Job Satisfaction and Intentions to Turnover in Human Services Agencies Perceived as Stable or Nonstable

Questionnaires were completed by 91 respondents employed by two human services agencies: 63 employees of a stable (no layoffs in eight years) organization, and 28 employees of a nonstable organization (which had experienced recent layoffs, and in which many employees were supported by grant funding which varied from year to year). The questionnaire included respondents' perceptions of job security and satisfaction with pay (measured with subscales of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire), over-all job satisfaction (measured with the Porter Need Satisfaction Questionnaire), and additional measures of intention to turnover, absenteeism, productivity, etc. A 2 (agency) × 2 (high/low security) multivariate analysis of variance indicated that ratings of job insecurity were significantly related to job dissatisfaction in the agency perceived as nonstable but not in the agency perceived as stable. In both agencies, ratings of turnover intentions and pessimism about the future of the agency were higher among employees who reported feelings of insecurity. There were no differences in perceived absenteeism or productivity between employees of the two agencies.