Scale library · HRM & organizational behavior
Job insecurity scale: Hellgren et al. (1999)
Hellgren, Sverke and Isaksson (1999) split job insecurity into two dimensions: quantitative insecurity, the worry of losing the job itself, and qualitative insecurity, the worry that valued features of the job such as promotion prospects, job content or pay rises will deteriorate. The authors showed that the two dimensions relate differently to work attitudes and employee health. The scale suits theses on restructuring, mergers, downsizing, or the impact of AI and automation, and works as a predictor of job satisfaction, commitment or turnover intention.
Cite the original, not the blog.
- Model or scale: JI
- Constructs: 2
- Items: 7 (4 reverse-coded)
Original English items
Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.
Quantitative Job Insecurity (QNJI, 3 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| QNJI1 | I am worried about having to leave my job before I would like to | No |
| QNJI2 | There is a risk that I will have to leave my present job in the year to come | No |
| QNJI3 | I feel uneasy about losing my job in the near future | No |
Qualitative Job Insecurity (QLJI, 4 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| QLJI1 (R) | My future career opportunities in [the organization] are favourable | Yes |
| QLJI2 (R) | I feel that [the organization] can provide me with a stimulating job content in the near future | Yes |
| QLJI3 (R) | I believe that [the organization] will need my competence also in the future | Yes |
| QLJI4 (R) | My pay development in this organization is promising | Yes |
Response scale
5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree … 5 = Strongly agree), as in the studies we checked. The four qualitative insecurity items are worded positively, so reverse-score them so that a high score means high insecurity; compute a separate mean for each dimension.
Recoding reverse-coded items: 1–5 scale: new score = 1 + 5 − score = 6 − score; 1–7 scale: new score = 1 + 7 − score = 8 − score.
Licence and permission
The items are published in an academic article and widely used in research. We found no purchase or licensing conditions; cite Hellgren, Sverke and Isaksson (1999) when you use them.
Sources (APA 7)
- Hellgren, J., Sverke, M., & Isaksson, K. (1999). A two-dimensional approach to job insecurity: Consequences for employee attitudes and well-being. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8(2), 179–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/135943299398311
Vietnamese translation
A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.