2022/07/22 by Rigotti, Thomas, De Cuyper, Nele, De Witte, Hans +2
#Keywords: employment prospects – job insecurity – psychological contract – temporary employment – well-being – work attitudes
paper · doi:10.15203/1998-9970-2-1-03
This study investigates the relation between employment prospects and well-being (irritation, anxiety, and depressive moods) and job and organisational attitudes (job satisfaction, affective organisational commitment) in temporary versus permanent workers. The perception of employment prospects are considered to be part of the employer-employee-relationship and express the employees’ feeling of employment security and career progress within the company. We argue that for temporary workers reduced employment prospects are anticipated and predictable. They adapt their expectations regarding ongoing employment accordingly, whereas permanent workers may still expect lifelong employment. Results based on a German sample of 643 employees show that temporary workers experience more job insecurity than permanent workers, and they perceive fewer employment prospects. However, job insecurity is more strongly related to poor well-being among permanent workers than among temporary workers as expected, but the relationship of job insecurity with work attitudes was not different for the two employment groups. For both groups no difference was found concerning the relationship of psychological contracts on health outcomes, but the relationship to employees’ attitudes was stronger among permanent workers than among temporary workers. It has to be taken into account, that precarious short term arrangements are underrepresented in the sample.