Seeking stability in unstable employment: An exploratory study of temporary agency workers' career self-management

IF 5.2 1区 心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED Journal of Vocational Behavior Pub Date : 2023-06-01 DOI:10.1016/j.jvb.2023.103877
Jana Retkowsky , Sanne Nijs , Jos Akkermans , Svetlana Khapova , Paul Jansen
{"title":"Seeking stability in unstable employment: An exploratory study of temporary agency workers' career self-management","authors":"Jana Retkowsky ,&nbsp;Sanne Nijs ,&nbsp;Jos Akkermans ,&nbsp;Svetlana Khapova ,&nbsp;Paul Jansen","doi":"10.1016/j.jvb.2023.103877","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Increasingly dynamic labor markets have caused a steep increase in nonstandard workers. This study focuses on agency temps who work via labor market intermediaries at client organizations. The short-term and frequently changing nature of their jobs creates uncertainty about their employment and personal stability. Based on an explorative qualitative interview study among 27 agency temps, we studied how agency temps self-manage their careers. Our study reveals that the precarious career environment and financial dependence on agency work make agency temps' career self-management different from existing depictions of career self-management in the literature. Specifically, we reveal that agency temps' career self-management engagement is relatively short-term and primarily reactive. We find that they focus on survival and stability as career goals, and they engage in four career behaviors: (1) moonlighting, (2) self-profiling, (3) compensatory career behavior, and (4) job search behavior. Subsequently, we identify two negative long-term outcomes of these career behaviors: (1) being locked-in and (2) experiencing resource loss during unemployment. Accordingly, this study contributes to the nascent literature on temporary agency work and career self-management by identifying career behaviors and consequences in a precarious and volatile context. Our findings can help career counselors and policy-makers safeguard the career self-management of agency temps.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51344,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Vocational Behavior","volume":"143 ","pages":"Article 103877"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Vocational Behavior","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879123000374","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Increasingly dynamic labor markets have caused a steep increase in nonstandard workers. This study focuses on agency temps who work via labor market intermediaries at client organizations. The short-term and frequently changing nature of their jobs creates uncertainty about their employment and personal stability. Based on an explorative qualitative interview study among 27 agency temps, we studied how agency temps self-manage their careers. Our study reveals that the precarious career environment and financial dependence on agency work make agency temps' career self-management different from existing depictions of career self-management in the literature. Specifically, we reveal that agency temps' career self-management engagement is relatively short-term and primarily reactive. We find that they focus on survival and stability as career goals, and they engage in four career behaviors: (1) moonlighting, (2) self-profiling, (3) compensatory career behavior, and (4) job search behavior. Subsequently, we identify two negative long-term outcomes of these career behaviors: (1) being locked-in and (2) experiencing resource loss during unemployment. Accordingly, this study contributes to the nascent literature on temporary agency work and career self-management by identifying career behaviors and consequences in a precarious and volatile context. Our findings can help career counselors and policy-makers safeguard the career self-management of agency temps.

查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
在不稳定就业中寻求稳定:临时工职业自我管理的探索性研究
日益活跃的劳动力市场导致非标准工人急剧增加。本研究的重点是通过劳动力市场中介机构在客户组织工作的代理临时工。他们工作的短期和频繁变化的性质给他们的就业和个人稳定性带来了不确定性。本文通过对27名中介临时工的探索性质的访谈研究,探讨了中介临时工的职业自我管理情况。研究发现,不稳定的职业环境和对代理工作的经济依赖使得代理临时工的职业自我管理与现有文献中对职业自我管理的描述有所不同。具体而言,我们发现临时工的职业自我管理投入相对短期且主要是反应性的。研究发现,大学生以生存和稳定为职业目标,并表现出四种职业行为:(1)兼职、(2)自我评价、(3)补偿性职业行为和(4)求职行为。随后,我们确定了这些职业行为的两个消极的长期结果:(1)被锁定和(2)在失业期间经历资源损失。因此,本研究通过确定在不稳定和不稳定的环境下的职业行为和后果,对临时代理工作和职业自我管理的新兴文献做出了贡献。本研究结果可为职业顾问和政策制定者维护代理临时工的职业自我管理提供参考。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
Journal of Vocational Behavior
Journal of Vocational Behavior PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED-
CiteScore
13.10
自引率
5.40%
发文量
85
期刊介绍: The Journal of Vocational Behavior publishes original empirical and theoretical articles offering unique insights into the realms of career choice, career development, and work adjustment across the lifespan. These contributions are not only valuable for academic exploration but also find applications in counseling and career development programs across diverse sectors such as colleges, universities, business, industry, government, and the military. The primary focus of the journal centers on individual decision-making regarding work and careers, prioritizing investigations into personal career choices rather than organizational or employer-level variables. Example topics encompass a broad range, from initial career choices (e.g., choice of major, initial work or organization selection, organizational attraction) to the development of a career, work transitions, work-family management, and attitudes within the workplace (such as work commitment, multiple role management, and turnover).
期刊最新文献
Does grade point average have a long-lasting impact on career success later in life? A resource caravans' perspective from adolescence to mid-career Give it your all or hardly give? The role of mentors' beliefs about protégé advancement potential and gender in mentoring relationships Are they more proactive or less engaged? Understanding employees' career proactivity after promotion failure through an attribution lens Humble leader, successful follower: Linking leader humility with follower career outcomes via leader competence from an implicit leadership theory perspective The psychological experience of flexibility in the workplace: How psychological job control and boundary control profiles relate to the wellbeing of flexible workers
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1