Employer demands for flexible work practices have seen an increase in the diversity of employment relationships illustrated by a global growth of people working in contingent or precarious positions. Increasing evidence suggests that precarious employment is associated with poorer occupational health and safety (OHS) outcomes in terms of injury rates, disease risk and psychological wellbeing. This study used a cross sectional survey of 255 employees to compare the OHS experiences of temporary (N = 156, 61.2%) and permanent (N = 99, 38.8%) workers employed in three companies involved in the seasonal processing of primary agriculture products (dairy, meat and produce) in two regions of New Zealand. This research identified a clearly definable group of temporary workers (seasonals), who exhibit different characteristics to those commonly associated with precarious employment as they have an expectation of reasonable lengths of fairly secure employment (seasons exceed eight months). Many respondents only undertook one period of employment per year and were re-engaged in subsequent seasons. There are limited opportunities for alternative employment adjacent to these plants. This creates a dependant employment market, potentially putting labour in a weak bargaining position. This is countered by a high overall level of union membership (N = 181, 71%) and the operation of collective employment contracts. This may be atypical in seasonal industries. Injury numbers were similar (permanent N = 49, 49.5%, temporary N = 73, 46.8%) and serious injuries (permanent N = 23, 23.2%, temporary N = 31, 19.9%). Once a factor was introduced to compensate for exposure time, thereby creating a frequency rate, results showed a statistically significant difference with temporary workers suffering injuries and serious injuries with less exposure than their permanent counterparts (t (193.821) = -5.566, p < 0.05 and (t (236.928) = -2.160, p < 0.05 respectively). There was a significant difference in chronic injuries with permanent employees being more likely to have a chronic injury (F91,253) = 20.456, p<0.05). Most importantly, using the General Linear Model (logistic regression), when all other influences were controlled for, this research found employment status remained influential in determining whether a respondent was injured at work or not.

Employer demands for flexible work practices have seen an increase in the diversity of employment relationships illustrated by a global growth of people working in contingent or precarious positions. Increasing evidence suggests that precarious employment is associated with poorer occupational health and safety (OHS) outcomes in terms of injury rates, disease risk and psychological wellbeing. This study used a cross sectional survey of 255 employees to compare the OHS experiences of temporary (N = 156, 61.2%) and permanent (N = 99, 38.8%) workers employed in three companies involved in the seasonal processing of primary agriculture products (dairy, meat and produce) in two regions of New Zealand. This research identified a clearly definable group of temporary workers (seasonals), who exhibit different characteristics to those commonly associated with precarious employment as they have an expectation of reasonable lengths of fairly secure employment (seasons exceed eight months). Many respondents only undertook one period of employment per year and were re-engaged in subsequent seasons. There are limited opportunities for alternative employment adjacent to these plants. This creates a dependant employment market, potentially putting labour in a weak bargaining position. This is countered by a high overall level of union membership (N = 181, 71%) and the operation of collective employment contracts. This may be atypical in seasonal industries. Injury numbers were similar (permanent N = 49, 49.5%, temporary N = 73, 46.8%) and serious injuries (permanent N = 23, 23.2%, temporary N = 31, 19.9%). Once a factor was introduced to compensate for exposure time, thereby creating a frequency rate, results showed a statistically significant difference with temporary workers suffering injuries and serious injuries with less exposure than their permanent counterparts (t (193.821) = -5.566, p < 0.05 and (t (236.928) = -2.160, p < 0.05 respectively). There was a significant difference in chronic injuries with permanent employees being more likely to have a chronic injury (F91,253) = 20.456, p<0.05). Most importantly, using the General Linear Model (logistic regression), when all other influences were controlled for, this research found employment status remained influential in determining whether a respondent was injured at work or not.

Between May 2008 and August 2009, temporary employees were solicited, interviewed, and hired by Agency A under the expectation that they would be eligible for conversion to permanent employee status at Company Z after a 90-day period. This qualitative case study examines those long-term temporary workers in regard to their perceptions of their rights, representation, and morale and performance levels after pre-employment promises were not honored. Potential participants were identified as long-term temporary workers employed by Agency A and assigned to Company Z. Participants were interviewed and results were transcribed and analyzed for a pattern or theme. Findings indicated that all participants entered into the employment agreement with Agency A with the understanding that the position was a temporary to hire position; that the job would lead to a permanent position with Company Z. While participants revealed feelings of frustration, isolation, insecurity and low self-esteem as a result of a perceived lack of representation from both the Agency and the Company, their perceptions of morale and productivity were surprisingly positive. In the subject of temporary employee representation and management there is a lack of diverse research, especially in the area of long-term temporary workers. This case study provides a glimpse into this population and indicates, on a small scale, the need for temp industry-wide improvements in the representation and management of long-term temporary employees. As the population of this sector of the workforce continues to rise dramatically, more focus is needed to avoid exploitation of long-term temporary workers and provide an equal work experience.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Richard Goe / Asian-Indians represent an important component of the professional and ‘high-tech’ workers in the U.S. Research on this population has found that majority of these workers are temporary workers working on a contractual jobs. Further, it is not unusual for Indian immigrant workers to get married and have children while in the U.S. As such, they must learn to negotiate the U.S. cultural terrain in both their place of work and home life. This provides the potential that they will become transnational by developing identities and engaging in cultural and social practices from two different nations, India and the U.S. This dissertation investigates the nature and extent of transnational practices adopted by high-tech Indian workers employed by U.S. firms on a temporary work visa. In summary, the purpose of this research is to explore and describe the prevalence and practice of transnationalism among Indian high-tech workers employed by U.S. firms on a temporary work visa and its impact on their lives.  The study uses a mixed-methods research (Ivankova, Creswell and Stick, 2007), where quantitative survey and qualitative data collection are used in single study to understand the stated research problem. Also, as there is no formal list of Indian IT professionals working in the U.S. at contractual jobs, the data collection will be carried out through the non-random chain-referral sampling technique. A detailed survey and personal interview will be used to measure various micro aspects of these workers' lives including consumption patterns, recreational choices, socialization, cultural beliefs and family dynamics. The study reveals that the temporary stay of these professionals in the U.S. along with their families necessitates day-to-day negotiations between two cultures in terms of their food, clothing, recreation, and daily activities creating a transnational life style for these young professionals. The responses reflect the inner struggle of these professionals between their long-term goals of settling in India with their families and the current material life in a far-away land of opportunity. On one hand, the dualism of living in the U.S. as an Indian is demonstrated in this study by the convergence of the disparate elements of both aspects of their lives, work, incomes and remittances; on other hand, family, social life, religion, consumption patterns, and recreation activities provide the glimpse of a dual life. All of these cultural and social practices can be considered as the combination of transnationalism from ‘above’ and ‘below’ as noted by Smith and Guarnizo (1998). Transnational activities at the work place, which is forced by the work culture of the MNCs that employ them, can be considered as ‘transnationalism from above’. Simultaneously, being bi-lingual at home, cooking and eating Indian and Western food, socializing with Indian and American friends outside work, and all those cultural activities they perform on a day-to-day basis, indicates ‘transnationalism from below’. Overall, through this study, I have described important aspects of the transnational lives of Indian IT professionals, who try to maintain a fine balance between faster assimilation of American culture which might help them at the work place while simultaneously retaining much of their ‘Indian-ness’ so that going back to India never poses a problem when their visa expires. In a way, the lives of this particular group of professionals can be viewed as those of temporary-enclave residential workers.

Analysis of the managing contingent workers at an outsourcing system ¡VA case study of the China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors Abstract Nowadays, employment flexibility and Labor Cost Reduction are highly emphasized in the competitive business environment. As the job design becoming more and more specific and professional, the labor cost becoming higher and higher, companies cannot but change their operation style, and contingent workers have become an important source of competitive advantage. This case study was intended to understand the mutual relationship between China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors: why it uses subcontractors, and how it manages them. This study also explored the benefits and working conditions of contingent workers to find out the potential problems of outsourcing. This study has the following preliminary findings. First, Two factors are important determinants on outsourcing decisions: Strategically, the goal is to reduce labor cost and enhance the employment flexibility. Technically, the demand of professional skills, rudimentary skills and special facilities can be satisfied through outsourcing. Second, the relation between China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors has changed after its privatization. According to China Steel Corporation, their interaction has become better because of the flexibility gained after privatization (for example, the budget is no longer controlled by legislative yuan.) But from the subcontractors¡¦ point of view, their interaction has become more difficult because the elimination of their profit and increasing constraints on outsourcing projects. Third, the employees of China Steel Corporation enjoy better wages, benefits, working conditions and training opportunities than employees of subcontractors. Fourth, among the two kinds of employees of subcontractors¡Xpermanent and temporary¡X permanent employees have better wages than temporary ones. As for training, there is not much difference. Fifth, safety is the most serious problem on contingent workers management. The reasons include highly dangerous work environment, workers¡¦ unfamiliarity with the environment, and being recklessness about the work environment rules. One other important management issue for China Steel Corporation is that outsourcing does not necessarily reduce labor cost. High turnover rate among contingent workers and low quality resulting from insufficient skills are combined together to increase the labor cost of China Steel Corporation on supervision, coordination, and quality control. Key words: human resource management, contingent working arrangement, outsourcing, subcontractor, temporary workers.

In the staffing agency business, the responsibility of the working environment are divided between the client companies and the staffing agencies. Therefore the temporary workers should be double protected, but the consequences are that the responsibility of the working environment falls between the cracks in many businesses.The purpose of the essay is to examine how the workers in industrial businesses from the staffing agency are protected by the shared responsibility that exists between the client companies and the staffing agencies, regarding work environment. To be able to answer this questions, the legal method is used.The conclusion of this essay is that the temporary workers are protected by the Work Environment Act, stating that the staffing agency and the client company have a responsibility for the employee´s work environment. Since the staffing agency is the employer, they have the largest work environment responsibility. This means, however, that staffing agencies are in a special situation because they are not in the place where the employee works. Since the client company is equated with an employer according to 1 § SAM, the systematic work environment is shared equally between the client companies and staffing agencies. On the grounds that there is a lack of clarity concerning who is responsible for what from the both parties, it leads to that the working environment responsibility are neglected. It also depends on the fierce competition that exists between various staffing companies today, which means that staffing companies do not always take part of the client companies' risk assessments or requirements on the grounds that they are afraid of losing the customer. This results that the temporary employees do not get the protection that the Work Environment Act is intended to give them.

<p>The use of temporary workers gives companies the opportunity to be flexible, by avoiding hiring and dismissing workers because of economic conditions and trends in demand. The management control in use at the company has the purpose of influencing employees’ behaviour to act in the company’s best interest and towards its goals. The management control should also influence the behaviour of the temporary worker. The companies have to create motivation and commitment among the temporary workers although they are employed by a staffing agency. We question whether companies that use temporary workers must control them in a different way than the way they control the employees.</p><p>The aim of this study was to analyse whether management control in companies is influenced by the fact that temporary workers are a part of the staff.</p><p>We chose to make an empirical study, based on eight qualitative interviews at three companies.</p><p>The result of the study shows that there are not many substantial differences in management control, even though one of the studied companies used a higher degree of action control toward the temporary workers. Temporary workers are generally controlled with the same types of control and controls as the employees. However, we have identified some differences in controlling temporary workers compared to controlling employees, but these differences have not influenced the outcome of the management control. On the other hand it seems that the control has partly become more difficult in a practical way for the managers. To manage these problems a high degree of social control has been necessary.</p> / <p>Att hyra in personal ger företag möjligheten att vara flexibla genom att slippa anställa och avskeda personal på grund av ekonomiska förutsättningar och efterfrågetrender. När en inhyrd kommer till ett företag ska den styrning som finns på företaget även påverka den inhyrda och dennes beteende så att han eller hon ska jobba mot företagets mål och för företagets bästa. För företaget som hyr in gäller det att skapa motivation och engagemang hos den inhyrda trots att denna person är anställd på ett bemanningsföretag. Vi frågar oss om ett företag som hyr in personal styr de inhyrda annorlunda än den fast anställda personalen?</p><p>Vårt syfte med denna studie var att analysera huruvida företags styrning påverkas då inhyrd personal ingår i personalstyrkan.</p><p>Studien är baserad på åtta kvalitativa intervjuer på tre fallföretag.</p><p>Vi har kommit fram till att skillnaderna i styrningen inte är särskilt stora, även om ett fallföretag tillämpade en högre grad handlingsstyrning gentemot de inhyrda. Inhyrd personal styrs överlag med samma styrformer och styrmedel som de fast anställda. Vi har dock identifierat vissa skillnader vid styrningen av inhyrda jämfört med styrning av fast anställda, som inte påverkat styrningens effekt. Däremot har styrningen delvis försvårats rent praktiskt för cheferna och för att komma tillrätta med problemen har en hög grad av social styrning varit nödvändig.</p>

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att ur ett socialpsykologiskt perspektiv undersöka vilka upplevelser inhyrd personal har på ett visst företag beroende på vilken arbetsgrupp de tillhör. I studien har vi utgått från en kvalitativ metod med nio semistrukturerade intervjuer där urvalet bestod av fem manliga informanter och fyra kvinnliga. Resultatet visar att det finns övervägande positiva upplevelser av att arbeta som inhyrd på det aktuella företaget där sociala relationer och ett gott bemötande är viktiga orsaker till dessa.  Resultatet visar även på skillnader i upplevelser hos den inhyrda personalen beroende på vilken arbetsgrupp de tillhör och vilka grupprocesser som utspelar sig inom denna. Resultatet har vi sedan analyserat med hjälp av ett flertal teoretiker; Moira von Wright, Johan Asplund, Norbert Elias, Georg Simmel, Susan A. Wheelan och Abraham Maslow. Analysen visar bland annat att den inhyrda personalens egenskaper skapas i samspel med de direktanställda och att detta gör att de känner sig som en del av arbetsgruppen. / The purpose of this study is to examining which experiences that temporary workers has on a particular company from a social psychological perspective, and see if the experiences depend on which workgroup they belong. In this study we have used a qualitative approach with nine semi-structured interviews, where the sample consisted of five male and four female informants. The results show that there are generally positive experiences of temporary work on the relevant company in which social relationships and good treatment are important causes. The results also show differences in the experiences of the temporary workers, depending on the working group they belong and which group processes that take place within it. The result, we then analyzed with the help of several theorists: Moira von Wright, Johan Asplund, Norbert Elias, Georg Simmel, Susan A. Wheelan and Abraham Maslow. The analysis shows that the temporary workers characteristics are created in interaction with those directly employed and that this makes them feel as part of the working group.

The use of temporary workers gives companies the opportunity to be flexible, by avoiding hiring and dismissing workers because of economic conditions and trends in demand. The management control in use at the company has the purpose of influencing employees’ behaviour to act in the company’s best interest and towards its goals. The management control should also influence the behaviour of the temporary worker. The companies have to create motivation and commitment among the temporary workers although they are employed by a staffing agency. We question whether companies that use temporary workers must control them in a different way than the way they control the employees. The aim of this study was to analyse whether management control in companies is influenced by the fact that temporary workers are a part of the staff. We chose to make an empirical study, based on eight qualitative interviews at three companies. The result of the study shows that there are not many substantial differences in management control, even though one of the studied companies used a higher degree of action control toward the temporary workers. Temporary workers are generally controlled with the same types of control and controls as the employees. However, we have identified some differences in controlling temporary workers compared to controlling employees, but these differences have not influenced the outcome of the management control. On the other hand it seems that the control has partly become more difficult in a practical way for the managers. To manage these problems a high degree of social control has been necessary. / Att hyra in personal ger företag möjligheten att vara flexibla genom att slippa anställa och avskeda personal på grund av ekonomiska förutsättningar och efterfrågetrender. När en inhyrd kommer till ett företag ska den styrning som finns på företaget även påverka den inhyrda och dennes beteende så att han eller hon ska jobba mot företagets mål och för företagets bästa. För företaget som hyr in gäller det att skapa motivation och engagemang hos den inhyrda trots att denna person är anställd på ett bemanningsföretag. Vi frågar oss om ett företag som hyr in personal styr de inhyrda annorlunda än den fast anställda personalen? Vårt syfte med denna studie var att analysera huruvida företags styrning påverkas då inhyrd personal ingår i personalstyrkan. Studien är baserad på åtta kvalitativa intervjuer på tre fallföretag. Vi har kommit fram till att skillnaderna i styrningen inte är särskilt stora, även om ett fallföretag tillämpade en högre grad handlingsstyrning gentemot de inhyrda. Inhyrd personal styrs överlag med samma styrformer och styrmedel som de fast anställda. Vi har dock identifierat vissa skillnader vid styrningen av inhyrda jämfört med styrning av fast anställda, som inte påverkat styrningens effekt. Däremot har styrningen delvis försvårats rent praktiskt för cheferna och för att komma tillrätta med problemen har en hög grad av social styrning varit nödvändig.

Begreppet organisationsidentitet har vuxit i popularitet, både som teori för forskare och som strategi för företagsledning. Samtidigt ser vi en trend på den svenska arbetsmarknaden där det blir allt vanligare att hyra in arbetskraft istället för att anställa direkt i organisationen. Men vad händer med organisationsidentiteten när de anställda är tillfälligt där och dessutom har en dubbel organisationstillhörighet, både till konsultföretag och till kundföretag? Den här studien riktar in sig på konsulternas upplevelser av organisationsidentitet. Syftet är att bidra med kunskap till det teoretiska begreppet organisationsidentitet som tidigare inte har inkluderat tillfälliga medlemmar i en organisation, som till exempel konsulter i bemanningsbranschen. Detta kan förhoppningsvis ge uppslag och väcka intresse för vidare forskning på ämnet. Fem intervjuer med konsulter genomfördes för att undersöka deras upplevelser av rollen samt relationen till både konsult- och kundföretag. Resultatet analyserades i relation till social identity approach och forskning om organisationsidentitet. Slutsatsen blev att alla fem respondenter upplevde en svag identifikation med sina arbetsgivarorganisationer till följd av tillfällighet och en känsla av utbytbarhet. Respondenternas egna reflektioner av vad de tyckte var viktigt för att kunna identifiera sig kretsade nästan uteslutande kring ett behov av att bli sedd av arbetsgivarna, till exempel genom att få uppskattning, stimulans, möjlighet till att utvecklas och samhörighet med kollegor. Dock menade respondenterna att detta inte är något de förväntar sig ska uppfyllas i rollen som konsulter. Istället uppgav alla att de strävade efter en fast tillsvidareanställning där organisationsidentitet skulle spela större roll. / The aim of this stdy is to gain a greater understanding of the situation of temporary workers when it comes to organizational identity, since the research is limited in this field. Five interviews were made with young temporary workers. The interviews were then transcribed and analyzed with the theoretical framework of social identity approach and research on organizational identity. The interviews showed that all respondents felt disidentification or ambivalent identification towards both consulting agencies and the hiring companies, because of the interchangeability and temporal circumstances. They all expressed a need to be seen as individuals, but in different ways they also said that they did not expect that need to be met as long as they were temporary workers. All respondents expressed an aspiration for a permanent post where they thought their needs would be better fulfilled.