Is there a future for research on job insecurity and the psychological contract in a changing world of work?

The Psycones study team, including Hans De Witte, explored the relationship between different employment contracts, the psychological contract and employee well-being and found, contrary to expectations, that temporary workers reported a more fulfilled psychological contract and better well-being than those on permanent contracts. Temporary workers also reported higher job insecurity. This raises questions about the role and relevance of job insecurity. Claims about the growth of the boundaryless career also question the salience of traditional concepts of job insecurity. This chapter analyzes the changing role of job insecurity, questioning its relevance in the context of the changing content of work, the decline of the traditional full-time, permanent employment contract and the growth of varied forms of temporary contracts. Algorithm-based gig working is used as an illustrative example since gig workers have no job security and, arguably since they are not employed, no psychological contract. It is suggested that future research should consider a wider range of types of insecurity affecting contemporary workers and explore their complex relationship with the psychological contract and employee well-being.