Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Employment agency workers, their job satisfaction and their influence on permanent workers

Biggs, D. M. (2003) Employment agency workers, their job satisfaction and their influence on permanent workers. Doctoral thesis. University of Leicester.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Abstract: Agency workers are a fundamental part of modern work being characterised in the workplace by a triangular employment relationship between them, the employment agency and the third party employer. The thesis was concerned about the job satisfaction of agency workers on two counts. Firstly, what contributed towards the job satisfaction of this unique type of worker? Secondly, what differences in job satisfaction and related variables arise between agency workers and permanent workers? Preliminary research along with a literature review on job satisfaction and agency workers formulated two sets of hypotheses, those variables relating to agency worker job satisfaction (relational hypotheses), and differences between permanent workers and agency workers (differential hypotheses). Both sets of hypotheses were tested by a quantitative survey, which surveyed 96 agency workers for the relational hypotheses and 157 call centre workers for the differential hypotheses. For the differential hypotheses a control group was used to address the possible influence that the employment of agency workers may have on permanent workers that hitherto has not been controlled for in studies of a similar nature. Semi-structured interviews with workers and employers were used to enlarge the quantitative findings. Organisational commitment, permanent and agency worker relationship were found to be significantly related to job satisfaction in both a correlation and hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis. Involuntary work status had no correlation challenging previous research. Significant differences were seen between agency workers and permanent workers on a number of variables including skill variety, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and job security satisfaction. These results both supported and contradicted previous studies primarily as preceding research had not accounted for the possible influence that agency workers may have on the permanent workers under research
Additional Information: This University of Northampton thesis was validated by the University of Leicester
Uncontrolled Keywords: Job satisfaction; temporary employees
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD4801 Labor. Work. Working class > HD5701 Labor market. Labor supply. Labor demand > HD5854 Temporary employees
Creators: Biggs, David M
Department: Northampton Business School > Theses
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Business & Law > Theses (Business & Law)
Date: 2003
Date Type: Completion
Language: English
Status: Unpublished
Institution: University of Leicester
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/2839

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