Management and Organization of Temporary Agency Work

This volume takes as its point of departure the general increase in flexible forms of employment and temporary agency working in particular in recent decades. In contrast to some previous examinations which have focused on the experiences of temporary agency workers themselves, the objective of this book is to focus on the management and organisation of temporary work. Taking the trend towards labour flexibility as a given, the editors highlight the need to address some basic issues relating to the changing patterns of employment: how can career development be understood in this shift towards “specialisation and modularisation” of work and the erosion of bureaucratic employment structures; and what are the short and longer-term effects of engaging temporary work agencies in core human resource processes (p. 2)?

The contributions to this collection draw on a range of social science perspectives and are rooted-in two EU-funded research projects examining contingent employment practices from organisational and psychological perspectives. These origins are evident in the structure and organisation of the chapters which fall into four thematic areas. The first sets the scene by examining changes to the nature of work. The two chapters here take starkly different approaches, a pattern that comes to define the volume as a whole. The first draws on the concept of “reflexive habitus” to examine how workers in flexible employment adapt to their uncertain work environments, with parallels drawn between the experiences of German theatre actors and temporary agency workers in general. The second of these opening chapters, by contrast, provides a brief overview of the concept of “flexicurity” as developed and deployed by the European Union in its formulation of employment strategies and examines the role of temporary work agencies in one of four “pathways” to flexicurity appropriate to the different member states.

The second group of chapters concern the challenges emanating from temporary agency worker’s triangular employment relationship. Here contributions range across an analysis of strategic choices in the structuring of partnerships between agencies and client firms based around a Dutch case study, an examination of the managerial challenges stemming from the interaction of highly skilled external consultants and core employees in the Norwegian oil industry and an action-research-based case study of attempts to establish an employee pool sharing part-time workers between two neighbouring firms in Belgium.

The third theme is concerned with managing temporary workforces. This section relates most clearly to the psychological literature, with all three chapters utilising the concept of the psychological contract. The first of these examines how the experience of agency workers, shaped in part by the behaviour of client firms, can impact negatively and positively on relations between agency and client, agency and permanent workers and successive clients experienced by the agency worker (utilising a concept of “spillover”). Key to these relations, the authors argue, is the psychological contract, which is influenced heavily by the client firm. They conclude that client firms need to treat agency workers carefully (and better) to create and harness positive spillovers. Next, social identity and temporary work is examined and here the author considers how the desire – and possibility – of agency workers to join the “high status” group of permanent employees interact to influence agency workers’ behaviour and performance. The conclusion is that enhancing the possibility of a transition within the client to a permanent job where possible or, at the least, raising the quality of treatment of the agency worker in the client firm can enhance temps’ motivation and performance. The final chapter in this section is dedicated to the complexities of multiple psychological contracts in the triangular employment relationship, providing an overview of the literature in this area supported by some brief findings of a Portuguese case study.

The final section takes a broader perspective to consider the nature and regulation of temporary agency working in three rather different national contexts. The three chapters consider, in turn, the liberalisation of temporary agency working in Italy and Sweden and the operation of not-for-profit agencies in the USA. Although restrictions have been progressively lifted in the two European countries, this has not led to the widespread emergence of low-quality agency jobs characteristic of the USA (or for that matter the UK). In both cases, strong collective bargaining institutions have ensured that agencies have strict obligations to provide their workers with quality training opportunities focused on the needs of employers. Whilst this is less surprising in the Swedish case, the claim that over 30 per cent of all temporary agency training expenditure in Europe is accounted for by Italy was a revelation (p. 154). Similarly, the final chapter examining the USA highlights a feature of that country’s temporary employment industry that has been “under the radar” of labour market researchers: alternative staffing organisations (ASOs). These are not-for-profit temporary agencies that focus on helping disadvantaged workers enter, sustain and maintain decent work opportunities and are often part of larger social enterprises. These organisations seek to help workers overcome barriers to employment prior to and during temporary placements, with client firms selected for their opportunities for temporary jobs to become permanent hires. The authors thus argue that ASOs offer “an alternative venue for workers to escape the anonymity of the largest players and for the employers to hire temp workers without further contributing to the exploitative techniques of bottom-feeding temporary agencies” (p. 178). This may be a useful model for countries like the UK in which “flexible” labour markets have tended to lead to poor-quality temporary agency work which does little to reduce labour market churn for disadvantaged workers and it deserves further research.

Overall, there are some insights to be found within this volume although readers ‘will find much that is already familiar. The editors’ opening chapter provides a useful framing of debates around the challenges of managing temporary workers and the final section highlights interesting institutional differences between countries that shape the nature of agency work. Looking across the contributions, however, it is not clear that they live-up to the editors’ initial hopes and claims. The chapters are often too short, sometimes largely literature reviews, often dated and, in one case not actually concerned with temporary agency work (the chapter on labour pooling). And although insights from different social sciences perspectives are valuable, there is no real sense of coherence. The editors have done their best in grouping the chapters but the organising narrative and focus on research questions set-out at the start of the volume are too weak.

From the foreword it is clear that this book has had a long (too long) gestation. In this time, events have moved on. In Europe, for example, since 2008 there has been a directive on agency work centred on the principle of equal treatment, whilst at the same time seeking to remove national barriers to agency working. To what extent has – or could – this regulatory change address some of the problems and challenges of temporary agency working raised in this volume? On that, the book is silent given its origins. Similarly, the book’s starting point is that the world of work is changing in rather dramatic ways. But why does the incidence and nature of agency working differ so markedly between countries? Why, contrary to the editors’ expectations has the financial crisis and long recovery not actually led to a further general increase in agency working (see OECD, 2014, Chapter 4)? What are the constraints on the extension of agency work managerially and institutionally? What are the continuities as well as the changes in the organisation of work? This volume will provide students and researchers with some useful, basic starting points on the management and organisation of temporary agency work but bigger questions remain.