Maria José Chambel, Mafalda Espada & Filipa Sobral Leuven,October 27 th, 2011 Interdisciplinary conference: “External forms of flexibility in the labour.

Maria José Chambel, Mafalda Espada &

Filipa Sobral

Leuven,October 27th, 2011

Interdisciplinary conference: “External forms of flexibility in the labour market: competition or complementarity”

*This paper was submitted at the Human Resource Management Journal.

TEMPORARY AGENCY WORK

Workers that have a temporary contract do not know how long they will be employed or how long will they work in the organization where they are at the moment.

Thus, employability, especially when linked to training, has been pointed as an alternative to security of tenure, that is viewed as a crucial step towards improving access to employment.

Training for external

employability

ExhaustionAffectivecommit

ment

H4

H2

Training for internal employability

H1

H3 H5

H6

H1: Perceived training as promoted internal employability is positively

related to temporary workers’ affective commitment.

H2: Perceived training as promoted external employability is positively

related to temporary workers’ affective commitment.

H3: Perceived training as promoted internal employability is negatively

related to temporary workers’ exhaustion.

H4: Perceived training as promoted external employability is negatively

related to temporary workers’ exhaustion.

H5: Exhaustion will partially mediate the relationship between perceived

training as promoted internal employability and temporary workers’

affective commitment.

H6: Exhaustion will partially mediate the relationship between perceived

training as promoted external employability and temporary workers’

affective commitment.

Models χ 2 Δχ2 SRMR TLI CFI RMSEA

Model1 (Partialme

diation)

χ2 (152) = 475.51 0.06 0.92 0.92 0.07

Model2 (Total

mediation)

χ2 (154) = 509.81

Compare

to Model 1

Δχ2 (2) =

34.3**

0.07 0.91 0.91 0.07

Structural Equation Modeling

Note: ** p<. 01.

Training for external

employability

ExhaustionAffectivecommit

ment

H4 (0.10 n.s.)

H2 (-0.14*)

Training for internal employability

H1 (0.44***)

H3 (- 0.47***) H5 (Z= -2.8**)

H6

- 0.33**

Note: * p<.05; ** p<.01; ***; p< 00.n.s.: non significant.

Training could have either a positive or a negative relationship with commitment and exhaustion, depending on the nature of perceptions about training actions and whether temporary workers considered that actions as internal or external employability promoters.

Is a good option to invest in initial and ongoing training programs designed to equip temporary workers with the skills and knowledge they need to conduct their jobs and improve their performance.

Invest in human resources, whatever the link between them and the company, contributes to an effective employment relationship and this is vital to organizational effectiveness as it relates with a critical attitude, namely workers’ affective commitment.

Maria José Chambel, Mafalda Espada &

Filipa Sobral

[email protected]

*This paper was submitted at the Human Resource Management Journal.