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Mutual Expectations: A Study of the Three-Way Relationship Between Employment Agencies, their Client Organisations and White-Collar Agency 'Temps'
Abstract
This paper examines the mutual expectations of employment agencies, the temporary workers who are placed by them and the client or host companies with whom they are placed. It considers the ambiguities and complexities inherent in the psychological contracts of agency temps, pointing to positive dimensions of the agency relationship with temps coupled with a tough transactional regime. In periods of uncertainty agency temping provided individuals with an illusion of freedom and control.
... Simultaneously these workers also form perceptions of the way in which they are treated by their client organizations (Liden, Wayne, Kraimer & Sparrowe, 2003). Accordingly, we have focused on the idea that simultaneous dual employment relationships are possible (Druker & Stanworth, 2004;Claes, 2005;Coyle-Shapiro & Morrow, 2006). ...
... Considering the tripartite relationship that contingent employment involves, one must examine the psychological contracts established with the agency that hires the contracted worker and the psychological contracts established with the client organization where s/he works daily. This double psychological contract has not been very discussed among contingent work research, except for the studies of Druker and Stanworth (2004), who qualitatively assessed employees psychological contract with their agency and their client organizations and Claes (2005), who investigated the content and the fulfilment or breach of organizational promises in psychological contracts from three perspectives (employee, agency and client). These studies proved the existence of dual psychological contracts (or two obligations' fulfilment perceptions) established between the employee and the agency and between the employee and the client organization. ...
... The perceived fulfilment of agency's obligations is a natural dependent variable since, as Davidov (2004) stated, the only relatively stable relationship that contracted workers have is with the agency. Besides, previous research shows that the psychological contract established with the agency is stronger than the one established with the client organization (Druker & Stanworth, 2004;Claes, 2005). Accordingly, one may suppose that psychological contract's fulfilment by the client is related to psychological contract's fulfilment by the agency. ...
Drawing on psychological contract literature, the present study examines the emerging contingent employment relationships, which involve the contracted workers, the employment agency and the client organization on whose premises these employees work. This sample includes eighty-eight white-collar employees working for four Portuguese agencies. The results suggest that the perceived fulfilment of clients obligations relates positively to the perceived fulfilment of agencys obligations and that these constructs are independent of one another. Furthermore, as expected, we have found that the perception of job insecurity relates negatively to the fulfilment of agencys obligations. No relationship was found between employability and the perceived fulfilment of clients obligations. The results have implications for practitioners and future research.
... We argue that with the increasing incidence of irregular work arrangements, the overall organizational performance now also depends on the productivity and positive workplace attitudes of irregular workers (Drucker & Stanworth, 2004). Therefore, we initiate a critical discussion and predict that the subcontracted workers' 3 perceptions of their client firms' CSR (composite) and external and internal CSR (disaggregated) may minimize the adverse effects of externalization on them by negatively impacting their unfairness perceptions and positively impacting their social relations with regular employees. ...
... Finally, fairness heuristic theory adds to both SIT and SET mechanisms by suggesting that indications of fairness toward all stakeholders may precede the development of a relationship based on identity and trust. Fourth, our focus on subcontracted workers underscores our intent to prove our hypotheses in a complex three-way work arrangement (Drucker & Stanworth, 2004) representing the most extreme form of irregular employee externalization (Johnson & Ashforth, 2008). Finally, we test our model in the collectivistic culture of South Korea. ...
... The subcontracted workers operate in a uniquely different work arrangement from the normal dyadic employee-employer relationship (Boswell et al., 2012) where there are "three parties-and six sets of mutual expectations" (Drucker & Stanworth, 2004, p. 59). This triangular arrangement institutes a complicated employee-employer relationship where the work is contracted with specific targets and durations and is to be performed off the employer's campus under the supervision of the client organization (Drucker & Stanworth, 2004;Lapalme, Stamper, Simard, & Tremblay, 2009). Hence, other than the general sense of replaceability felt by all irregular workers (Lautch, 2003), the subcontracted workers may experience a more profound sense of expandability due to the externalization of place, administrative control, and diminished duration of employment (Pfeffer & Baron, 1988). ...
In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in organizational trends to hire irregular workers. This inclination, in a time of great flux and uncertainty, exacerbates human resource issues faced by firms. We argue that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be an important antecedent to improve the workplace attitudes of irregular workers and as a result reduce the negative impact on organizations of the increased use of an irregular workforce. Hence, we explore the relationship between perceived CSR (composite and disaggregated) and unfairness perception and social relations of subcontracted workers with regular workers. We further attempt to explain these relationships through the mediating effects of psychological contract violation and organizational identity, respectively. Our analysis supports a negative effect of composite and external CSR on unfairness perception and positive effect on social relations. Additionally, our results support partial mediating roles of psychological contract violation and organizational identity. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are also discussed.
... Many agencies, from the late 1990s onwards, began to develop long-term contracts with firms to supply large numbers of temps to firms on a quasi-continuous basis (see Peck and Theodore, 1998;Coe et al., 2010). In these large contracts, temps were often seen as 'permatemps', undertaking core roles in the client firms where they were working (see Druker and Stanworth, 2004;Grimshaw et al., 2001;Purcell et al., 2004). For agencies, the continuation of these contracts was heavily dependent upon them being able to meet the company's need for an (often rapidly varying) headcount, but also, crucially, upon them supplying 'repeat' (i.e. the same) temps to firms each day (Forde, 2001). ...
... Studies have shown that a key facet of the growth strategies of the largest agencies has centred on developing high 'added value' contracts with client firms. Within these contracts, the agency often assumes responsibility for payroll activities and the day-to-day management and performance of temps (see Druker and Stanworth, 2004;Purcell and Purcell, 2004) and it is reasonable to expect that this will be accompanied by a greater role for the agency in pay-setting activities. Indeed, a joint CIPD and REC report examining the rise of the various embedded relationships between agencies and clients discussed above noted that agencies are increasingly offering to provide pay benchmarking services to client firms (CIPD/REC, 2009). ...
... Studies of these embedded relations have also highlighted some correlation between formalised contracts and the provision of additional benefits by agencies to temporary staff. Given the close and on-going relations between agencies and clients in preferred and sole supplier agreements, for example, even before the recent regulatory changes there is evidence under these arrangements provide their temps may be provided with some of the benefits enjoyed by permanent staff, and training from the agency (Druker and Stanworth, 2004). ...
Purpose
Temporary agency working continues to grow in the UK. The purpose of this paper is to look at a number of important developments in the agency industry, which generate implications for the performance of agencies, temps and the user firms in which temps work and to set out some of the key performance implications of these developments. These developments are: the increasingly complex set of contractual arrangements between agencies and user firms; the changing regulatory environment; and the changing role of agencies in pay setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the state of the art literature on agency working, and draws on 15 years of primary research and secondary analysis of the sector by the authors.
Findings
The paper shows that there is a proliferation of models of temporary agency worker supply, some of which involves agencies playing a greater role within firms in the management of temps, with other involving a deliberate and strategic distancing of client firms and/or agency in the day-to-day management of temps. This creates significant challenges for the management of temps. The paper also finds that there are significant tensions and challenges arising from the implementation of the Agency Working Regulations, even though these regulations have the potential to raise motivation and performance of temps.
Practical implications
The management of temps creates significant challenges for organisations and agencies. New models of supply of agency labour have the potential to make these challenges even more problematic, if not addressed effectively. The implications of the shifting regulatory and political environment also need closer scrutiny, particularly in the context of the recent EU referendum result in the UK.
Originality/value
The paper sheds light on a number of new developments in the agency sector, and by demonstrating their effects on organisations, agencies and temps, draws out some of the performance implications of the continued and changing use of agency temps.
... Evidence from prior research shows that contracted workers form perceptions of their work relationship with their client firm as well as their temporary employment agency, and they form separate and distinct exchange relationships with each of the two firms (Liden et al. 2003, McLean Parks et al. 1998. Contracted workers form distinct psychological contracts with each, even if their employment relationship with the client firm is of relatively short duration (e.g., Chambel and Fontinha 2009, Claes 2005, Druker and Stanworth 2004, Lapalme et al. 2011. ...
... 1998). Furthermore, research that has examined psychological contracts in multiple-agency relationships (in the context of temporary employment agencies) suggests that individuals develop two exchange relationshipsone with the temporary employment agency and one with the client firm-and form two psychological contracts (Chambel and Fontinha 2009, Claes 2005, Druker and Stanworth 2004, Lapalme et al. 2011. This is in line with the multifoci notion of social exchange that suggests that employees form multiple distinct social exchange relationships at the workplace, which evolve in parallel (e.g., Bordia et al. 2010, Cropanzano and Rupp 2008, Lavelle et al. 2007). ...
... This is in line with the multifoci notion of social exchange that suggests that employees form multiple distinct social exchange relationships at the workplace, which evolve in parallel (e.g., Bordia et al. 2010, Cropanzano and Rupp 2008, Lavelle et al. 2007). This notion is supported by empirical evidence that suggests that the exchange relationships and psychological contracts an employee forms with the consulting and client firms in a multiple-agency relationship are indeed distinct (Chambel and Fontinha 2009, Claes 2005, Druker and Stanworth 2004, Lapalme et al. 2011, Liden et al. 2003. In our context of professional service firms, the consultant is expected by the client to contribute to the performance of the client organization by contributing expertise to the project and bringing it to a successful completion. ...
Most psychological contract research examines single-agency situations in which a breach only affects one firm. In a multiple-agency relationship, however, the individual performs work that simultaneously satisfies the requirements of two firms, allowing for the possibility that breach outcomes extend across both the breaching and the nonbreaching firms. We theorize two mechanisms through which breach outcomes extend across organizational boundaries. First, we propose spillover effects for feelings of violation and for organizational citizenship behaviors from the breaching firm to the nonbreaching firm. Second, we propose that, in cases where the individual expects the nonbreaching firm to intervene and rectify the other firm's breach as part of a regulatory obligation, there are direct and moderating effects of meeting (or failing to meet) these perceived obligations. Using professional service firms as the empirical context, we find evidence of breach outcome spillover between the two firms in the multiagency relationship and direct and moderating effects of unmet obligations to intervene by the nonbreaching firm. We also find some key differences in the nomological networks depending on whether the breaching firm was the consulting firm or the client firm. These insights highlight the importance of extending psychological contract study to multiple-agency relationships.
... As a result of the placement process and coordination with the host, the agency influences how temps are integrated into the host (Liu et al., 2010). The temps also expect to be supported by the agency in case problems arise with the host, such as difficulties with their supervisor or co-workers (Druker and Stanworth, 2004;Liu et al., 2010). However, it is the host that has control over work conditions and reports the satisfaction with the temp to the agency (Gallagher and Parks, 2001). ...
... Because temps expect agencies to act on their behalf when suggesting their services to hosts and to support their interests regarding the hosts (Druker and Stanworth, 2004;Liu et al., 2010), an indirect exchange between the temps, agencies, and hosts arises. As demonstrated previously, if individuals find themselves in a well working exchange triad, affective attachment to all exchange partners will increase (Molm et al., 2007;Seinen and Schram, 2006;Yamagishi and Cook, 1993). ...
... For example, Druker and Stanworth (2004) found, "the agency was trusted by most of the participants, to provide support if it was needed -and was seen as a 'go-between' supporting temps' interests in relation to client pressures" (p. 73). ...
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how temporary agency workers’ job attitudes are influenced by the fulfilment of the psychological contract; a set of employees’ expectations, formed with the temporary work agency and its client: the host organisation.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper estimated moderated regressions with data collected through an online survey of 352 temporary agency workers employed by a large temporary work agency in Switzerland.
Findings
– Results suggest that temporary agency workers’ job satisfaction, commitment towards the host organisation, and intentions to stay with the temporary work agency relate positively to the fulfilment of the psychological contract by both organisations. Additionally, reported spill-over-effects imply that the fulfilment of the psychological contract by one organisation moderates job attitudes towards the other organisations.
Research limitations/implications
– Results of the explorative study reveal that future research should consider the interrelated nature of psychological contracts in working arrangements when multiple employers are involved. However, for more generalisable results, a greater international sample, including different temporary work agencies, would be favourable.
Practical implications
– Findings will help temporary work agencies to better understand how they rely on host organisations to fulfil the temporary agency workers’ psychological contract to attract and retain temporary agency workers.
Originality/value
– This paper contributes to the literature in the understudied field of non-traditional work arrangements as one of the few to examine these spill-over-effects both empirically and theoretically.
... (2) Do workers reciprocate this support in ways that reinforce the relationship between the client and the temporary help services (THS) firm? The primary aim of the current study is to answer these two questions by situating the client-worker relationship within a broader triadic framework consisting of these two parties and the THS firm (Druker & Stanworth, 2004). Specifically, it is proposed that client organizations enjoying a positive relationship with the THS firm reciprocate by providing support to the contingent workers deployed by the firm. ...
... Contingent workers, THS firms, and client organizations can be viewed as participants in a triadic relationship where inducements received from, and contributions directed to different exchange partners, are strongly interrelated (Druker & Stanworth, 2004;McLean Parks, Kidder, & Gallagher, 1998). For instance, contingent-workers' commitment towards the THS firm can favourably affect their commitment towards the client , client supportiveness can translate into commitment towards both the client and the THS firm (Connelly et al., 2007), and favourable attitudes towards the firm can translate into positive client outcomes (Subramony, 2011). ...
... For instance, clients and firm representatives typically collaborate to identify appropriate contingent workers for open positions, and interact with each other throughout the duration of this position or project (e.g., placements and problem solving). Over the course of this relationship, they develop an understanding of each others' contexts, capabilities, and vulnerabilities and become uniquely suited to meet each others' needs (Druker & Stanworth, 2004). For instance, the THS firm gains an understanding of the client organization's workforce skill gaps and learn to anticipate the ebbs and flows in their manpower (e.g., a larger sales force during holidays or more programmers during technology upgrades). ...
Extant literature dealing with nonstandard employment relationships reveals that contingent (temporary) workers are influenced by the supportiveness levels of their client organizations. However, the antecedents and consequences of client supportiveness remain underinvestigated. Specifically, the link between client supportiveness and relationship quality (i.e., the relationship between client organizations and temporary help services [THS] firm) has received minimal attention. I proposed that (1) the quality of the relationship between client organizations and the THS firm will influence client supportiveness, (2) client supportiveness will influence contingent workers' job attitudes, (3) these job attitudes will influence future levels of relationship quality, and (4) relationship quality will predict unit-level profitability. A time-lagged, unit-level test of this model using large samples of worker and client data obtained from 89 business units of a THS firm provided complete support for the first three proposed relationships. Further, the association between relationship quality and profitability was found to be significant for medium-sized and large business units, but not for small business units.
... Simultaneously these workers also form perceptions of the way in which they are treated by their client organizations (Liden, Wayne, Kraimer & Sparrowe, 2003). Accordingly, we have focused on the idea that simultaneous dual employment relationships are possible (Druker & Stanworth, 2004;Claes, 2005;Coyle-Shapiro & Morrow, 2006). ...
... Considering the tripartite relationship that contingent employment involves, one must examine the psychological contracts established with the agency that hires the contracted worker and the psychological contracts established with the client organization where s/he works daily. This double psychological contract has not been very discussed among contingent work research, except for the studies of Druker and Stanworth (2004), who qualitatively assessed employees psychological contract with their agency and their client organizations and Claes (2005), who investigated the content and the fulfilment or breach of organizational promises in psychological contracts from three perspectives (employee, agency and client). These studies proved the existence of dual psychological contracts (or two obligations' fulfilment perceptions) established between the employee and the agency and between the employee and the client organization. ...
... The perceived fulfilment of agency's obligations is a natural dependent variable since, as Davidov (2004) stated, the only relatively stable relationship that contracted workers have is with the agency. Besides, previous research shows that the psychological contract established with the agency is stronger than the one established with the client organization (Druker & Stanworth, 2004;Claes, 2005). Accordingly, one may suppose that psychological contract's fulfilment by the client is related to psychological contract's fulfilment by the agency. ...
Basándonos en la literatura del contrato psicológico, el presente estudio examina la emergencia de relaciones de empleo contingentes, que implican a los trabajadores contratados, la agencia de empleo y la organización cliente en cuyas instalaciones trabajan los empleados. Esta muestra incluye 88 empleados de oficina, que trabajan para cuatro agencias portuguesas. Los resultados sugieren que el cumplimiento percibido de las obligaciones del cliente se relaciona positivamente con el cumplimiento percibido de las obligaciones de la agencia y que estos constructos son independientes uno de otro. Además, como se esperaba, hemos encontrado que la percepción de inseguridad en el trabajo se relaciona negativamente con el cumplimiento de las obligaciones de la agencia. No se encontraron relaciones entre la empleabilidad y el cumplimiento percibido de obligaciones del cliente. Los resultados tienen implicaciones para la práctica y la investigación futura.
... Of these, temporary staffing agencies have the most complex work arrangements (Druker & Stanworth, 2004). Temporary Agency Workers (TAW) are in a three-way relationship and are capable of creating 'dual allegiances' (Bonet, Cappelli, & Hamori, 2013). ...
... If we speak specifically about TAW, however, here the situation is additionally complex. The engagement of an intermediary third-party -the temporary agency, creates a triangular employment relationship in which workers have to connect with whom they have a formal contract -the temporary agency -and with whom they actually work for -the client-company (Connelly & Gallagher, 2004;Druker & Stanworth, 2004;Kalleberg, 2009). Consequently, the challenge of making TAW feel like they are part of the company is even greater and involves more than one organization. ...
... z.B. Gallagher & McLean Parks, 2001;Liden, Wayne, & Kraimer, 2003;Druker & Stanworth, 2004;Coyle-Shapio & Morrow, 2006;Süß, 2012). Gallagher und McLean Parks (2001) sprechen von agency und client bzw. ...
... z.B. Davis-Blake & Uzzi, 1993;Druker & Stanworth, 2004;Mitlacher, 2005;Alewell, 2006;Bidwell & Fernandez-Mateo, 2008;Alewell & Hauff, 2011). ...
This paper deals with the psychological contract in knowledge-intensive employment arrangements where the project-based development of customer-specific solutions is decisive. We present results of a qualitative empirical study on the mutual expectations and obligations of workers and employers in this context. The results show that the customer is relevant as a third actor in the psychological contract for both contracting parties. Their mutual expectations of entrepreneurial behavior and loyalty are interdependent and considered as conducive to balance the assumed conflicts of triangular employment relationships.
... However, today's society is becoming increasingly "mobile" and uncertain [34]. Other countries are also interested in this [35]. The fourth scientific and technological revolution, with the rise of emerging fields such as the internet plus, big data, and AI, has brought about economic transformation and industrial restructuring. ...
Owing to the increasingly complex economic environment and difficult employment situation, a large number of new occupations have emerged in China, leading to job diversification. Currently, the overall development status of new occupations in China and the structural characteristics of new occupation practitioners in different cities are still unclear. This study first constructed a development index system for new occupation practitioners from five dimensions (group size, cultural appreciation, salary level, occupation perception, and environmental perception). Relevant data to compare and analyze the development status of new occupation practitioners were derived from the big data mining of China’s mainstream recruitment platforms and the questionnaire survey of new professional practitioners which from four first-tier cities and 15 new first-tier cities in China. The results show that the development level of new occupation practitioners in the four first-tier cities is the highest, and the two new first-tier cities, Chengdu and Hangzhou, have outstanding performance. The cities with the best development level of new occupation practitioners in Eastern, Central, and Western China are Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chengdu, respectively. Most new occupation practitioners in China are confident about the future of their careers. However, more than half of the 19 cities are uncoordinated in the five dimensions of the development of new occupation practitioners, especially those cities with middle development levels. A good policy environment and social environment have not yet been formulated to ensure the sustainable development of new occupation practitioners. Finally, we proposed the following countermeasures and suggestions: (1) Establish a classified database of new occupation talents. (2) Implement a talent industry agglomeration strategy. (3) Pay attention to the coordinated development of new occupation practitioners in cities.
... In this regard temporary agency workers function in the tripartite employment relationship in such a way that 'the worker simultaneously fulfils obligations to more than one employer through the same act or behaviour' (Gallagher and McLean Parks 2001: 185), and for temporary agency workers, their employment relationship (i.e., administration and getting paid) is with the temporary work agency, while their work relationship (i.e., their supervision and direction) is with the client organization (Gonos 1997). The client may also use temporary agency workers precisely because the relationship involves no commitment or obligation (Druker and Stanworth 2004), a situation which Fox (1974) describes as likely to result in a low-trust relationship. ...
This study examines the lived experiences of temporary agency workers in a UK fresh food factory. The UK food supply chain, like other lower paid and lower skilled sectors, is heavily reliant on this precarious form of employment and the voice of these workers has not been adequately heard. Whilst temporary agency work has been subject to extensive research, few accounts take into consideration the view from below to consider the overall lived experiences of these workers. This is surprising and, given the significance of this form of employment, warrants further examination. In this study I give an ethnographic account of the lived experiences of temporary agency workers in a salad processing factory, focusing on three aspects. The first aspect considers precarious work and employment insecurity and explores the experiences of temporary agency workers as they seek work and then aim to maintain work, whilst the second aspect examines these agency workers as they undertake work. These temporary agency workers experience multi-faceted relationships whilst at work - which is the third aspect of their lived experiences that this study examines. The ethnographic approach that I adopted for this study combined participant observations and semi structured interviews to provide valuable insights into the work experiences of temporary agency workers. As the motivation for this study was to further understand the lived experiences of temporary agency workers in the food supply chain, an ethnographic approach was necessary as we cannot really learn a great deal about what actually happens or about how things work in organizations without undertaking the intensive and close-up participative research that is central to an ethnographic approach. By examining the lived experiences of temporary agency workers in this way, this thesis makes an important contribution to the literature in the following areas. First, I add to our knowledge of temporary agency work by highlighting and explaining how temporary agency workers exhibit individual agency to lessen the effects of precarious work and employment insecurity. Second, many temporary agency workers carry out intense work and this thesis contributes to the literature on temporary agency work by examining how the combined effect of temporality and hard work intensifies their workplace experiences. Third, the relationships experienced by temporary agency workers from within a blended workforce have not been adequately examined from their perspective and this thesis contributes to the literature in this area. Whilst blending suggests a workplace which is smooth and homogenous, I introduce the concept of the mixed-up organisation to appropriately reflect that life on the diverse factory shop floor is far more complicated. Finally, this study reveals how discreet acts of resistance are enacted by temporary agency workers, and in doing so further highlights that these workers possess a surprising degree of individual agency.
... Control variables. We controlled for the duration of the relationships with the agency and the client organization because perceived organizational support and commitment are all related to length of tenure (Connelly et al., 2007;Druker and Stanworth, 2004;Van Breugel et al., 2005). With reference to Giunchi et al.'s (2015) model, we replicated the duration of the relationships and measured as the number of months that a worker had been with the agency and the client organization. ...
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the effects of the type of agency contract on the relationship between agency workers' organizational commitment and perceived organizational support.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors extend a previously developed model considering organizational support and affective commitment by including also continuance commitment in the Italian employment agency industry. The authors use a probabilistic stratified sampling method on a sample of 8,283 agency workers. Data were analyzed with structural equation modelling (SEM) and multiple group analyses.
Findings
The findings confirm the positive relationship between perceived organizational support from both the agency and the client organization and agency workers' affective commitment to them. The authors also find that agency workers develop a mutually related dual commitment in response to the support they receive from both organizations.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature on agency workers and suggests useful managerial and policy makers interventions for both temporary work agencies and client organizations for the development of the agency industry as well as the well-being of workers.
... The sample contains workers from several sectors (26.1% blue collar workers; 56.1% white collar workers; 17.8% not identified) with different functions and backgrounds (50.9% previously unemployed workers; 13.4% workers from previous temporary agency; 16.9% previously hired with a non-temporary contract; 6.4% previously self-employed workers; and 12.4% in a first job experience). In common, they all work in client companies at which the decision to employ TAWs was based on the need to adapt to current market needs. ...
The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) establishes that human motivations can take different forms (e.g., amotivation, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation), yet it is only recently that the theory has been advanced to explain how these different forms combine to influence temporary agency workers’ (TAWs) affective commitment and their perception over the human resources practices (HRP) applied. We tested this theory with data from seven temporary agency companies (N = 3766). Through latent profile analysis (LPA) we identified five distinct motivation profiles and found that they differed in their affective commitment to the agency and to the client-company, and in their perception of HRP. We verified that temporary agency workers in more intrinsic profiles had more positive outcomes and a better perception of the investment made by the companies, than did TAWs in more extrinsic profiles. Additionally, when TAWs were able to integrate the reasons for being in this work arrangement, the negative effect of the extrinsic motivation was attenuated, and it was possible to find moderated profiles in which TAWs also showed more positive results than TAWs with only extrinsic motives. These differences are consistent with the notion that a motivation profile provides a context that determines how the individual components are experienced. Theoretical and practical implications of this context effect are discussed.
... Previous research on agencies mainly focused on temporary agency work, which is based on a mutual employment contract, and its effects on temp workers (e.g. Allan, 2000;Alsos and Evans, 2018;Biggs and Swailes, 2006;Chambel et al., 2016;Chambel and Sobral, 2019;Chen et al., 2017;Drucker and Stanworth, 2004;Forde, 2001;Kalleberg et al., 2015;Kirkpatrick and Hoque, 2006;Mitlacher, 2006;Morf et al., 2014;Svensson and Wolvén, 2010;Torka and Schyns, 2007;Ward et al., 2001). These studies indicate that the job quality of temporary agency work compared to that of standard employment is poor, and that uncertainties arise regarding attitudinal issues like workers' loyalty, identity and organizational commitment. ...
Purpose
While staffing agencies are gaining importance in work relationships with the highly skilled workforce, their work relations with highly skilled independent contractors have not been investigated yet. Staffing agencies as labor market intermediaries charge a fee to help independent contractors as well as client organizations to create contracts for services while independent contractors remain self-employed. Besides their growing relevance, their exact role remains unclear. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of staffing agencies in work relationships with highly skilled independent contractors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors applied a mixed-methods design comprising a qualitative interview study with independent contractors and staffing agencies’ representatives ( n =29) coupled with a quantitative survey of staffing agencies ( n =81).
Findings
The analysis shows that staffing agencies are important actors in work relationships with highly skilled independent contractors. However, the relationships can be differentiated into rather standardized ones on the one hand and individualized relations on the other hand. This seems to correspond with differences between sectors.
Originality/value
First, the authors discuss staffing agencies as new intermediaries and highlight their relevance in the negotiation of working conditions. Second, the authors emphasize variations of the role of staffing agencies in triadic work relationships of highly skilled independent contractors in relation to specificities of sectors. Third, the study also adds on organizational support theory and related research.
... Psychological contract development, however, has been more thoroughly understood through various organisational factors. For example, psychological contracts have been shown to 50 develop most significantly via interactions with organisational agents such as managers (Guest & Conway, 2000), while other factors include policy documents (Rousseau, 1995), human resources practices (Guest & Conway, 1998;Westwood, Sparrow & Leung, 2001;Conway & Monks, 2008), idiosyncratic inferences from structural practices (Dick, 2006), and the employment contract itself (Beard & Edwards, 1995;Claes, 2005;Conway & Briner, 2005;Coyle-Shapiro & Kessler, 2002;De Cuyper & De Witte, 2006;Druker & Stanworth, 2006;Guest, 2004;Guest & Conway, 2000). Such experiences and documents develop the psychological contract by adding perceived clarity to the role relationship one has with their employing organisation (Rousseau, 1989). ...
Employee-manager relationships have received significant attention in the literature in attempting to understand the development and consequences of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ relationships. Whilst much is known about these relationships independently, relatively little is known about those relationships that are both ‘good’ and ‘bad’. This thesis uses ‘relational ambivalence’ to describe such relationships and addresses a fundamental question in employee-manager research; can employees simultaneously like and dislike their managers? Two separate research methodologies address this question. The first study, employing a longitudinal survey over a six-month period, explored how historical, individual and social-cognitive perspectives contributed to employee relationship valuations (positive, negative, and ambivalent). This study also tested the impact that each relationship valuation had on interpersonal and organisational outcomes. The second study employed a daily diary method to explore how employee relationship valuations impacted responses to manager-induced psychological contract violations over a two-week period. Findings indicated that relational ambivalence is a distinct relationship valuation both in terms of its antecedents and consequences. The first study revealed that relational ambivalence had a curvilinear relationship with both leader-member exchange and relational schema similarity. Additionally, preoccupied attachment was positively related to relational ambivalence, whilst oneness perceptions were negatively related to relational ambivalence. The study examined two outcome categories: interpersonal and organisational. The interpersonal outcomes revealed a negative relationship with affectbased and cognition-based trust, as well as relational identification; whilst the organisational outcomes revealed that relational ambivalence was the strongest relationship valuation linked to turnover intent. Relational ambivalence was negatively related to OCBs directed toward the organisation, and job control negatively moderated OCBs directed toward the manager. Finally, study two revealed that relational ambivalence changes in intensity over time and leads to increased OCBs, decreased forgiveness, and increased intrusive thoughts after a manager-induced psychological contract violation. Employees offering positive valuations lowered their OCBs, increased forgiveness, and did not experience intrusive thoughts; whilst those offering negative valuations only lowered their OCBs. Contributions and implications of this thesis are discussed.
http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/386/
... It means that either temping might improve one's position in the job market, in general, by signaling that the temping individual prefers to work as a temp rather than continue to be unemployed, for example, or that temping itself helps individuals to get a job offer in client organizations. In fact, TAW can serve as a screening tool for client organizations (Druker and Stanworth, 2004;CIETT, 2011;Jahn and Rosholm, 2010); that is, the transition from an external temporary agency worker into an in-house employee can be the result of a screening process of the client organization. However, transition can also occur unintentionally as a side effect. ...
Purpose
Temporary agency work (TAW) has increased enormously in recent decades. Most temporary agency workers are pushed involuntarily into this work arrangement and prefer permanent work arrangements. Therefore, the motive to find a permanent job through TAW is predominant for the majority of temporary agency workers. However, little is known about what helps in obtaining a permanent job in a client organization. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of social skills by simultaneously considering the human capital aspects and motivational background of the individuals for transition success.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a questionnaire study of 151 temporary agency workers with two measurement points. The questionnaires were first administered at the very beginning of their work as a temp and again five months later.
Findings
The findings show that the social skills of temporary agency workers in contrast to various aspects of human capital and motives for temping had a significant impact on becoming a permanent worker in a client organization.
Research limitations/implications
The generalizability of the finding that social skills help temporary agency workers to find a permanent job in a client organization may be restricted due to the particularities of the work setting in the clerical sector. The incidences as well as the determinants of transition success may depend on the industry sector because of the respective assignment characteristics as well as the clients’ reasons of using temporary agency workers. Future research should investigate more thoroughly the role of assignment characteristics for the experiences of the workers.
Practical implications
Social skills seem to play a crucial role for transition success in TAW. Qualification measures should therefore include the training of interpersonal behavior. It would be desirable when the involved organizations would assume responsibility in this respect. Furthermore, policy makers should provide adequate training formats since they promote TAW as a stepping stone opportunity for unemployed people.
Originality/value
This paper suggests that career mobility in the context of flexible work arrangements may be driven by more informal processes of social integration into the existing permanent team. While TAW is seen as a temporary solution in Germany, this study focuses on the individual determinants of transition success of temporary agency workers that is still rare in studies on the topic.
... Although TAWs may perceive support by both organizations in the triadic relationship, our focus here is on the role of the employing agency for providing POS for several reasons. First, despite agencies' intermediary role, TAWs perceive their respective agencies as the constant (Druker and Stanworth, 2004) in their continuously changing, atypical employment situations. Second, short assignment durations at user companies increase the centrality of agencies in the triangular employment relationship (van Breugel et al., 2005). ...
Purpose
We focus on the specific relationship between temporary agency workers and their employing temporary work agencies in Germany that is characterized – in contrast to other European countries – by agencies’ central role in employment and the prevalence of permanent contracts. Our study addresses a research gap in understanding the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS) provided by temporary work agencies in the relationship between employment-specific antecedents and temporary agency workers’ subjective well-being (SWB).
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a sample of 350 temporary agency workers in Germany, the mediating role of POS provided by agencies is analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
We show that procedural justice, performance feedback and social network availability positively relate to POS while perceived job insecurity shows the expected negative influence and distributive justice has no impact on POS. POS, in turn, positively relates to SWB. The partially mediating effect of POS between employment-specific antecedents and SWB is also confirmed.
Research limitations/implications
Our study is based on cross-sectional data and self-reported measures; this may limit causal inferences.
Practical implications
The results highlight the importance of agencies creating POS and reducing perceived job insecurity for improving temporary agency workers’ SWB.
Originality/value
Our study contributes to previous POS research by focusing on the agencies’ role and by showing the mediating effect of POS on temporary agency workers’ SWB in Germany.
... The term "client organisations" will be used to denote these employing establishments (user companies) who hire workers through employment agencies. The role played by employment agencies is both complex and dynamic (Cetinkaya and Danisman 2011;Druker and Stanworth 2006;Sankaran 2007;Wynn 2009). This three-party employment relationship often generates ambiguity regarding the employment relationship and raises questions as to who bears the responsibility of an "employer" in terms of providing employment rights and responsibilities (Autor 2003;Connell and Burgess 2002;Davidov and Langille 2006). ...
The proliferation of agency employment in Pakistan is a serious labour problem and a public policy concern because of the potentially negative implications for agency workers' basic statutory rights. Agency workers are normally given a vastly different, often negligible, package of benefits from their permanent counterparts. They are especially vulnerable to instant dismissal and are generally excluded from collective bargaining arrangements. Unions regard the use of agency employment as exploitative, and a threat to their jurisdiction and membership. This article reports on an in-depth study of “payrolling” agencies. Pay-rolling agencies are a particular form of employment intermediaries through which employers attempt to bypass statutory obligations concerning workers' benefit entitlements and trade union rights, simply by paying workers through an agency. A total of 97 interviews, undertaken in six case studies across three industrial sectors with employees, employers, agency and union officials, and industry specialists revealed sufficient evidence on the use of pay-rolling agencies. The results confirmed the anecdotal evidence that some employment agencies are not truly genuine. The evidence suggested that there is a growing trend for agencies to be simply a sham arrangement, refuting the notion that temporary agency work has only been a natural and inevitable response to changes in the economy.
... Married women with children, young people, older people -or temporary migrantsmay prefer to work through an agency because they have a marginal 82 -10.1515/njmr-2016-0013 Downloaded from PubFactory at 08/01/2016 04:32:47PM via free access commitment to work and prefer a more 'flexible' attachment to the labour market (Druker & Stanworth 2004). Furthermore, agency workers may choose this kind of work as a gateway into permanent employment. ...
Temporary staffing agencies have recently emerged as a significant ‘migration industry’ in Norway, actively recruiting and facilitating the employment of workers from new eastern EU states (EU10). This article explores how such agencies shape patterns of mobility and labour market incorporation among migrant workers. Although agencies promote circular and temporary mobility for western European labour migrants, this is not the case for the eastern European migrant workers. Although temporary staffing jobs are often short-term stepping stones into regular employment for native workers, migrant workers far more often remain employed within staffing agencies for many years. Finally, the eastern European migrants recruited through agencies have far lower earnings and are more at risk of needing public benefits than those hired directly. The findings show that the temporary staffing industry has functioned as a spearhead for establishing a permanent, yet hyper-flexible and highly precarious migrant workforce in the otherwise highly regulated Norwegian labour market.
... On peut d'ailleurs lier ce constat au fait que les raisons de recours à certains statuts d'emplois atypiques plutôt que d'autres ne semblent pas toujours correctement identifiées (Davis-Blake et Uzzi, 1993 ; Leighton et Wynn, 2011). Tout cela conduisant à ce que les entreprises n'optimisent pas leur recours à des emplois atypiques, voire soient contreproductives 13 dans cette démarche, et ce sans s'en rendre compte (Druker et Stanworth, 2004 ; Leighton et al., 2007)Toutefois, là encore, la très grande disparité de la catégorie impliquerait de segmenter cette réflexion autour de métiers, de statuts ou d'activités précises. ...
Le travail indépendant semble de plus en plus convoité dans le monde du travail actuel, empreint de crise de l’emploi et de reconfiguration digitale des activités professionnelles (Eurofound, 2015 ; France Stratégie, 2016). Cette communication se propose de questionner le concept de QVT au regard des statuts d’emploi externes à l’entreprise, en particulier la situation des indépendants. À partir d’une revue de la littérature consacrée à l’articulation entre la QVT, les caractéristiques des travailleurs indépendants et la prise en charge de ce groupe professionnel par les politiques publiques, cet essai formule une problématisation des enjeux théoriques et managériaux qu’ouvre une telle perspective de recherche. Le fruit de ce travail initial met en évidence non seulement que la population des indépendants semble méconnue (de par l’hétérogénéité des statuts qu’elle recouvre et le manque de consensus quant à sa définition propre), voire oubliée des travaux relatifs à la QVT des catégories professionnelles, mais aussi que le droit social et du travail ne répond pas pertinemment à la situation de ces travailleurs autonomes. Une méthodologie de recherche envisagée, inscrite en sciences de gestion et clinique du travail, est ensuite proposée comme une réponse aux éléments problématisés. Pour mieux comprendre les contours de la figure du travailleur contemporain, flirtant entre non-salariat, flexibilité, autonomie et précarité, un programme de recherche (Laboratoire Missioneo) ambitionne d’analyser la population des indépendants, floue voire invisible dans la documentation sur les catégories professionnelles, en particulier sur les aspects de la QVT. Ainsi, cette communication a pour but d’ouvrir le débat avec la communauté scientifique de la Journée Brestoise de Recherche autour de ces axes émergents.
... These behaviors, which are primarily used among permanent newcomers, can play a determinant role in the context of agency workers. On the one hand, when starting a new assignment in a client organization, these workers have to familiarize themselves with a new organizational environment and often undertake new tasks and responsibilities (Druker & Stanworth, 2004). They are therefore constantly in a socialization situation. ...
This study examines how the adoption of proactive socialization behaviors by temporary agency workers is related to contract renewal intention of the supervisor in the client organization in which they are assigned. We propose that the adoption of such behaviors will be associated with a favorable performance evaluation from the supervisor in the client organization, and in turn, to his or her contract renewal intention through two mechanisms, namely, role clarity and leader–member exchange (LMX), which refers to the quality of the relationship between the temporary worker and his or her supervisor. Data were collected from 217 worker–supervisor dyads. Results indicate that information-seeking behavior is related to performance evaluation through role clarity. This indirect relationship is however negative, as greater role clarity relates negatively to performance evaluation. Our results also show that LMX acts as a mediator between feedback seeking, boss-relationship building, and performance. Finally, f...
... ; Coyle-Shapiro and Q14 Q15Kessler, 2002;De Cuyper and De Witte, 2006;Druker and Stanworth, 2006; ...
The 24th volume in this prestigious series of annual volumes, the International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2009 includes scholarly, thoroughly researched, and state–of–the–art overviews of developments across a wide range of topics in industrial and organizational psychology. An international team of highly respected contributors reviews the latest research and issues in the field with eight chapters supported by extensive bibliographies. This volume is ideal for organizational psychologists, MSc level students in organizational psychology, and researchers seeking literature on current practice in industrial and organizational psychology.
... These behaviors, which are primarily used among permanent newcomers, can play a determinant role in the context of agency workers. On the one hand, when starting a new assignment in a client organization, these workers have to familiarize themselves with a new organizational environment, and often undertake new tasks and responsibilities (Druker & Stanworth, 2004). ...
This study tests the mediating effect of leader-member exchange in the relationship between temporary agency workers’ proactive socialization behaviors and employability-related outcomes, namely, the evaluation of their performance by the supervisor and his/her willingness to rehire. Data were collected from 217 worker- supervisor dyads. Results indicate that feedback seeking, boss- relationship building, and positive framing are all positively related to leader-member exchange. Results also show that LMX acts as a mediator in the relationship between these proactive behaviors and employability outcomes. These findings underscore the active role temporary workers can play in order to ensure their employability and thus improve their employment situation.
... Control variables. We controlled for the duration of the relationship with the agency and the relationship with the client organization because POS and organizational affective commitment are related to the length of tenure (Benson, 1998;Druker and Stanworth, 2004;Van Breugel et al., 2005). The duration of the relationship with the agency and the client organization were both measured as the number of months that a worker had been with an agency and with the client organization. ...
Purpose – Temporary agency workers (TAWs) have a double employment relationship: one with the agency that hires them with a formal contract, either temporary or permanent; and another with the client organization where they actually perform their work. As the social-exchange theory assumes that temporary agency workers (TAWs) respond to the support they receive from both organizations with affective commitment toward the respective organization. This study proposes that the type of contract with the agency moderates these relationships, specifically that permanent TAWs present a stronger relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and affective organizational commitment (AOC) toward the agency and, to the contrary, that temporary TAWs show a greater relationship between POS and AOC toward the client.
Design/methodology/approach – Our hypotheses were tested with a sample of 522 Portuguese TAWs, of which 265 were temporaries and 257 were permanents. Data were collected with a self-report questionnaire and analyzed with multigroup analysis using the AMOS program.
Findings – We verified that POS from both the employment agency and the client organization were related to the TAWs’ affective commitment to each respective organization. Furthermore, the relationship between POS from the employment agency and the affective commitment to this organization was stronger in permanent than in temporary TAWs. However, contrary to our expectations, the contract with the agency did not moderate the relationship with client organizations: temporary and permanent TAWs showed a similar relationship between POS from this organization and their affective commitment toward it.
Practical implications – These findings show the important organizational role of both the employment agency and the client in supporting their TAWs and attending to the type of contract they have with the employment agency.
Originality/value – This paper contributes to the analysis of the TAWs’ double employment relationship and highlights the role of the agency contract in the explanation of these relationships.
... En outre, l'intérimaire est au centre d'une relation de travail et d'emploi complexe puisque disjointe 3 où ses deux partenaires n'ont pas les mêmes intérêts. L'entreprise utilisatrice utilise principalement ce type de maind'oeuvre pour des travaux simples (Drucker et Stanworth, 2004) et peu motivants (Gallagher et McLean Parks, 2001) alors que l'agence d'intérim cherche à développer la compétence de ses intérimaires de façon à fidéliser les meilleurs et à disposer d'un « vivier » de gens opérationnels à tout moment. Cette dualité et l'intermédiation des agences limitent la liberté supposée du travailleur intérimaire. ...
Ce travail vise à comprendre comment des intérimaires subissant ce statut y font face. Il apparaît que confrontés à une situation vécue comme stigmatisante, ces salariés réagissent de façon différente selon les raisons qui les ont conduits vers le travail temporaire, selon les ressources qu’ils parviennent à mobiliser pour définir et poursuivre différents objectifs et, en partie au moins, selon la durée de leur passage dans cette forme d’emploi. Trois réponses émergent : la résignation, la résilience et l’adaptation. Loin des schémas explicatifs unidimensionnels valorisant un précaire contraint ou acteur de son développement de carrière, cette recherche suggère une réaction au travail contingent subi qui questionne les différents modèles de coping, c’est-à-dire de stratégies adaptatives.
... Control variables. We controlled for the duration of the relationship with the agency and the relationship with the client organization because POS and organizational affective commitment are related to the length of tenure (Benson, 1998;Druker and Stanworth, 2004;Van Breugel et al., 2005). The duration of the relationship with the agency and the client organization were both measured as the number of months that a worker had been with an agency and with the client organization. ...
Purpose – Temporary Agency Workers (TAWs) have a double relationship. One is with the employment agency that hires them with a formal contract, which can be temporary or permanent. The other is with the client organization with which they actually work, although they are not directly hired by the organization. TAWs, like standard workers, develop affective commitment. But the commitment of TAWs is different from that of standard workers because TAWs have a double employment relationship and, consequently, a double affective commitment. This study proposes that the relationship between TAWs Perceived Organizational Support (POS) from the agency and the client organization is related to the affective commitment they develop toward both organizations. However, we hypothesized that the type of contract they have with their employment agency moderates these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach – Our hypotheses were tested with a sample of 522 Portuguese TAWs, of which 265 were temporaries and 257 were permanents. Data were analyzed with Multigroup analysis by using Amos program.
Findings – We verified that POS from both the employment agency and the client organization was related to the TAWs affective commitment to each organization. We also found that the type of their contract with the employment agency moderated these relationships. The relationship between POS from the employment agency and the affective commitment to the agency was stronger in permanent TAWs than in temporary TAWs. In contrast, in both permanent and temporary TAWs, the affective commitment to the agency was related positively to the affective commitment to the client. However, we also found that the affective commitment to the client was related to the affective commitment to the agency in only temporary TAWs.
Practical implications – These findings show the important organizational role of both the employment agency and the client in supporting their TAWs and attending to the type of contract they have with the employment agency.
Originality/value – This paper contributes to the analysis of the TAWs double employment relationship and highlights the role of the agency contract in the explanation of these relationships.
... Customers typically interact with the same staff for the identification, placement, and management of multiple temporary employees. Over the course of this relationship, they develop an understanding of each others' contexts, capabilities, and vulnerabilities and become uniquely suited to meet each others' needs (Druker & Stanworth, 2004). In addition, over the long term, both parties receive opportunities to develop mutual trust and commitment (Hunt & Morgan, 1994), and establish mutually-acceptable relational norms (Palmatier, Dant, & Grewal, 2007). ...
We developed and tested a model examining the influence of unit-level voluntary and involuntary turnover on critical performance outcomes within a relationship based business context. Utilizing the notion of relational assets, we proposed that voluntary and involuntary turnover levels disrupt the existing stock of relationships with customers thus negatively affecting customers' satisfaction with the firm, thereby decreasing unit-level financial performance. We tested our hypotheses using longitudinal data related to voluntary and involuntary turnover of full-time staff, customer satisfaction, and financial performance (net operating profits per employee) obtained from 46 regional offices of a temporary help services (THS) firm. Consistent with our predictions, customer satisfaction with the THS firm mediated the relationship between both voluntary and involuntary turnover rates and unit-level financial performance.
... For example, their pay is negotiated by and benefits are still provided by the agency organization. If the client relationship is not working out, the recourse of the employee is to seek a change in assignment from the agency, and even when all is well, the relationship with the client leader and client organization is a temporary one (Druker & Stanworth, 2004). Furthermore, for the external motivators of the job such as salary, bonus, promotion, and career advancement, as well as the determination of client assignments, employees are dependent on their agency leaders (Wallgren & Hanse, 2011). ...
In this study, we develop and test a model that extends leader-member exchange (LMX) theory to a dual leadership context. Drawing upon relative deprivation theory, we assert that when employees work for 2 leaders, each relationship exists within the context of the other relationship. Thus, the level of alignment or misalignment between the 2 relationships has implications for employees' job satisfaction and voluntary turnover. Employing polynomial regression on time-lagged data gathered from 159 information technology consultants nested in 26 client projects, we found that employee outcomes are affected by the quality of the relationship with both agency and client leaders, such that the degree of alignment between the 2 LMXs explained variance in outcomes beyond that explained by both LMXs. Results also revealed that a lack of alignment in the 2 LMXs led to asymmetric effects on outcomes, such that the relationship with agency leader mattered more than the relationship with one's client leader. Finally, frequency of communication with the agency leader determined the degree to which agency LMX affected job satisfaction in the low client LMX condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
... The firm's full-time staff and customers together identify appropriate contingent workers for various open positions , interact with each other throughout the duration of the position or project, and cycle through multiple assignments. Over the course of this relationship, THS staff and their customers develop an understanding of each other's contexts, capabilities , and vulnerabilities and become uniquely suited to meet each others' needs (Druker and Stanworth 2004). This mutual understanding increases the interdependence between the two parties and raises the customer's perceived cost of switching to a different supplier (Ganesan 1994). ...
The authors proposed and tested a model linking service-employee attrition, customer-perceived service outcomes, and financial performance utilizing time-lagged data obtained from 64 business units of a temporary help services (staffing) firm. Using the notion of relational assets, the authors predicted that employee attrition (both voluntary turnover and downsizing) would disrupt the existing stock of relationships between customer-facing employees and their customers, which would have negative effects on customer outcomes and future financial performance of business units. The authors found that (a) the relationship between voluntary turnover and customer-perceived service brand image (SBI) was fully mediated by customers’ evaluations of service delivery, (b) the relationship between downsizing and SBI was fully mediated by the customer orientation levels of the unit staff, and (c) SBI significantly predicted future unit profitability. These findings point to critical factors that leaders must address when experiencing elevated levels of turnover or considering downsizing. These include focusing on developing customer orientation levels among employees through the effective use of selection, training, performance management, and compensation, minimizing employee voluntary turnover by creating positive work environments, and factoring in the long-term costs of downsizing on the organization’s SBI and future profitability.
Structural labour shortages have increased demand for skilled and documented migrant workers in Western European labour markets. In response, private recruitment agencies are playing a more significant role in the identification, placement and integration of migrant workers. While the literature on labour intermediation practices has largely focused on the commercial and contractual work of matching workers with employers, this article develops an embedded understanding of labour intermediation that foregrounds the increasingly social and relational nature of intermediation practices in contexts of labour shortage. Through a qualitative study of intermediation in the Belgian construction sector, the article demonstrates the ways in which private agencies seek to produce the ‘right candidate’ through (i) the infiltration of migrant networks, (ii) the regularisation of migrant workers and (iii) the facilitation of their integration into host societies. These findings advance an expanded understanding of labour intermediation that transcends the conventional matchmaking process.
The flexibility inherent in temporary agency work allows employers to cut labour cost in a variety of ways. Recurring themes in the employment literature draw attention to the duality of the labour market rooted in type-of-contract segmentation. This duality in the labour market carries with it a number of undesirable consequences. Drawing on qualitative data from six case studies in Pakistan, this paper reports on an in-depth study of deceitful labour market intermediaries, through which employers attempt to bypass statutory obligations concerning workers’ constitutional rights. A case study inquiry, based on qualitative interviews, suggested that the agencies were ‘created’ or ‘arranged’ to illustrate indirectness of employment relationship by misclassifying effectively permanent employees as ‘agency workers’. The evidence points towards a growing trend for agencies to be, simply, a sham arrangement. This study broadens our comprehension about the nature of temporary agency employment and subsequent labour market duality in Pakistan, beyond the traditional functional model of legitimate labour market intermediaries. Precarious work in Pakistan, a large and growing economy, shares many features in common with the rest of the world. These findings offer useful policy and social implications for national and multinational companies.
Purpose
This study aims to examine issues of talent management (TM) in events. Specifically, it investigates the triangular relationship that exists amongst temporary event workforces, event employment businesses (EEBs) and event organisers (EOs).
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed method design was used including a quantitative survey of UK temporary event workers (TEW) to examine their characteristics and motivations to work at events; a qualitative survey with (EOs) to understand the reasons for using TEW and (EEBs) and interviews with EEBs to understand their challenges in delivering best-fit between TEW and EOs.
Findings
This study sheds light on the complex relationships amongst temporary event workforces, EOs and event employment businesses. Findings show TEW who display high levels of affective commitment towards their employment organisation and possess the characteristics of extraversion and contentiousness, are highly motivated to work at events. EOs suggest their operational restrictions (such as limited resources, time and expertise) are fuelling the need to use EEBs to source staff with the right skills and attitudes. In turn, these recruiters demonstrate they play an active role in reconciling the often-conflicting needs of EOs and TEW.
Originality/value
This study extends knowledge and understanding on TM in events by providing insights into the characteristics of TEW as a growing labour market segment in the event sector. Significantly, the study contributes to a better understanding of the critical role that EEBs play in the construction, development and management of talent in events.
This article examines how and to what extent perceived organisational support from key stakeholders is associated with the performance of expatriate development volunteers in highly complex multi-stakeholder employment relationships. We studied 214 volunteer-employer-agency relationships covering 21 countries. Two forms of support were positively associated with the volunteers’ performance: direct support from the host-country employer for the volunteer, and support for the host-country employer from the volunteer agency, with the latter partially mediating the former. No relationship existed between volunteers’ performance and support from the volunteer agency. In term of contextual and situational factors, emotional and informational support for volunteers were perceived as strongly enabling performance, while sub-standard instrumental support was the primary inhibitor. Our findings unearth the significance of a previously invisible ‘third arm’ of support in triangular employment relationships in the form of volunteer agency support for the host organisation, and identify the importance of discretionary, relational and proximal support to the success of expatriate volunteer placements.
In both the academic and professional world there is a lack of consensus and clear understanding of independent work and its various configurations. Through an integrative literature review and a systematic qualitative analysis of 122 academic and government sources over a period of 30 years (1987 – 2016), the aim of this research is to develop a comprehensive framework explaining the lack of unanimity on the topic. The proliferation of concepts is particularly striking: 501 different terms were found that describe and designate organizations, activities, independent workers, and the causes and effects of independent work on people, organizations, and society. Thus, our final contribution involves creating a concept map of the available terms to further study the “interfaces” between independent work and its many configurations in a more systematic manner.
The aim of this study is to analyze the role of the norm of reciprocity to explain affective commitment of temporary workers. We considered that when a client company showed investment in satisfying the needs of these workers, they reciprocated with a positive attitude toward the organization. On the other hand, we theorized that this relationship was explained by the commitment of these workers to the agency that contracted them. With a sample of 264 temporary workers at 3 Portuguese manufacturing firms, we verified that the system of human resource practices related positively with affective commitment toward the client organization. We also observed that this affective commitment toward the client related positively with the affective commitment toward the agency. More interestingly, demonstrating that an important duty of the agency was to choose a good client, we showed that the relationship between human resource practices and affective commitment toward the agency came about through affective commitment toward the client.
The purpose of this report is to better understand the use of agency staff in the UK public
sector, particularly in health and education. The research aimed to outline and improve the
evidence base, in order to understand the labour market for agency staff and how it is
determined by pay, demand and supply. This report therefore draws on existing and new
evidence to provide an overview of the triangular relationship between the agency worker,
the recruitment industry and public sector employers, as well as providing detailed accounts
of the nature of agency working within two large public sector areas
Zeitarbeit kann als Prototyp flexibler Beschäftigung angesehen werden. Statt unbefristeter Vollzeitbeschäftigung mit langfristiger Perspektive wird der Arbeitsalltag von Zeitarbeitnehmern von der Dynamik kurzfristig wechselnder Einsätze geprägt. Zeitarbeitnehmer sind zwar in Deutschland meist unbefristet und überwiegend in Vollzeit bei einem Zeitarbeitsunternehmen beschäftigt (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, 2016). ihr Arbeitsalltag spielt sich aber in verschiedenen Einsatzunternehmen ab. Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit den konkreten Anforderungen und Chancen, die mit der Beschäftigungsform Zeitarbeit verbunden sein können. Hierbei werden sowohl der hohe Anpassungsdruck auf die Arbeitnehmer als auch deren Möglichkeiten zur Kompetenzentwicklung betrachtet. Zudem werden die Erfahrungen von Zeitarbeitnehmern bei der Integration in das Kundenunternehmen berichtet und die Folgen eines ausbleibenden Übernahmeangebots aufgezeigt. In diesem Zusammenhang werden auch Effekte des Einsatzes von Zeitarbeitnehmern auf die Stammbeschäftigten beschrieben. Des Weiteren wird auf Befunde zu Gesundheit und Wohlbefinden der Zeitarbeitnehmer eingegangen.
Using Quarterly Labour Force Survey data this article illustrates the involuntary crowding of migrants from Central and Eastern Europe into non-permanent work when moving to the United Kingdom. The role of agencies in mediating this relationship is examined, as is their new role as actors in industrial relations systems.
IntroductionHistory of the Psychological Contract ConceptContemporary Approaches to Defining the Psychological ContractReviewing the Main Research Streams: What Do We Know?Methodological ChallengesFive Challenges to the Psychological Contract NotionResponses to the Five ChallengesConclusion
This paper deals with the psychological contract in knowledge-intensive employment arrangements where the project-based development of customer-specific solutions is decisive. We present results of a qualitative empirical study on the mutual expectations and obligations of workers and employers in this context. The results show that the customer is relevant as a third actor in the psychological contract for both contracting parties. Their mutual expectations of entrepreneurial behavior and loyalty are interdependent and considered as conducive to balance the assumed conflicts of triangular employment relationships.
This research explored the triangular working relationship between employers, temporary staffing agencies, and clerical temporary workers. The study used a qualitative approach to investigate the interdependent relationship between these three groups within the context of the Auckland labour market. Findings are based on in-depth interviews with ten employer representatives, ten employment agency consultants, and twenty female agency clerical workers. Interviews with the employer representatives revealed that employers wanted agencies to facilitate swift and unproblematic access to a reliable, hardworking, and disposable workforce with similar skills and commitment to permanent employees. Agencies were often unable to meet these requirements, and employers, therefore, developed various strategies designed to limit their dependency on agencies. According to agent respondents, an oversupply of agencies complicated their relationships with both clients and temporary workers and made it increasingly difficult for them to meet the expectations of either party. Competition between agencies meant that employers often negotiated lower fees for hiring temporary staff. This limited agencies' ability to attract good quality temporary staff by offering higher wages or improved working conditions. Temporary worker respondents described social alienation, poor pay and benefits, and monotonous assignments as commonplace. In consequence, most workers had limited commitment to employers or agencies and would have preferred permanent employment. This research has demonstrated that labour market conditions and the structural contradictions of temporary work strongly influenced the activities of each group. The aims, expectations, and behaviours of the three sets of participants were often mutually incompatible, which limited the manoeuvrability of each group. This created outcomes that were often unintended, and frequently suboptimal, for all three parties. © Common Ground, Jocelyn Handy, Doreen Davy, All Rights Reserved.
This article provides an analysis and critique of current legislative and judicial approaches to defining employment status.
The backdrop for the analysis is the Agency Work Directive (AWD) 2008, and UK Regulations that implement it. It explores the
significant changes and growing complexity in employment relationships themselves, with multilateral forms becoming more prominent.
The article offers a new typology of employment relationships to reflect these changes. Case law from fiscal and company law
as well as employment law is drawn on to illustrate some of the problems for law and policy of complex employment relationships.
It is argued that law has failed to create a coherent approach to defining status and, specifically, that it has failed to
appreciate the characteristics of emerging forms of self-employment, treating it as merely a default category of employment.
The major implications for accessing employment rights are considered and the article concludes by making a series of recommendations
for reform.
Purpose
– Agency work represents a unique form of employment that has received increased attention in recent years. Supporters of the agency employment industry have cited increased accessibility and flexibility at an individual and organisational level, yet critics have highlighted disparities in treatment and the limited protection afforded by the contract. Previous psychological studies into the working experiences of these employees have forwarded a series of findings that have frequently conflicted, so this paper begins by exploring research into the areas of motive, job satisfaction, job security, and organisational support. The purpose of this paper is to better understand how this form of employment can psychologically affect agency workers by focusing upon these key areas.
Design/methodology/approach
– The study's research design incorporated 25 semi-structured interviews with agency workers, recruitment consultants, and representatives from third-party employers. These interviews were then supplemented by longitudinal data from follow-up interviews conducted with agency workers from the initial sample. During the study, the researcher undertook a number of agency working assignments, and ethnographic analysis of diary extracts represented a third source of data.
Findings
– Results highlighted the importance of motive, as it was found to influence how agency workers viewed their employment. The lack of obligation in temporary contracts was perceived to lead to isolation from permanent colleagues, increase vulnerability, and reduce job security and organisational commitment.
Research limitations/implications
– Findings strongly supported the claim that the pre-assignment motives of individuals had a significant impact upon their resulting experiences. Agency workers employed in longer-term assignments reported greater integration into the organisation, resulting in increased commitment towards the third-party employer, and improved relationships with permanent staff.
Originality/value
– The current research incorporated multiple perspectives to create an increased understanding of the agency employment industry and its impact upon individuals.
The world of work continues to change. Labour markets in most countries are increasingly shaped by policies of neoliberal deregulation while strategies of flexibility dominate public policy and corporate strategy across an array of sectors. At the forefront of these changes are the myriad labour market intermediaries that are used by workers and employees to enhance their ability to navigate ever more complex and volatile labour markets. For some, mediated employment, recruitment and work practices mean greater career progression and profit making ability, but for many others, it means increased precarity, vulnerability and insecurity. This paper critically reviews existing literature within geography on three types of private labour market intermediary, namely temporary staffing agencies and contract brokers; executive search firms and headhunters; and informal intermediaries such as gangmasters. The final section addresses the future for research in labour geography and, in particular, suggests new ways in which to broaden our understanding of labour market intermediaries and their impact on worker agency.
Much has been written on the nature of labour flexibility in the Western context and the extent to which it benefits employers in terms securing them cost-effective operations and flexible workers by offering them contingent work arrangements. Absent in this debate has been any examination of the nature and extent of labour flexibility in the non-Western context. This article aims to broaden the debate and examines the current application of labour flexibility practices and its resultant implications in the novel context of Taiwan - with a particular focus on the hospitality industry. The choice of hospitality industry is in line with the recent CEPD's1 call for labour dispatch agencies to be considered as a promotional service industry among 12 categories of services. Data derived from focus group studies and individual in-depth interviews at four hotels and their partner labour dispatch agencies elicited the triangular relationship among labour dispatch agencies, client hotels, and agency workers. In contrast to previous similar research of the Western context where labour flexibility was primarily seen to secure lower labour costs, it was found that tight managerial control over the flexible workforce plays a crucial role in adopting contingent work arrangements. Moreover, the results indicate that flexible workers are regarded as a cost rather than being considered as the rhetoric of human capital.
Purpose
Temporary workers have many human resource and labour market implications. These consequences are further influenced with the introduction of new legislation relating to temporary workers. The purpose of this article is to present research on the impacts of the legislation – Fixed Term Employees Regulations and Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations – on temporary workers in the labour force.
Design/methodology/approach
Information from 24 Labour Force Surveys, conducted between December 1997 and November 2003, were analysed with two longitudinal Labour Force Surveys. Qualitative data was also gathered from six temporary worker employers and 17 agency workers.
Findings
Analysis of data demonstrated that the utilisation of temporary workers had declined in the labour force: Temporary workers had decreased in real terms by 24 per cent and agency workers who were less regulated by only 11 per cent. Also, an increased take‐up of permanent work by temporary workers was found post‐legislation (27 per cent) compared with pre‐legislation (22 per cent).
Research limitations/implications
Some limitations exist in the study using National Statistics and qualitative data to analyse labour force dynamics. Further research is warranted in this area investigating how strategic decisions in utilising temporary workers are formed and how recent legislation has influenced these policies.
Practical implications
Changes in temporary worker legislation have direct consequences to the labour force.
Originality/value
The paper reveals the decline of temporary workers in the labour force between 1997 and 2003 and examines specific legislation, which may have influenced this phenomenon.
Atypische Beschäftigungsformen weichen in ganz unterschiedlichen Aspekten von der Normalbeschäftigung im Sinne einer unbefristeten Vollzeitanstellung bei einem Unternehmen ab. Die Gruppe der atypisch Beschäftigten ist somit extrem heterogen – nicht nur, was die jeweilige arbeitsvertragliche Situation angeht, sondern auch in Bezug auf die damit verbundenen Arbeits- und Lebenswelten der Beschäftigten. Unternehmen nutzen atypische Beschäftigung zur Erhöhung ihrer personellen Flexibilität. Für die Beschäftigten resultiert dies meist in einer erhöhten Unsicherheit und Instabilität. Der Fokus dieses Beitrags liegt auf der Beschäftigungssituation und den erlebten Belastungen von temporär Beschäftigten und externen Mitarbeitern. Aus den hier vorgestellten Besonderheiten der atypischen Beschäftigungsformen lassen sich spezifische Anforderungen an die Personalpolitik von Unternehmen ableiten, denen an einem verantwortungsvollen Einsatz von flexiblem Personal gelegen ist.
Zeitarbeit kann als Prototyp flexibler Beschäftigung angesehen werden und ist insofern ein besonders markantes Beispiel des
Gegenmodells zum Normalbeschäftigungsverhältnis. Statt unbefristeter Vollzeitbeschäftigung mit langfristiger Perspektive wird
der Arbeitsalltag von Zeitarbeitnehmern von der Dynamik kurzfristig wechselnder Einsätze geprägt. Zeitarbeitnehmer sind zwar
bei Zeitarbeitsunternehmen beschäftigt, ihr Arbeitsalltag spielt sich aber in verschiedenen Einsatzunternehmen ab. Wir gehen
einerseits auf die Frage ein, wie sich die konkreten Anforderungen und Chancen darstellen, zum anderen berichten wir über
die Reaktionen von Zeitarbeitnehmern auf ihre Situation und gehen auf die Konsequenzen eines ausbleibenden Übernahmeangebots
ein.
Temporary employment agency working has increased dramatically in recent years. Labour Force Survey figures reveal that the number of workers employed on a temporary basis through agencies increased in the UK from 50,000 in 1984 to 250,000 in 1999, by which point temporary agency staff (temps) constituted 1.1 per cent of the employed workforce (Casey 1988: 490; Department of Trade and Industry 1999: 109). Studies which have considered UK employers' use of different forms of labour have revealed a range of reasons as to why firms seek recourse to employment agencies (McGregor and Sproull 1991; Hunter and MacInnes 1991; Cully etal. 1999). The 1998 UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey, for example, has indicated that of workplaces using agency staff, 59 per cent were doing so to provide short-term cover. Adjusting the workforce in line with demand was cited as a reason by 40 per cent of firms, and covering for maternity leave by 22 per cent of users (Cully etal. 1999:37).
Externalization of employment relations was a general trend among businesses in the 1990s. As a consequence we observe an increasing use of temporary workers, outsourcing and insourcing. This paper is concerned with the consequences of externalization of employment relations from the perspective of employees. The paper is based on an in-depth empirical study of a corporate adjustment programme in a large government-owned energy producer in Sweden. The company is trying to stimulate internal mobility by means of training programmes, adjusting its workforce to changes in market demand without lay-offs. I argue that externalization of employment relations is not only a matter of temporary, administrative or geographical distance between employer and employee. Instead a complementary form - externalization of responsibility - is suggested. The results may have consequences for the understanding of human resource policies aiming at employability.
This article is Restricted Access. It was published in the journal, Work, Employment & Society [© Sage]. The definitive version is available at: http://wes.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/13/2/329 The focus of this paper is the transition of managers and professionals out of organisational employment into portfolio work. The interest in this individual transition is its resonance with wider debates about the changing nature of career. The demise of the traditional hierarchical career is widely predicted as is its replacement by a proliferation of more fluid and individual career choices, encompassed in the over-arching notion of the boundaryless career. The two studies on which this paper is based have taken an in-depth look at individuals who appear to exemplify this move out of organisational employment and into more independent working. The paper draws inductively on interviews with individuals who had left organisations to set up on their own. Hence the data is grounded in the accounts of individuals and seeks to explore their interpretations of their experiences. The paper focuses on participants’ expectations of their new employment context and its realities. In considering the major implications of these findings, it questions dualistic conceptualisations of career and argues for theoretical frameworks based more on synthesis and linkage. Restricted access
This book illuminates what is really happening in the American workplace. The contributors explain how the widespread restructuring of American firms-usually resulting in a reduction of the workforce to cut costs-has had a profound impact on the lives of workers. The book explains how the new relationship requires high skill levels, but does not provide training for them. Workers themselves now must take charge of their personal development instead of relying on their employers. Their alienation from their firms is compounded by the large disparity between the pay of top managers and that of workers. The future is uncertain, but the authors argue that the traditional relationship between employer and employees will continue to erode.
The `temp' industry is one of the fastest-growing employment sectors in the United States, though relatively little is known about the operations of its key institutional agents - the temp agencies themselves. In the paper, the restructuring of the temp industry and the role of temporary help agencies as `labour market intermediaries' is critically examined. It is argued that not only is the industry growing at a rapid rate, it is also polarising, as some agencies `restructure down' into the lowest-paid and most exploitative niches of the labour market - where employment instability is a daily phenomenon, while others `restructure up' into increasingly long-term relationships - including `on-site' management deals and `insourcing' agreements - with major corporate clients. Likewise, `temping' is not only becoming more commonplace, but the labour-market and workplace experiences of temporary workers are becoming increasingly heterogeneous. It is apparently in the nature of the industry that both these developments are scarcely `visible', as restructuring down is often associated with `backstreet operators', undocumented workers and unregulated work, while restructuring up draws agencies into increasingly seamless, reflexive and internalised relationships with corporations. The paper traces some of the labour market and organisational implications of these restructuring practices through an examination of the long-established but newly-vibrant temp industry in Chicago.
Increases in temporary working and an associated peripheralisation of the workforce have been the subject of a great deal of recent debate. This paper uses nationally representative data from the Labour Force Survey to (1) highlight the importance of clarifying concepts such as `temporary working' which are not defined by employment legislation and (2) to provide some background information on the social and economic characteristics of `temporary' workers.
As organizations change to become more flexible and transient, the use of a flexible workforce becomes an attractive solution. Temporary employees are here tentatively viewed as being `betwixt and between' organizational structures, in transit between the relatively fixed positions of full-time, regular employment. Building on previous fieldwork and recent interviews among temporary employees in Sweden and the US, the notion of liminality is employed to explore aspects of temporary work. The liminal position of `temporaries', it is suggested, is an ambiguous position involving both risks and opportunities for individuals, temporary staffing agencies, and client organizations alike. It may be seen as a seedbed of cultural creativity, where old perspectives on work and subjectivity are contested and new ones created. Related to the transient, mobile character of temporary employment, is an enhanced awareness of substitutability and a continuous reflexive monitoring of manners and competencies. Furthermore, the mobile and temporary character of assignments lead to the development of transient and episodic imagined communities of the workplace.
Through the lens of liminality then, temporal and contractual flexibilization of work is seen to challenge the old boundaries of industrial society and to suggest new ways of organizing and experiencing work, as well as new ways of constructing organizational subjectivity.
There is a growing body of piecemeal evidence that an increasing number of wellestablished companies are developing radically new staffing policies, based on the strategic use of contract labour companies, and justified on the basis of cost reduction in the face of growing competition. Using evidence from labour force survey data, interviews with senior human resource managers, and the preliminary results of a case study of a contract labour agency, this article assesses the evidence of such growth in labour contracting and the extent to which it reflects human resource strategies increasingly linked to business strategy. It is concluded that, although the picture is far from uniform, trends and case evidence support the contention that the strategic use of segmented labour force strategies among major employers has developed strongly in the 1990s and is likely to continue.
This paper examines what determines the use of temporary workers and independent contractors in a variety of organizations. We hypothesize that four factors affect the use of externalized workers: employment costs, the external environment, organizational size and bureaucratization, and skill requirements. Data from a large sample of employers surveyed by the U.S. Department of Labor were used to test the hypotheses. Analyses showed that each factor affected the use of both temporary workers and independent contractors; however, the effects differed across the two types of workers. Firm-specific training, government oversight, bureaucratized employment practices, establishment size, and requirements for high levels of informational or technical skill had negative effects on organizations' use of temporary workers; variation in employment needs positively affected the use of temporary workers. Variation in employment needs, bureaucratized employment practices, establishment size, and being part of a multiple-site firm had positive effects on the use of independent contractors. We discuss the implications of these findings for the study of the employment relationship.
A conceptual framework is provided for understanding the form and
dynamics of organisational change. The basic organisational model and
life cycle, the types of organisational change, and the role of company
culture in organisational change are examined. The mechanics of change
are discussed and an overview taken of some pitfalls.
Following the framework proposed by Tsui et al . (1997), this research paper examines the impact of the employee-organization relationship on temporary employees' job performance, turnover intention, overall job satisfaction, affective commitment, perception of fairness and perception of work options. Data were collected from 191 temporary employees from seven employment agencies in Singapore. Analyses conducted revealed that employee responses do vary under the four types of relationship (quasi-spot contract, under-investment, mutual investment and over-investment). In general, both mutual investment and over-investment relationships were associated with higher levels of performance and more favourable attitudes than either the under-investment or quasi-spot contract. Specifically, temporary employees under the mutual investment and over-investment relationships have better job performance, a higher level of affective commitment to the agency, improved overall job satisfaction, higher perception of fairness, higher perception of work options and lower turnover intentions. Furthermore, these finding were obtained even after controlling for the effects of company tenure and job level on employee performance and attitudes. The results highlight the importance of employee-organization relationships in eliciting the desired temporary employee outcomes. Practical implications were drawn for human resource practitioners and employment agencies on how best to manage temporary employees. Some limitations and suggestions for future research were discussed.
The outline of the author's theoretical model for defining and studying relevant variables in human personality and in organizations and the processes by which they influence one another. The data collection method, semi-structured interviews, is described, along with considerations involved in the interviewer-respondent relationship. The model for analyzing the data involves quantifications of demands made by the formal organization on the employee; predispositions employees may wish to express, informal activities employees create to adapt to the formal organization, and administrative reactions to the informal activities. Chapters are devoted to usefulness of this approach both to the researcher and to management. Examples of the usefulness of the framework are presented in deepening of understanding of the organization and in predicting human behavior within it. Evaluations of the usefulness of organizational analysis are provided from feedback sessions and interviews with various levels of management. A section is devoted to key questions which yet remain unanswered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Much organizational restructuring, at least in the UK and USA, seeks to replace organizational regulation by that of the market. These developments centre around an emphasis on relations with customers - the ‘sovereign consumer’- as a paradigm for effective forms of organizational relations; they are apparent in, and underpin, a wide variety of organizational developments: just-in-time, total quality management, culture change programmes.
Understanding these developments requires consideration of the discourse of enterprise of which the culture of the (internal) customer constitutes a key element. Defining internal organizational relations ‘as if’they were customer/supplier relations means replacing bureaucratic regulation and stability with the constant uncertainties of the market, and thus requiring enterprise from employees. This discourse has fundamental implications for management attempts to define working practices and relations and, ultimately, has impact on the conduct and identities of employees.
Understanding these developments is not possible if analysis remains at the level of the organization. It requires that organizational restructurings, and the discourse which supports them, be located within the social and political rationality of enterprise. The certainties of management, the conviction that environmental challenge and competitive threat must be met by the cult[ure] of the customer, are due to managements’largely unquestioned acceptance of the normality and perceived good sense of the discourse of enterprise.
The perceived obligations of the two parties to the employment relationship, the employee and the organization, were explored using the critical incident technique. Incidents were elicited which exceeded or fell below the treatment which each party might reasonably expect from the other; obligations were then inferred from these incidents. Respondents were a representative sample of UK employees (n=184), and a sample of UK managers (n=184) (the organization group).
Twelve categories of organization obligation and seven of employee obligation were inferred from these data. While the two groups identified the same content categories as each other, they did so with different relative frequency. The organization group quoted more relational than transactional forms of organizational obligation, the employee group the reverse. This finding was attributed to a lack of trust of the organization by employees, and to their job insecurity. The groups, however, did not differ in terms of the frequency of the most commonly cited employee obligations; timekeeping, good work and honesty. This was taken to indicate the prevalence of a traditional and input-oriented view of employee obligations. Examples were discovered of a reciprocal element to the contract. It was concluded that, despite the level of agreement between the two parties regarding the elements of the psychological contract, they were in danger of holding different perceptions of its balance; and that organizations should only expect employee commitment if they themselves have fulfilled their side of the contract.
Temporary jobs account for an increasing proportion of new engagements in the UK labour market, with temporary work agencies or 'labour market intermediaries' occupying a central role in the regulation of entry into some organisations. Such evolving arrangements have been found to have their contradictions, even for the host organisation. This article explores the internal and external pressures to use a temporary work agency as a means of recruiting labour at host organisations. It considers some of the HRM issues that stem from the use of such workers, including the tendency to devolve HRM to the managers of such agencies operating within the host organisation. Central to this article is a consideration of the potential sustainability of organisations' use of temporary agency workers, engaging with this concern from the perspective of organisational cost-effectiveness.
This article, based on a postal survey and qualitative interview-based research, examines the relationship between major private recruitment bureaux and their clients in the UK, with particular attention to the recruitment and selection of temporary workers. The private recruitment industry is growing and large bureaux are seeking closer partnership arrangements with clients. Contracts for labour services are being developed on a 'preferred' supplier basis – similar in type to the approach taken for the purchase or supply of goods or components. However, formal preferred supplier contracts with temporary work bureaux were used by only a minority of clients, usually larger organisations or those having projects or workplaces with high volume demand. While such bureaux seek models of relational contracting or partnering, many clients prefer less fully engaged or 'semi-distanced' relations facilitated by the informal dimensions of inter-organisational contacts.
This article examines sexual harassment phenomena from an ethical perspective. Specifically, it argues that sexual harassment may occur less frequently if actors are encouraged to regard sexually harassing behavior as involving a moral component. Jones' work on moral intensity is used to describe reasons why, given the nature of sexual harassment phenomena, actors often may not recognize the moral aspects of harassing behavior. Finally, the implications of this perspective for the prevention of sexual harassment are discussed.
Against a background of continuing rapid change in Europe, the human resource function is being devolved away to line and general managers, and HR professionals are required to be more business — orientated. With evidence such as that provided by a large survey by the European Association for Personnel Management, Jean-Marie Hiltrop, Charles Despres and Paul Sparrow examine the current dilemma faced by European HR managers — to be required to concentrate on the traditional HR concerns of line management, but also considered to be too specialised by line managers to rotate to other functions where they could gain broader business experience and skills. There are also organisational implications of the changing role of HR managers.
The psychological contract — what employees and employers want and expect from each other — has been changing dramatically in recent years. As a result of all sorts of pressures and trends on both sides, such characteristics of corporate employment as stability, permanence, predictability, fairness, tradition and mutual respect are out. In, are the new features of self-reliance, flexibility and adaptability.Jean-Marie Hiltrop examines the human resource implications of the changing psychological contract, specifically, how organisations under pressure from greater competition, internationalisation, and integration of functions can manage employees now facing increased professional risk and uncertainty. A number of suggestions are made for changing organisation and management practices in order to build real commitment from employees in the new socio-economic environment.
The renewed interest in the concept of the psychological contract has come to the fore in attempts to describe, understand and predict the consequences of changes occurring in the employment relationship. Recognising that the employment relationship includes two parties to the exchange process, we set out to examine the content and state of the psychological contract from both the employee and employer perspective. The two perspectives permit an examination of the mutuality of obligations, which has not received much empirical attention to date. The research methodology consists of two surveys conducted in a large local authority directly responsible and accountable for a range of public services including education, environmental health and social care to the local population. The key findings suggest that the majority of employees have experienced contract breach. This view is also supported by managers, as representatives of the employer, who further indicate that the organization, given its external pressures, is not fulfilling its obligations to employees to the extent that it could. Overall, the results indicate that employees are redressing the balance in the relationship through reducing their commitment and their willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behaviour when they perceive their employer as not having fulfilled its part in the exchange process.
This study of the rapidly growing temporary help industry draws on Commerce Department data and the results of the authors' national mail survey of employers. The authors also conducted interviews in the San Francisco area with employers of temporary help and with representatives of temporary help agencies and labor unions. They provide a taxonomy of employer responses to temporary increases in work loads, ranging from the more intensive use of full-time employees to a variety of arrangements with part-time, temporary, and casual employees. The authors show how these employer responses vary by industry, occupation, size of the firm, stability of product demand, and the level of fringe benefits. (Abstract courtesy JSTOR.)
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- U Beck
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- Du Gay
- G Salaman
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