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Professional Temporary Agencies, Women and Professional Discretion: Implications for Organizations and Management
Author(s) -
Albert Steven,
Bradley Keith
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8551.00097
Subject(s) - discretion , agency (philosophy) , control (management) , perception , preference , work (physics) , order (exchange) , set (abstract data type) , business , public relations , management control system , accounting , demographic economics , psychology , political science , economics , sociology , management , finance , law , mechanical engineering , social science , programming language , neuroscience , computer science , microeconomics , engineering
There are a disproportionate number of professional women working through temporary agencies. We develop a theory wherein this gender skewness in temporary‐agency employment results from the differences in perceptions of control at work between men and women working through large traditional organizations. Our theory suggests that if control is perceived to be less for women than for men in large organizations, then women will tend to populate other work arrangements, like temporary agencies, in order to enhance their control. Propositions are tested via a unique data set comparing the responses of employees from both a London temporary accountancy agency and a large London accountancy firm. Our results are consistent with a lack of control driving professional women from large firms to temporary agencies, and neither rely on preference differences nor familial obligations.