On the job and co-worker commitment of Dutch agency workers and permanent employees

Torka, N.; Schyns, B.

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between employment status (agency workers vs. permanent employees) and affective and normative job and co-worker commitment. Our study was conducted on employees from four metal companies in the Netherlands. As HRM practices seem to influence employee commitment, we performed 89 interviews across all four companies and included blue-collar workers, their managers (direct supervisors, HR managers and production managers), as well as works council members. To test our hypotheses on commitment differences, we conducted quantitative research within the companies (permanent employees N = 167; agency workers N = 54), all blue-collar workers. Results show that permanent employees and agency workers express similar degrees of commitment to their job and to their co-workers, apart from affective commitment to co-workers, which is lower for agency workers than for permanent workers. We argue that national legislation, as well as managers' attempts to offer HR practices equal to those of permanent staff, play a prominent role in stimulating agency workers' commitment.

Citation

Torka, N., & Schyns, B. (2010). On the job and co-worker commitment of Dutch agency workers and permanent employees. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(8), 1307-1322. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.483858

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Nov 23, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 7, 2011
• Journal: International Journal of Human Resource Management
• Print ISSN: 0958-5192
• Electronic ISSN: 1466-4399
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 1307-1322
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.483858
• Keywords: Agency workers vs. permanent employees, Colleague commitment, HR practices, Job commitment.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1514913