The double psychological contracts of temporary agency workers

Abstract

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:198285 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -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.

Supporting temporary agency workers’ affective commitments: exploring the role of opportunities for competence development

“…No significant relationship was found between the academic level of education and AC towards the client organization. These results are comparable with the results of Morf, Arnhold, and Staffelbach (2014). Also in their study, a significant negative relationship was found between highly educated TAWs and their commitment towards the employment agency, whereas this effect was not the case towards the client organization.…”

“…With a primary focus on the client organization, TAWs may see the employment agency as an intermediate agent (cf. Morf, Arnhold, and Staffelbach 2014) that sometimes may even interfere with their relationship with the client organization, rather than an employer with which they can discuss OfCD. This latter explanation fits in with a 'traditional' perception of temporary work, with temporary workers being hired to cover short-term absence of permanent staff (cf.…”

Outsiders Looking in: Do Non-permanent Workers Whistleblow?

“…Claes (2005) and Barringer and Sturman (1998) find that the fulfillment of each psychological contract is judged independently. However, Morf et al (2014) find there are spillover effects from the fulfillment of one psychological contract with another. Chambel and Fontinha (2009) find that the fulfillment of the psychological contract with the host positively influences fulfillment of the psychological contract with the agency.…”

“…These include feelings of powerlessness (Karkoulian et al, 2013) and job insecurity (Probst et al, 2018). Contingent workers may also struggle with a sense of divided loyalties between their employer and the organization at which they perform work (Liden et al, 2003;Barringer and Sturman, 1998), which in turn affects the psychological contracts with both of these entities (Chambel et al, 2016;Morf et al, 2014). Contingent workers also have the difficult decision of whether or not to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors (Feather and Rauter, 2004;Van Dyne and Ang, 1998).…”

Psychological contracts: enhancing understanding of the expatriation experience

“…Importantly, the beneficial contributions of PCT to research on key issues in the field of expatriates/expatriation go beyond that field to connect with mainstream PC research, such as: the role of multiple foci to the PC (e.g. Bligh & Carsten, 2005;Morf, Arnold, & Staffelbach, 2014); variations in the established contract typology of relational and transactional to acknowledge other distinct elements (e.g. O'Donohue & Nelson, 2007;Scheel & Mohr, 2013); the involvement of people other than employee and employer in shaping the PC (Dabos & Rousseau, 2013;Ho, Rousseau, & Levesque, 2006); and the important implications of context in the development of PCs (e.g.…”