Job security is a mental state of every career that indicates job stability rate in the future. Accordingly, job security is having the right to continue the job, which is usually continued until retirement to the extent that the staff feel secure they will not lose their job. On the other hand, job security is defined as having an appropriate job and confidence in its continuity in the futureas well as lack of factors threatening the proper working conditions of the given job.
Subjects like job changes, job loss and unavailability of a proper job have been included in job security, making the people uncertain about their job stability and expecting authorities to lay them off any moment because of unjustifiable reasons. On the other hand, job security is conceived of conditions in which an individual is not at the risk of losing or changing the job. Job security is achieved by ensured continuity of relationship between employment and organization. When taking about job security, the issue of official job and guaranteed salary and benefits are evoked in the mind. However, in the current world job security is not dependent upon official job and lifelong employment, while staff empowerment is the basis of job security.
In the new concept of job security, organizations have to depend on the personnel so that they can meet the professional and social expectations of organization and enjoy job stability consequently. From the perspective of managers, job security is considered one of the main incentives of any person who wants to have a job. Job security to develop human resource in every organization is necessary for achieving the organizational objectives. The job security of the staff ensured by the senior manager of organization can lead to development of confidence in organization and consequently reduced intension to quit the job because job security is anessential criterionfor the staff to remain committed and continue their job in organization. Therefore, providing job security is beneficial for both the staff and organization. The tension caused by lack of job security is a factor affecting the tendency of staff to quit their job. Lack of job security include instances like uncertainty about continuity of the job, lack of confidence in provision of retirement, insecurity about temporary employment and failure to feel secure due to plotting against an employed or a dismissed person.
Lack of job security is an internal organizational factor that leads to job burnout and is followed by reduced efficiency of manpower. Operating room nursing has been one of the key jobs in healthcare environments, providing the patients with quality services. The operating room staff, unlike other nursing staff, are exposed to many problems and risks in their career. In the past years of the trade union demands, no special attention has been given to this walk of life, or they may have been forgotten.
The results of a theoretical research by Nazari et al. showed a significant relationship between job security and organizational commitment of physical education teachers. There was also a significant association between organizational commitment and job security components (concentration on job, job satisfaction, financial satisfaction, organizational reliance and organizational defense), but no significant relationship was observed among job displacement, choosing an appropriate job, emotional work environment and sense of peace. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Furthermore, the results of regression analysis indicated satisfaction with salary and colleagues had a higher effect on organizational commitment; organizational commitment being a factor that reduces organizational negligence by itself.
In a study, Baferani reported a positively significant correlation between organizational commitment and job security components. No significant difference, however, was found between job security and organizational commitment and personnel’s marital status and gender. On the other hand, there was a significant difference between job security and organizational commitment and staff’s age, education and employment status .
Further, Alavi et al. found a significant association between job security and staff’s gender, job experience and employment. But Taghizadeh et al. showed no significant difference between job security and organizational commitment and demographic characteristics, including age, education, job experience and gender.
Income is an important component of job security. Nikoukar et al. reported a significant relationship between satisfaction with income and job security. Also, Jandaghi& Bahrami showed a significant difference between official and contractual staff regarding organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The findings of Mortazavi indicated a strong associationamong organizational commitment, job satisfaction and job security. Judge reported that job satisfaction caused an improvement in the quality of performance, a reduction in absence, delay and job burnout, an improvement in physical and psychological health and satisfaction with life. The results of the study by Faramarzi showed that job security enhanced efficiency and organizational commitment.
Because of job security, the staff’s spirit is promoted in organization,and they learn the new job skills quickly. Sajadi et al. concluded that increasing the job security of personnel can increase their organizational commitment and reduce their tendency to quit their job. In their study, Verdipoor et al. concluded that higher job security was significantly correlated with job satisfaction among the staff. Based on the above-mentioned discussion and scarcity of studies on job security among operating room nurses, this study was conducted to assess job security among the operating room nurses of teaching hospitals of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in 2017.