Research Catalog

Title

Employment contracts, psychological contracts, and employee well-being : an international study / edited by David E. Guest, Kerstin Isaksson and Hans De Witte.

Publication

Oxford : New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

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Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Guest, David
• Isaksson, Kerstin, 1952-
• Witte, Hans de
• Guest, David, 1944-

Description

xi, 327 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

• "Temporary employment has become a focus of policy debate, theory, and research. The book addresses as its core concern the relationship between temporary employment contracts and employee well-being. It does so within the analytic framework of the psychological contract, and advances theory and knowledge about the psychological contract by exploring it from a variety of perspectives. It also sets the psychological contract within the context of a range of other potential influences on work-related well-being including workload, job insecurity, employability, and organizational support. A key aim of the book is to identify the relative importance of these various potential influences on well-being.
• The book covers seven countries: Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK, as well as Israel as a comparator outside Europe. Data was collected from over 5,000 workers in over 200 organizations, and from both permanent and temporary workers, as well as from employers.
• The book's conclusions are interesting and controversial. The central finding is that contrary to expectations, temporary workers report higher well-being than permanent workers. As expected, a range of factors help to explain variations in work-related well-being and the research highlights the important role of the psychological contract. However, even after taking into account alternative explanations, the significant influence of type of employment contract remains. In addition to this core finding, by exploring several aspects of the psychological contract, and taking into account both employer and employee perspectives, the book sheds new light on the nature and role of the psychological contract. It also raises some challenging policy questions and while acknowledging the potentially precarious nature of temporary jobs, highlights the need to consider the increasingly demanding nature of permanent jobs and their effects on the well-being of employees. "--Book jacket.

Subject

• Temporary employment
• Labor contract
• Temporary employment > Psychological aspects
• Temporary employees > Psychology
• Quality of work life

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Investigating the experience of temporary workers / Thomas Rigotti [and others] -- Flexible employment and temporary contracts : the employer's perspective / Kerstin Isaksson [and others] -- Individual and organizational outcomes of employment contracts / Nele De Cuyper [and others] -- The psychological contracts of temporary and permanent workers / René Schalk [and others] -- Causes and consequences of the psychological contract / David E. Guest and Michael Clinton -- Mutuality and reciprocity in the psychological contracts of temporary and permanent workers / Kerstin Isaksson [and others] -- Establising the main determinants of worker well-being / Michael Clinton and David E. Guest -- International comparisons of employment contracts, psychological contracts, and worker well-being / Rita Claes, René Schalk, and Jeroen de Jong.

ISBN

• 9780199542697
• 0199542694

OCLC

663432340

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library