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Managing temporary workers: work identity, diversity and operational HR choices
Author(s) -
Koene Bas,
Riemsdijk Maarten
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
human resource management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.44
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1748-8583
pISSN - 0954-5395
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-8583.2005.tb00141.x
Subject(s) - diversity (politics) , business , identification (biology) , work (physics) , identity (music) , value (mathematics) , process (computing) , scale (ratio) , marketing , knowledge management , industrial organization , operations management , sociology , economics , computer science , engineering , mechanical engineering , botany , physics , quantum mechanics , machine learning , anthropology , acoustics , biology , operating system
Strategic HRM theory argues that organisations should distinguish different types of employees according to their value and availability. We argue that this has resulted in an underestimation of the importance of specific HRM practices in relation to temporary employees. Building on theoretical work that discusses the employment relationship for temporary employees, the process of identification with the organisation and different ways of managing diversity, we distinguish three approaches to the operational management of temporary employees. We explore two cases that reflect opposite ends of the scale. They illustrate the value of the theoretical framework and substantiate the claim that, even after the strategic choice for a lean, distanced and uninvolved temporary ‘employment mode’ is made, different operational HRM practices lead to differences in performance.