. The re-search for the three most common forms of flexible employment in the de-veloped countries of the EU and Slovenia (part-time, fixed-term employment,and self-employment) shows that the Slovenian labour market already exceedsthe EU average (8th place). According to the share of self-employed and the pro-portion of part-time work, Slovenia is at the 18th place among the EU countries.Furthermore, with regards to the total share of all three forms of flexible em-ployment, Slovenia is also on the 18th place among 28 EU countries.

Job insecurity seems to be much higher in Slovenia than in the EU27 on aver-age. More than a quarter of both men and women in Slovenia are afraid of losingtheir jobs. More men in Slovenia than on average in EU27 think that it will beeasy to find a similar job if they lose their job. The proportion of women inSlovenia who share this view is lower than the EU27 average (Kanjuo Mrčela,Ignjatović, 2012). According to Parker and Bevan (2011), job security is one ofthe key attributes of a good job. The importance of job security, according toYousef (1998), derives from the fact that it is a major factor influencing thewellbeing of employees and their retention and organizational commitment. Ongand Shah (2012) stated that in job security satisfaction, gender differences needto be taken into account. The type of the employment contract is also significant.Green and Heywood (2011) claimed that temporary employment contracts areassociated with higher job insecurity. Dawson and Veliziotis (2013) stated thatindividuals on temporary employment contracts have lower job satisfaction withjob security than those with permanent employment contracts.

The purpose of the research presented in this article is to compare and analysedifferences in perceptions of job security in Slovenian organizations. The studyexamines whether 1) employees with permanent job contracts evaluate the vari-ables of job security higher than employees with other types of job contracts do;2) men evaluate variables of job security higher than women do.The research examined whether job security differs between different flexibletypes of job contracts, such as permanent jobs, contract jobs, student contractjobs and other forms of job contracts. The research also addressed the differ-ences in job security between men and women.

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Types of job securityAccording to Jonsson (2007), stability means that employees have strong em-ployment protection, perceived as job security. The literature describes differenttypes of job security, which are presented in the following sections. The ILO(2004) defined the term economic security as being from basic social security; itis related to the ability to access the infrastructure for basic health needs, educa-tion, housing, information and other job-associated securities. Nesadurai (2005)divides economic security into micro and macro levels. On the micro level, eco-nomic security is the security of an employee’s job and income, while on themacro level, it is directed at ensuring the integrity of the market, creating growthand prosperity in the society that enables the well-being of the individual.

Security of employee income, according to Standing (1999), indicates the actualand expected income that an individual earns by working, or receives as socialor other transfers. Security of employee income includes income level regardingpayments, and expectations of current and future income such as minimumwage, wages indexed to the rate of inflation and progressive taxation. The ILO(2004) and Wilthagen et al. (2004) state that this form of security relates to anemployee’s opportunity to obtain basic resources and have a decent life.

Job security is a type of security against losing a job that provides income, ac-cording to Chung and van Oorschot (2010). Standing (1999) states that it meansboth a high level of security against job loss as well as security for self-em-ployed people against unexpected business or job loss. The ILO (2004) also in-cludes losses that would occur in violation of the terms of the employment con-tract.

Wilthagen et al. (2004) and the European Commission (2007) define security atthe workplace. They claim that this type of security refers to the probability thatan individual will keep his job with his current employer. It also means securityagainst major changes in their working conditions. Standing (1999) claims that itpresents the possibility of using niches in the labour market, which allows theemployee continued employment within the same organization but in anotherjob position. That mechanism enables the employee to continue working in ac-cordance with his education, abilities, capabilities, and skills.

Work security relates to the work conditions in organizations that encourage em-ployee well-being. This type of security, according to Standing (1999), is reflect-ed in the regulations regarding health and security in the workplace, stress pre-vention, workplace bullying, discrimination, and absenteeism. The State ServiceCommission (2003) wrote about harassment (racial and sexual) and intimidationin the workplace. The ILO (2004) warned about the restrictions on workinghours and night work.

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Security related to education, training and development are skills that Standing(1999) defined as reproductive skills security. In his opinion, this type of securi-ty refers to the ability of the individual to achieve education and training thatpromote opportunities for employment. The ILO (2004) defined it as employeeskills security, which means the opportunities for the acquisition, retention, anddevelopment of individual education, abilities, skills, and knowledge.

According to Standing (1999), combination security represents the individual’sability to coordinate paid work with other responsibilities. Hobson (2014) de-fined this coordination as work-life balance. Tros (2004) described combinationsecurity as coordination between professional and private life, work-life balanceand flexible, early (partial) retirement and flexible working time.

Types of employment contractsOne typical type of employment contract is a permanent contract, the primarycharacteristic of which is that no exact date of termination of the position isspecified. There is a stereotypical belief that permanent jobs are more secure andstable than other types of job contracts are.

According to Soltwedl et al. (1999) and the ILO (2004 a), atypical or flexibletypes of employment contracts include:n flextime, which means that an employee may arrive later and/or depart earlier

and may continue working during the lunch break;n fixed working time, which is arranged in advance, when the employee and

employer agree to a definite working schedule;n time banking, which means that overtime is recorded on an individual ac-

count for the management of his/her working time and can be used in case ofpersonal or family responsibilities;

n compressed work week, which means the employee works the same amountof hours in fewer days, e.g. the worker puts in all his/her hours for the weekin four days instead of five days, leaving the remaining three days free;

n work for fixed period (for a specific period);n part-time and term-time working;n job sharing, when two individuals work part-time at the same workplace;n teleworking.

Temporary employment, in which workers are engaged for a specific period, ac-cording to ILO (2015) includes fixed-term, project- or task-based contracts, aswell as seasonal or casual work. Fixed-term contracts can be either written ororal, but are characterized by a predefined term. Such contracts, as well asproject- or task-based work, are also widely used in informal employment rela-tionships. In part-time employment, the normal hours of work are fewer thanthose of comparable full-time workers. Many countries have specific legalthresholds that define part-time work in relation to full-time work.

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Casual work is the engagement of workers on an occasional and intermittent ba-sis, for a specific number of hours, days or weeks, in return for a wage dictatedby the terms of a daily or periodic work agreement. Casual work is a prominentfeature of informal waged employment in low-income developing countries.

Workers who are not directly employed by the company to which they providetheir services may be performing work under contractual arrangements involv-ing multiple parties, such as when a worker is deployed and paid by a privateemployment agency to perform work for a user firm. In most countries, theagency and the worker enter into an employment contract or relationship, where-as the agency and the user firm conclude a commercial contract. Although thereis no employment relationship between temporary agency workers and userfirms, some jurisdictions impose legal obligations on user firms regarding tem-porary agency workers, especially in respect to health and safety. The user firmpays fees to the agency, and the agency pays the wages and social benefits to theworker.

Cao et al. (2011) found that workers work temporarily in jobs with an inferiormatch quality, before transferring to better, and more stable, matches. A substan-tial increase in inequality follows an increase in the level of firing costs. Thisrise in inequality is due entirely to the increase in the fraction of temporaryworkers, which earn relatively lower wages. It is not due to an increase in the“permanent worker premium”, the ratio of the wage a permanent worker earnsrelative to that of a temporary worker. The ILO (2015) stated that temporarywork gives enterprises flexibility to replace temporarily absent workers, to eval-uate new hires before offering them open-ended contracts, and to respond to sea-sonal or other changes in demand. Part-time work allows employers greater flex-ibility in planning work, aligning schedules with peaks in customer demand andretaining workers who are not in a position to commit to full-time work. Work-ers seek non-standard arrangements to accommodate family, educational or oth-er obligations, to supplement their income, or in the hope that the job might leadto permanent employment.

MethodologyThe purpose of this research was to compare and analyse differences among theperceptions of job security in Slovenian organizations, according to two factors:the type of the employment contract, and gender. Data were gathered using anonline questionnaire from October to November 2011. Organizations from theprivate sector were randomly selected from the email addresses list obtainedfrom the Slovenian Business Register. The link to the online questionnaire wassent by e-mail to official e-mail addresses, requesting it to be sent to employees.We do not know whether they forwarded the e-mail to other employees, whichcould imply that the survey did not include manual workers, or industrial work-

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ers but mainly workers in administration or that the questionnaire was complet-ed by one or many employees from the same organization. The link to the onlinequestionnaire for organizations in the private and public sector was sent by e-mail to 6,000 official e-mail addresses. In the survey, 1,009 employees partici-pated.

The following research hypotheses were tested:

H1: Employees with permanent job contracts evaluate the variables of job se-curity more highly than employees with other types of job contracts do.

H2: Men evaluate variables of job security more highly than women do.The comparison between different types of employment contract is an importantresearch question. The research examines fifteen variables of job security (seeTable 1). The convention of the International Labour Organisation (number 175)provides equal treatment (regarding job security, discrimination, and health) ofemployees with part-time employment contracts. The labour law in Slovenia de-termines that employees with fixed-time employment contracts have the samerights and obligations as those with permanent employment contracts. Accord-ing to Guest (2004), workers who have fixed-term and temporary contractsmight plausibly be associated with higher job insecurity, a sense of marginaliza-tion and loss of opportunity for development, for career and for organizationalidentification. According to Kanjuo Mrčela and Ignjatović (2015), mostlyyounger workers who do not have much work experience respond to fixed-termand part-time employment demand in Slovenia. Younger people also work withstudent referrals. The contracted work is typical for activities such as productionor repair, physical or intellectual work, etc.

The hypotheses were written as one-sided, since several studies had previouslyrevealed that men see job security as more important than women (e.g. 37% ofmen saying that job security is “extremely important” to them and 33% of wom-en (PewResearchCenter, 2013); similar stable differences in perception of jobsecurity were determined by Tolbert and Moen (1998) in a two-decade-longstudy starting in the mid-1970 s). Another survey revealed gender differences ac-cording to perceived bad influences on health: 52% of female survey partici-pants in Slovenia responded that a great deal of ill health is caused by work, incomparison to 42% of male respondents (Mrčela, 2010). More women (86%)than men (76%) in Slovenia think that health and security conditions at workmight further deteriorate due to the economic crisis. According to the findings ofKanjuo Mrčela and Ignjatović (2012), there are considerably more men thanwomen who are not satisfied with the fit of their working hours and family/outside work life. They also found that women in Slovenia reported greater dis-satisfaction and less high satisfaction with their working conditions in compari-son to men. Almost half of men and 40% of women in Slovenia estimate that

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their work affects their health in a mainly negative way. They also found that athird of women and as much as 40.6% of men in Slovenia think that their healthand security are at risk at work.

Methods used for the statistical methodsThe two hypotheses were analysed with the one-sided Independent Samples t-test, which compares means between two groups for normally distributed vari-ables, while for non-normally distributed variables a non-parametric alternativecalled the Mann-Whitney test for comparison of medians or distributions (withrespect to the rank-orderings of the scores) was used. The normality of variableswas evaluated according to skewness and kurtosis values in conjunction withhistograms and Q–Q plots.

The Mann-Whitney test assumes that the two samples are independent of eachother, that the observed variable is measured on continuous or ordinal levels(and that the other variable forms two groups), and that the observations are in-dependent. If the underlying distributions from which both samples are derivedare identical, the Mann-Whitney test is used to interpret whether differences ex-ist in the medians of two groups; otherwise, the only differences in the distribu-tions of two groups (or mean ranks) can be examined. The distributions implyequal dispersion of data within each group; therefore, it also assumes the homo-geneity of variance (similarly as for the Independent Samples t-test) with respectto the underlying population distributions (Sheskin, 2004). Therefore, in order totest the assumption of equality of shapes, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z (Field,2013) test together with Levene’s Test of Equality of Variances was used. Forthe Mann-Whitney test in addition to the standard U-statistics, z-value, asymp-totic 2-tailed significance, a 9% confidence interval for one-tailed Monte Carlosignificance (according to Field (2013) more preferable in large samples), the ef-fect size (r) is also presented.

InstrumentThe questionnaire is based on the literature review that covers types of job secu-rity (explained in Section 2 of this paper). Variables included in the question-naire were carried out according to the following authors: Standing (1999), ILO(2004), Wilthagen et al. (2004) and the European Commission (2007). The ques-tionnaire was divided into two parts, the first of which was about demography.The study gathered data about the organization and people who participated inthe research. Data about job security were gathered in the second part of thequestionnaire and was divided into six parts:n in the area of economic security, the participants evaluated the possibilities of

an individual to access infrastructure for basic health needs in general, healthand security needs at the workplace, education in general, education in the

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workplace at the request of employees and at the employer’s expense, trainingin the workplace, buying a house, renting an apartment, and job security;

n in the area of income security, the participants evaluated the possibilities of anindividual to receive or have resources for a decent life (such as the regulationof minimum wage) opportunities for wage coordination and indexation;

n in the area of workplace security, participants evaluated the level of an indi-vidual’s protection from major changes in working conditions by the currentemployer;

n in the area of work security, the participants evaluated the possibilities of anindividual to have safe working conditions and to enable well-being;

n in the area of employee job skills security, the participants evaluated the pos-sibilities of an individual to achieve education and training, as well as oppor-tunities for skills and competences acquisition, retention, and development;

n in the area of combination security, the participants evaluated the possibilitiesof an individual to have a work-life balance, the understanding of an individu-al for the needs to integrate into civil, political, religious and other organiza-tions.

Table 1 shows abbreviations of the studied variables of security and the exactwording of the questions.

Table 1: Symbols and measured items of the variables of security

Variables of the security

Variables of economic security

ES1 The possibilities of an individual to access infrastructure for basic health needs (in gen-eral).

ES2 The possibilities of an individual to access infrastructure for basic health needs of safe-ty at the workplace.

ES3 The possibilities of an individual to access infrastructure for the basic needs of educa-tion (in general).

ES4 The possibilities of an individual to access the basic needs of education at the work-place at the request of the employee and at the employer’s expense.

ES5 The possibilities of an individual to access workplace training based on the needs ofemployers.

ES6 The possibilities of an individual to buy a house.

ES7 The possibilities of an individual to rent an apartment.

ES8 An individual’s level of job security.

Variables of income security

IS1 The possibilities of an individual to have resources for a decent life (such as income, theregulation of minimum wage).

IS2 The possibilities of an individual to have opportunities for wage coordination and in-dexation.

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Variables of the security

Variable of workplace (service) security

WSS1 The level of protection of an individual from large changes in working conditions by thecurrent employer.

Variable of work security

WS1 The possibilities of an individual to have safe working conditions, which also enablewell-being in the workplace.

Variable of employee job skills security

EJSS1 The possibilities of an individual to achieve education and training, as well as the op-portunities to improve skills and competences acquisition, retention, and development.

Variables of combination security

CS1 The possibilities of an individual to have a work-life balance – to satisfy family needs.

CS2 The possibilities of an individual to have a work-life balance – understanding an indi-vidual's needs to integrate into civil, political, religious, and other organizations.

Source: own

SampleThe questionnaire was completed by 1,009 employees in organizations in theprivate and the public sectors. The participants are broken down as follows:25.5% were employed in the private sector and 74.5% in the public sector. Theproportions of respondents are unequal and do not represent the exact structureof the employees in both sectors in Slovenia, which is the main weakness of thestudy. Distribution of respondents according to gender is as follows: 70.3% ofthe participants were women, and 29.7% were men. The participants’ averageage was 40.9 years, while the youngest respondent was 23 years old and the old-est was 67 years old. The highest level of the completed education of partici-pants is as follows: 8.1% of participants finished primary, vocational profession-al or middle professional education; 16.9% finished either a four-year highschool or high school education; 29.0% finished college or higher education;31.7% had university degrees; and 14.3% finished post-graduate studies such asspecialization, master’s or doctorates.

The types of contracts participants held were as follows: 85.0% of participantshad permanent jobs, 11.9% had contract jobs, 1.0% were students, 1.3% hadcopyright or service contracts, and 0.8% marked another choice, meaning thatthey were retired, had a five-year mandate, were self-employed.

The link to the online questionnaire was sent by e-mail to official e-mail ad-dresses of enterprises, asking them to forward it to employees. We do not knowwhether they did so. This could imply that the research did not include manualworkers and industry workers, but mainly workers in administration; also ques-tionable was whether the questionnaire was completed by one or many employ-ees from the same organization.

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Table 2 shows a sample of the research.

Table 2: Sample

Type of employment contract (2 classes)

Permanent periodFlexible types of em-

ployment

Count Row N % Count Row N %

Education(3 groups)

Elementary school or less 1 25.0% 3 75.0%

professional school, secondaryschool, gymnasium

204 81.9% 45 18.1%

higher vocational education,higher education, university edu-cation, master's degree, doctor-ate

652 86.4% 103 13.6%

Sex Women 603 85.3% 104 14.7%

Man 253 84.3% 47 15.7%

Source: own

Among women 85.3% have a permanent contract, while this percentage wasslightly lower among men (84.3%). One quarter of respondents with elementaryschool or less has permanent contracts, while among respondents with higherlevels of education the permanent type of contract is favoured (81.9% respon-dents with secondary or vocational level and 86.4% of respondents with tertiaryeducation).

ResultsWith the research, we attempted to determine individuals’ opportunities to ac-cess job security according to the listed job security variables (presented in Ta-ble 1). The participants evaluated questions on job security on a seven-pointscale with the following categories:1 – an individual does not have opportunities,2 – an individual has very poor opportunities,3 – an individual has bad opportunities,4 – an individual has limited opportunities,5 – an individual has good opportunities,6 – an individual has very good opportunities,7 – an individual has great opportunities.

The reliability test showed that the data gathered was reliable because the Cron-bach’s Alpha coefficient was 0.887.

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Normality of the observed dataIn the first step of data analysis, the normality of 15 variables included in theanalysis was examined using skewness and kurtosis. According to Field (2013),in samples larger than 200 units it is more important to look at the shape of thedistribution visually and to look at the value of the skewness and kurtosis statis-tics rather than calculate their significance and use any of the tests for normality(e.g. Kolmogorov-Smirnov or Shapiro-Wilk test). Therefore, all measured vari-ables were examined, and their normality was interpreted according to skewnessand kurtosis values in conjunction with histograms and Q–Q plots. In the litera-ture, different rules of thumb are used regarding which threshold should be usedto describe fairly normally distributed data. Researchers often use a rule ofthumb stating that values between -2 and 2 indicate reasonably normal distribu-tion (Bachman 2004), while a more conservative rule is that distribution is rea-sonably close to normal if its skewness and kurtosis have values between -1.0and 1.0 (e.g. Bulmer 1979).

The values of skewness for the 15 measured variables are in the range from-0.606 and 1.639, while the values of kurtosis are ranging from -1.058 and2.398. The only variable with skewness higher than 1.0 is ESS6, while two vari-ables have absolute kurtosis values higher than 1.0 (ES4 and ES6). The his-tograms and Q-Q plots (where the linearity of the points suggests that the dataare normally distributed) are presented in Appendix A. The combination of thepresented criteria for normally distributed variables suggests that all variables,except ES4, ES6, ES7, and SI2, are approximately normally distributed.

Therefore, in the analyses of two research hypotheses the one-sided IndependentSamples t-test was used for comparison of the means of two groups for 11 nor-mally distributed variables, while for four non-normally distributed variables anon-parametric alternative called the Mann-Whitney test for comparison of me-dians or distributions (with respect to the rank-orderings of the scores) was used.

Table 3: Values of skewness and kurtosis with standard errors for fifteen measured variables

Variable N Skewness Std. Error ofSkewness

Kurtosis Std. Error ofKurtosisValid Missing

ES1 832 180 -.527 .085 -.509 .169

ES2 830 182 -.526 .085 -.418 .170

ES3 833 179 -.374 .085 -.727 .169

ES4 832 180 .328 .085 -1.058 .169

ES5 828 184 -.180 .085 -1.009 .170

ES6 815 197 1.639 .086 2.398 .171

ES7 821 191 .789 .085 -.351 .170

ES8 821 191 -.281 .085 -.742 .170

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Variable N Skewness Std. Error ofSkewness

Kurtosis Std. Error ofKurtosisValid Missing

SI1 836 176 .026 .085 -.673 .169

SI2 820 192 .940 .085 .428 .171

WSS1 832 180 -.204 .085 -.834 .169

WS1 833 179 -.606 .085 -.440 .169

EJSS1 807 205 -.460 .086 -.562 .172

CS1 834 178 -.287 .085 -.649 .169

CS2 822 190 -.244 .085 -.905 .170

Source: own

Job security regarding the type of employment contractTo test the hypothesis H1: Employees with permanent job contracts evaluate thevariables of job security more highly than employees with other types of job con-tracts do (e.g. student contract job and other forms of job contracts), a variableforming two classes was used in addition to the 15 variables on job security. Thefirst class includes permanent jobs, and the second class includes other job con-tracts. Table 4 shows mean values, standard deviations, first quartiles, medians,and third quartiles of the variables of job security regarding the type of the jobcontract. Table 5 shows the results of Independent Samples t-tests and Mann-Whitney tests together with p-values for a one-sided test regarding the type ofthe job contract.

It can be seen that respondents with permanent contracts gave the highest evalu-ations to the variables ES1 (M=5.02) and ES2 (M=5.03), which are related tothe possibility of an individual to access infrastructure for basic health needs ingeneral and at the workplace, respectively. The same two variables were, on av-erage, graded the highest by the respondents with definite period job contractsbut with slightly higher mean values (M=5.17 and M=5.18). The variable thatwas evaluated the lowest on average by respondents with permanent contracts(M=1.88) and by the respondents with other (flexible) type job contracts(M=1.93) is ES6, which examines the possibility of an individual to buy ahouse.

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Table 4: Descriptive statistics of the variables of the job security regarding the type of thejob contract

Variables

Permanent period Flexible types of employment

M SD Q1 Mdn Q3 M SD Q1 Mdn Q3

ES1 5.02 1.535 4 5 6 5.17 1.640 4 6 6

ES2 5.03 1.492 4 5 6 5.18 1.661 4 6 7

ES3 4.75 1.608 4 5 6 4.94 1.698 4 5 6

ES4 3.39 1.835 2 3 5 3.14 2.017 1 3 5

ES5 4.28 1.773 3 4 6 3.89 2.029 2 4 5

ES6 1.88 1.233 1 1 2 1.93 1.466 1 1 2

ES7 2.55 1.580 1 2 4 2.56 1.759 1 2 4

ES8 4.41 1.690 3 5 6 3.90 1.811 3 4 5

SI1 4.03 1.557 3 4 5 3.99 1.727 3 4 5

SI2 2.59 1.450 1 2 3 2.90 1.748 1 2 4

WSS1 4.16 1.647 3 4 6 4.22 1.663 3 4 6

WS1 4.98 1.544 4 5 6 5.11 1.649 4 6 6

EJSS1 4.71 1.565 4 5 6 5.01 1.613 4 5 6

CS1 4.49 1.559 3 5 6 4.52 1.619 3 5 6

CS2 4.55 1.697 3 5 6 4.99 1.708 4 5 7

Source: own

Table 5: Results of the Independent Samples t-tests and Mann-Whitney tests for variables ofjob security according to the type of the employment contract

Independent Samples t-tests

Levene's Test for

Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

Variable F p t df p(2-tailed) p(1-tailed)a,b

ES1 2.145 .143 -.965 829 .335 .833b

ES2 3.810 .051 -.982 827 .326 .837b

ES3 .631 .427 -1.235 830 .217 .891b

ES5 5.972 .015 2.047 157.9 .042 .021a

ES8 1.663 .198 3.022 818 .003 .001a

SI1 2.014 .156 .264 833 .792 .396a

WSS1 .168 .682 -.388 829 .698 .651b

WS1 1.182 .277 -.814 830 .416 .792b

EJSS1 .773 .380 -1.907 804 .057 .972b

CS1 .349 .555 -.175 831 .861 .569b

CS2 .190 .663 -2.681 819 .007 .996b

346 Tatjana Kozjek, Marko Ferjan, Anja Žnidaršič

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Mann–Whitney tests

Levene's Testfor Equality of

Variances Mann-Whitney test

F p U N zAsym. p(2-tailed) /

p(1-tailed)a,b

MCp(1-tailed)e

Lower/Upper r

ES4d 2.773 .096 39927.5 831 -1.720 .085 /.043a .041 /.045 -.060

ES6c 4.359 .037 41114.5 814 -.635 .526 /.263a .259 /.266 -.022

ES7c 4.423 .036 41838.5 820 -.560 .576 /.288a .284 /.291 -.020

SI2 c 10.962 .001 39902.0 819 1.349 .177 /.912b .908 /.913b .047

a. b 2-sided p-values obtained from SPSS have to be converted to 1-tailed p-values, becauseour research hypotheses are one-sided (mean (or median) is greater for the permanent con-tracts than for the other types of job contracts).a If the mean (or mean rank / median) values in the sample are in the right relationship ac-cording to our prediction (higher for the permanent contracts than for the other types of jobcontracts), then a 1-tailed p-value is recalculated as p(2-tailed)/2.b If the mean (or mean rank / median) values in the sample are in the opposite relationshipaccording to our prediction (lower for the permanent contracts than for the other types ofcontracts), then a 1-tailed p-value is recalculated as 1-p(2-tailed)/2.c Due to non-equal variances according to Levene’s Test and / or unequal shape according toKolmogorov-Smirnov Z Test (Appendix A2), the Mann-Whitney test is used to examine thedifferences in the distributions of the permanent and the other types of job contracts ormean ranks in two groups.d Due to equal variances according to Levene’s Test and equal shape according to Kol-mogorov-Smirnov Z Test (Appendix A2), the Mann-Whitney test could be interpreted interms of equality of medians between the permanent and the other types of job contracts.e Lower and upper bound of 99% confidence interval for 1-tailed significance obtained withMonte Carlo simulations based on 100,000 samples.Source: own

The comparison between the employees with permanent jobs and the employeeswith other job contracts (such as student job contracts, copyright contracts, orother contract jobs) showed that employees with permanent jobs evaluated onlythree variables of job security statistically significantly more highly than em-ployees with other contract jobs did, at a 5% significance level. Those threevariables are the possibilities of an individual to access workplace training basedon the needs of employers (ES5: Independent Samples t-test: t(df=157.9)=2.047,p(1-tailed)=.021), an individual’s level of job security (SE8: Independent Sam-ples t-test: t(df=818)=3.022, p(1-tailed)=.001), and an individual’s ability to ac-cess the basic needs of education at the workplace at the request of the employeeand at the employer’s expense (ES4: Mann-Whitney test (higher mean ranks):U=39927.5, z=-1.720, p(1-tailed)=.043).

In a research project entitled Households, Work and Flexibility for Slovenia,Sicherl (2003) determined that dissatisfaction with job security is higher among

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employees with atypical forms of employment contracts. De Cuyper and DeWitte (2005) investigated the position of job insecurity in the relation betweentypes of contract and found that the type of contract was highly predictive forjob insecurity. Temporary workers were found to be more insecure in compari-son to permanent workers. Bernhard-Oettel et al. (2005) conducted researchamong Swedish healthcare workers and found that the type of employment is re-lated with perceptions of job insecurity, and that insecurity was associated withimpaired well-being among permanent full-time workers. Kuroki (2012) foundthat non-regular employment increases the fear of job loss among Japaneseworkers.

The research hypothesis H1: Employees with permanent job contracts evaluatethe variables of job security more highly than employees with other types of jobcontracts do was then rejected. Analysis of statistically significant differencesbetween the evaluated average estimates of variables of security of employeesfor contract jobs (student contract jobs and other forms of job contracts) hasshown that only three of fifteen variables of job security were statistically higherwhen evaluated by the employees with permanent jobs than employees with jobcontracts. The result is unexpected, since other researchers (e.g. Green and Hey-wood (2011); Dawson and Veliziotis (2013)) emphasized that employees ontemporary employment contracts report higher job insecurity.

Job security according to gender of the participantsIn this part of the paper, hypothesis H2: Men evaluate the variables of job secu-rity more highly than women do is tested. Table 6 shows average estimates andstandard deviations of the variables of security of the employees by their gender.Table 7 shows results of Independent Samples t-tests and Mann-Whitney teststogether with p-values for one-sided tests.

It can be seen that men evaluated the variables ES1 (M=5.24), ES2 (M=5.21)and WS1 ES2 (M=5.21) the highest; these variables are related to the possibilityof an individual to access infrastructure for basic health needs in general and atthe workplace and to the possibility to have safe working conditions. The samethree variables were also estimated more highly on average by women (M=4.95,M=4.98, and M=4.90) but with lower mean values in comparison to men. Thevariable that was evaluated the lowest by women on average (M=1.84) and men(M=1.98) is the possibility of an individual to buy a house (ES6).

5.3

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Table 6: Descriptive statistics of the variables of job security of the employees by gender

Women Man

Variables M SD Q1 Mdn Q3 M SD Q1 Mdn Q3

ES1 4.95 1.582 4 5 6 5.24 1.477 4 6 6

ES2 4.98 1.536 4 5 6 5.21 1.467 4 5 6

ES3 4.74 1.619 4 5 6 4.85 1.637 3 5 6

ES4 3.32 1.871 2 3 5 3.42 1.859 2 3 5

ES5 4.20 1.801 3 4 6 4.27 1.859 3 4 6

ES6 1.84 1.285 1 1 2 1.98 1.234 1 2 3

ES7 2.50 1.605 1 2 4 2.68 1.610 1 2 4

ES8 4.22 1.764 3 4 6 4.57 1.581 4 5 6

SI1 3.94 1.599 3 4 5 4.20 1.530 3 4 5

SI2 2.52 1.489 1 2 3 2.89 1.500 2 3 4

WSS1 4.04 1.715 3 4 5 4.45 1.444 4 5 6

WS1 4.90 1.604 4 5 6 5.21 1.436 4 6 6

EJSS1 4.66 1.586 4 5 6 4.97 1.534 4 5 6

CS1 4.46 1.589 3 5 6 4.56 1.515 3 5 6

CS2 4.55 1.683 3 5 6 4.75 1.746 3 5 6

Source: own

Table 7: Results of the Independent Samples t-tests and Mann-Whitney tests for variables ofjob security according to the gender

Independent Samples t-tests

Levene's Test forEquality of Vari-

ances t-test for Equality of Means

Variable F p t df p (2-tailed) p(1-tailed)a.b

ES1 1.788 .182 -2.463 828 .014 .007a

ES2 .675 .411 -2.005 826 .045 .023a

ES3 .364 .547 -.861 829 .390 .195a

ES5 .531 .466 -.453 825 .650 .325a

ES8 4.406 .036 -2.784 535.9 .006 .003a

SI1 .109 .741 -2.208 832 .028 .014a

WSS1 8.244 .004 -3.616 575.7 .000 .000a

WS1 4.510 .034 -2.723 539.2 .007 .003a

EJSS1 2.958 .086 -2.616 803 .009 .005a

CS1 .396 .529 -.885 830 .376 .188a

CS2 1.279 .258 -1.575 818 .116 .058a

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Mann–Whitney tests

Levene's Test for Equality

of Variances Mann-Whitney test

F p U N z Asym.p(2-tailed) /p(1-tailed)a.b

MC p(1-tailed)e

Lower/Upper

r

ES4d .101 .751 70933,5 830 .757 .449 /.225a .220 /.226 .026

ES6c .927 .336 63744,0 814 2.568 .010 /.005a .005 /.006 .090

ES7d .000 .988 66718,5 820 1.655 .098 /.049a .049 /.051 .058

SI2 c .211 .646 60152,5 818 3.675 .000 /.000a .000 /.000 .128

a. b 2-sided p-values obtained from SPSS have to be converted to 1-tailed p-values because ourresearch hypotheses are one-sided (mean (or median) is greater for men than for women).a If the mean (or median) values in the sample are in the right relationship according to ourprediction (higher for men than women), then a 1-tailed p-value is recalculated as p(2-tailed)/2.b If the mean (or median) values in the sample are in the opposite relationship according toour prediction (lower for men than women), then a 1-tailed p-value is recalculated as 1-p(2-tailed)/2.c Due to non-equal variances according to Levene’s Test and / or unequal shape according toKolmogorov-Smirnov Z Test (Appendix A2), the Mann-Whitney test is used to examine thedifferences in the distributions of the men and women or mean ranks in two groups.d Due to equal variances according to Levene’s Test and equal shape according to Kol-mogorov-Smirnov Z Test (Appendix A2), the Mann-Whitney test could be interpreted interms of equality of medians between men and women.e Lower and upper boundary of 99% confidence interval for 1-tailed significance obtainedwith Monte Carlo simulations based on 100.000 samples.Source: own

Analysis of the statistically significant differences in the variables of security be-tween men and women showed that nine variables of job security were evaluat-ed more highly by men at a 5% significance level. Those variables were the pos-sibilities of an individual to access infrastructure for basic health needs in gener-al (ES1: Independent Samples t-test: t(df=828)=-2.463, p(1-tailed)=.007), thepossibilities of an individual to access infrastructure for basic health needs andsafety at the workplace (ES2: Independent Samples t-test: t(df=826)=-2.005,p(1-tailed)=.023), the possibilities of an individual to buy a house (ES6: Mann-Whitney test (higher mean ranks): U=63744,0, z=2.568, p(1-tailed)=.005), an in-dividual’s level of job security (ES8: Independent Samples t-test:t(df=535.9)=-2.784, p(1-tailed)=.003), the possibilities of an individual to haveresources for a decent life (SI1: Independent Samples t-test: t(df=832)=-2.208,p(1-tailed)=.014), the possibilities of an individual to have opportunities forwage coordination and indexation (SI2: Mann-Whitney test (higher meanranks): U=60152,5, z=3.675, p(1-tailed)=.000), the level of protection an indi-vidual from large changes in working conditions by the current employer(WSS1: Independent Samples t-test: t(df=575.7)=-3.616, p(1-tailed)=.000), the

350 Tatjana Kozjek, Marko Ferjan, Anja Žnidaršič

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possibilities of an individual to have safe working conditions, which also enablewell-being in the workplace (WS1: Independent Samples t-test:t(df=539.2)=-2.723, p(1-tailed)=.003), and the possibilities of an individual toachieve education and training, as well as the opportunities to improve skills andcompetences acquisition, retention, and development (EJSS1: Independent Sam-ples t-test: t(df=803)=-2.616, p(1-tailed)=.005).

Differences between the average estimates are minimal, 0.37 and 0.41, for SI2and WSS1, respectively. The concern is the fact that the results are statisticallysignificant at a 5% significance level.

Zeytinoglu et al. (2012) conducted research among Turkish employees and de-termined that job security refers to the objective dimensions of continuous con-tract and working full-time hours. Hansson and Aavik (2012) explore how thelabour market position of Estonian men and women and Russian-speaking menand women changed between 1993 and 2008. They examined earnings, per-ceived job security, and overall job satisfaction and determined that Estonianmen, especially those working in white-collar occupations, had clearly emergedas the most privileged group in the Estonian labour market. Rosenblatt et al.(1999) investigated gender effects on job insecurity and other work attitudes (e.g. organizational commitment) of Israeli schoolteachers and found that genderaffected both the experience and the impact of job insecurity on work attitudes.The results showed that male teachers were more insecure than female teacherswere and that males were mostly concerned with financial aspects of the job andwith making a significant impact and females with work content and work sche-dule, as well as with financial aspects.

Campos-Serna et al. (2013) conducted a study that attempted to identify the dif-ferences between women and men in the exposure to working and employmentconditions through a systematic review of observational studies published re-garding occupational health in Europe. They determined that women havegreater feelings of high job insecurity, worse contractual working conditions andpsychosocial work environments, and report poorer self-perceived physical andmental health. Men are exposed to longer work hours, highly physically de-manding work, noise, effort-reward imbalance and have higher job status. More-over, the gender differences in power that place men in a better situation thanwomen to negotiate their employment conditions could explain the gender in-equalities identified in the type of contract and job status, which show more menthan women working with permanent contracts and occupying the higher statusjob positions.

The research hypothesis H2: Men evaluate the variables of job security morehighly than women do was supported, since the analysis of statistically signifi-cant differences between evaluated average estimates of the variables of securityshowed that men evaluated the possibilities of an individual to have the opportu-

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nities for wage coordination and indexation more highly than women did in nineout of fifteen (60%) cases. Men also evaluated the level of protection of an indi-vidual from major changes in working conditions by the current employer morehighly than women did.

DiscussionThe results show that the respondents with permanent contracts and those withfixed-term period job contracts gave the highest marks to the possibility of anindividual to access infrastructure for basic health needs in general and at theworkplace. The comparison between men and women also show that both evalu-ated the possibility of an individual to access infrastructure for basic healthneeds in general and at the workplace and the possibility to have safe workingconditions the highest. That is understandable, because labour legislation inSlovenia states that the employer has to register the worker with the social insu-rance system and with the unemployment insurance system.

The possibility of an individual to buy a house was evaluated the lowest on aver-age by respondents with permanent and those with other (flexible) type job con-tracts. The possibility of an individual to buy a house was evaluated the lowestby both women and men, but women evaluated it with the lowest mean values incomparison to men. The highest marks are a consequence of the current situa-tion in the labour market, which is a result of the recent economic recession andthe fact that unemployment has risen during this period. The state has to domore in the housing market, to enable more individuals to buy or rent an apart-ment or house.

The comparison between the employees with permanent jobs and those withother job contracts showed that employees with permanent jobs evaluated thepossibilities of an individual to access workplace training based on the needs ofemployers and at the request of the employee and at the employer’s expensemore highly than employees with other contract jobs did. The possibilities of anindividual to achieve education and training and the opportunities to improveskills and competences acquisition, retention and development were evaluatedhighly by men. Organizations should be aware that investing in the developmentof employees is a necessary business expense, because it provides the employerwith a huge payout in terms of efficiency and success. The state also has to en-sure financial resources to employers and organizations for training and retrain-ing. The leaders of the European Union in the “Europe 2020” Guidelines (seeEuropean Commission, 2012) state that the Member States have to do more inthe field of education. According to Bassanini and Duval (2009), the problem ofunemployment, especially of youth and women, needs to be solved by educa-tion, training, and professional courses; therefore, organizations have to paymore attention to education in the workplace.

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Men more highly evaluated an individual’s level of job security, the possibilityto have resources for a decent life, safe working conditions, protection fromlarge changes in working conditions (well-being in the workplace) than womendid. Employees with different types of atypical job contracts experience a lowerlevel of job security. More has to be done in the field of flexibility. According tothe conclusions of the OECD (2004) and Kahn (2007), a strict policy of securityof employment has a negative impact on unemployment. Employers use atypicaltypes of contracts more often, which may increase the possibility of moving em-ployees into lower job positions within the organization. Almer and Kaplan(2002) determined that flexibility has an impact on increased satisfaction of em-ployees and better work-life balance. Gariety and Shaffer (2001) found that em-ployees with flexible working hours receive higher wages. That means that em-ployees have an interest in flexible working hour programs. Hoffmann and Sol-brig (2003) emphasize that flexible working hours increase the possibilities ofemployment for women.

The introduction of flexibility or other different types of atypical employmentcontracts brings substantial benefits to both organizations and employees. How-ever, the results of the research show that employees who are employed withatypical job contracts experience lower job security. This result is understand-able for the current circumstances in Slovenia, because most organizations stilluse term-time contract jobs or hire students, whose jobs are not secure and theresearch was carried out during an economic crisis, which also affects the resultsof the research.

The introduction of sound, flexible programs into organizations has a significantimpact on the social security and employment security of women. Before the in-troduction of such programs, organizations must be aware of the needs of the or-ganization itself and employees. Van Venzel and Wilthagen (2004) have beenadvising that organizations have to explore and understand employees’ needs,review the organizational culture and identify obstacles and potential weakness-es that flexibility can cause. Based on this, employers should see that it is neces-sary to create flexible programs to improve the efficiency of organizations.However, the programs must be implemented, monitored and improved whennecessary.

Slovenian legislation is very rigid (long notice periods, high severance), whichis the reason for a large number of atypical employment contracts. Many stu-dents work through a referral for years (some of them ten years or more). Theconsequences of this are also macro-economic (e.g. fewer pay taxes). It seemsthat the flexible types of contracts have more positive effects for the employersthan employees, since it “gives enterprises flexibility to replace temporarily ab-sent workers, to evaluate new hires before offering them open-ended contracts,and to respond to seasonal or other changes in demand” (ILO, 2015). In contrast,

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employees seek flexible types of arrangements to balance family or educationalobligations, to supplement or increase their income (ILO, 2015), or in the hopethat the job might lead to permanent employment. As pointed out by Cao et al.(2011), the employees with flexible types of contract constantly seek better jobopportunities.

According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, security is one of the primary hu-man needs; therefore, it is difficult to further motivate an employee who doesnot feel safe. This has been shown to be so in many Slovenian companies, whichhave problems with employees who have atypical employment contracts (e.g.despite relatively good remuneration, deviant behaviour occurs; consequently,manufacturers introduce video surveillance of their employees).

Organizations should pay more attention to education and training. They shouldencourage employees to participate in training programs and check theirprogress. As far as possible, organizations should (co)finance employee partici-pation in training programs. Equal access to education for all must be ensured,including those who are employed through flexible forms of employment con-tracts (e.g. fixed-term contract). In addition, with a purpose of reducing transportcosts, a cooperation of organizations and the state with nearby service apart-ments and houses that would allow subsidized rental flats, is suggested.

The research was carried out at the time of the economic crisis, which affects theresults; therefore, the cross-sectional nature of the research could be seen as alimitation. The research should be repeated in times of economic growth and re-peated periodically. Moreover, the number of participants from private sector or-ganizations should be increased in further research, and the mechanism for in-clusion of respondents from all organization departments should be incorporatedin the study design. Finally, it would be interesting to perform structural equa-tion modelling to investigate the relationships among concepts of job security;however, a thorough study is left for future work.

ConclusionTraditionally it is known that gender and the type of employment contract affectjob security. Results show that employees with permanent job contracts evaluat-ed job security higher than employees with other types of job contracts and menhigher than women. Employees, organizations, and countries together should en-deavour to solve problems in the field of security.

The labour market should be more attractive, and it has to introduce changes in-to active employment policy (particularly in the context of education and train-ing), promote employment; create more competitive jobs; activate the entry ofwomen and parents in the labour market (e.g. savings on income tax), reduce thegap between the lowest and the highest paid employees; provide tax relief forthe lower and middle-class employees; and reduce labour costs. The differences

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between the incomes of those who are unemployed as well as those who workactively need to be increased. A range of flexible types of employment that isadjusted to harmonize professional and family life and even out the possibilitiesin the field of social and economic security between men and women should beincreased.

Greater attention should be given to solving housing problems, in particular,those faced by many young families. Organizations should be aware that invest-ing in the development of employees is a necessary business expense, because itprovides the employer with huge returns in terms of efficiency and success.

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Histograms and Q-Q Plots for 15 variables on jobsecurity

ES1

ES2

ES3

ES4

ES5

ES6

ES7

ES8

SI1

SI2

Appendix A:

Perception of job security – empirical evidence from Slovenia 359

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WSS

1

WS1

EJSS

1

CS1

CS1

Histograms for four non-normally distributed variablesaccording to permanency of job contract and gendertogether with Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z test (K-S)

ES4 ES6 ES7 SI2

Type

of t

he jo

b co

ntra

ct

Defi

nite

Perm

anen

tK-

S

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z

1.351

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.052

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z

0.617

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.841

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z

0.821

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.510

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z

1.113

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.168

Appendix B:

360 Tatjana Kozjek, Marko Ferjan, Anja Žnidaršič

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ES4 ES6 ES7 SI2G

ende

r

Wom

enM

enK-

S

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z

0.761

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.609

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z

1.557

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.016

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z

0.855

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.458

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z

1.783

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.003

Perception of job security – empirical evidence from Slovenia 361

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