Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of cases
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The individual in the changing working life: introduction
- Part I Threats and challenges
- 2 New rules of work: exploring the boundaryless job
- 3 Changing work roles: new demands and challenges
- 4 The Demand-Induced Strain Compensation model: renewed theoretical considerations and empirical evidence
- 5 Job insecurity and employability among temporary workers: a theoretical approach based on the psychological contract
- 6 Independent contracting: finding a balance between flexibility and individual well-being
- 7 Work–family conflict in individuals' lives: prevalence, antecedents, and outcomes
- 8 My love, my life, my everything: work–home interaction among self-employed
- 9 Modern work and safety
- 10 Romantic relationships at work: old issues, new challenges
- 11 Ethnic diversity at work: an overview of theories and research
- Part II Individual attempts at restoring the balance
- Part III Intervention and promotion on the organizational level
- Index
- References
6 - Independent contracting: finding a balance between flexibility and individual well-being
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of cases
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The individual in the changing working life: introduction
- Part I Threats and challenges
- 2 New rules of work: exploring the boundaryless job
- 3 Changing work roles: new demands and challenges
- 4 The Demand-Induced Strain Compensation model: renewed theoretical considerations and empirical evidence
- 5 Job insecurity and employability among temporary workers: a theoretical approach based on the psychological contract
- 6 Independent contracting: finding a balance between flexibility and individual well-being
- 7 Work–family conflict in individuals' lives: prevalence, antecedents, and outcomes
- 8 My love, my life, my everything: work–home interaction among self-employed
- 9 Modern work and safety
- 10 Romantic relationships at work: old issues, new challenges
- 11 Ethnic diversity at work: an overview of theories and research
- Part II Individual attempts at restoring the balance
- Part III Intervention and promotion on the organizational level
- Index
- References
Summary
In recent years there has been a well-documented international trend involving the gradual restructuring of employment contracts away from the standard or traditional ongoing employer–employee relationship and more toward increasing organizational reliance on contractual work arrangements which are more contingent, precarious, or fixed-term in nature (Connelly and Gallagher, 2004; Kalleberg, Reynolds, and Marsden, 2003; Mauno, Kinnunen, Mäkikangas, and Nätti, 2005; Quinlan and Bohle, 2004; Silla, Gracia, and Peiró, 2005). This is not to suggest that the “standard” employment deal of the twentieth century is in immediate danger of extinction. However, there does appear to be a growing strategic interest by contemporary organizations in hiring workers on a contingent basis as a means of making labor itself more of a “variable” rather than a relatively “fixed” operating cost. Such an interest in fixed-term contracts also appears to fit well in the context of rising organizational focus on flexibility in the production of goods and services within many post-industrial nations (Handy, 1989; Piore and Sabel, 1984; Reilly, 1998).
For many people, contingent or fixed-term contracts are often seen as being synonymous with organizational reliance upon the services of temporary-help staffing firms (e.g. Adecco, Manpower, Randstad, etc.) to provide workers on an “ad hoc” basis. Traditionally the temporary-help staffing industry in Europe and North America has served as an efficient market mechanism for providing employers with clerical and manual laborers to serve the purpose of replacing absent permanent staff (e.g. holiday coverage, illness, etc.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Individual in the Changing Working Life , pp. 108 - 125Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
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