Well-Being and Organizational Attitudes in Alternative Employment: The Role of Contract and Job Preferences

Transcription

1 Well-Being and Organizational Attitudes in Alternative Employment: The Role of Contract and Job Preferences Claudia Bernhard-Oettel Stockholm University Nele De Cuyper K.U. Leuven Erik Berntson Stockholm University Kerstin Isaksson Mälardalen University This study focuses upon the heterogeneity in the contemporary workforce in relation to well-being and organizational attitudes. This heterogeneity may concern (a) the specific type of contract (permanent full-time vs. alternative arrangements; e.g., permanent part-time, fixed-term, and on-call work), (b) job and contract preferences, or (c) specific combinations of contract type and preferences. The authors argue that working in alternative employment, but also being in a nonpreferred contract or job may imply stress and, hence, strain (i.e., poor well-being). This may lead to withdrawal from the organization (i.e., poor organizational attitudes). A combination of the stressors may strengthen these effects. Analyses of questionnaire data from Sweden Claudia Bernhard-Oettel and Erik Berntson, Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden; Nele De Cuyper, Research Group for Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychology, K.U. Leuven, Belgium; Kerstin Isaksson, Department of Social Science, Mälardalen University, Sweden. This research is part of the Psycones-project (PSYchological CONtracts across Employment Situations) of the EU, 5 th framework programme (HPSE-CT ). It was furthermore supported by a grant from the FWO (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vlaanderen, G ). We want to thank Gunnar Aronsson for valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Claudia Bernhard-Oettel, Stockholm University, Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, Stockholm, Sweden. cbl@psychology.su.se 345 International Journal of Stress Management Copyright 2008 by the American Psychological Association 2008, Vol. 15, No. 4, /08/$12.00 DOI: /a

2 346 Bernhard-Oettel, De Cuyper, Berntson, and Isaksson collected in 2004 (N 716) reveal that preferences, particularly preferences for the job and partly also for the contract, were associated with the outcomes. Contract heterogeneity was not informative for well-being, while it was for differences in reported organizational attitudes. Type of employment contract interacted with job and contract preferences: for permanent full-time workers, job preferences displayed stronger associations with wellbeing and attitudes than for workers in alternative employment. Keywords: part-time work, temporary work, preferences, well-being, organizational attitudes Permanent full-time employment has long been the standard for a majority of the workforce (Connelly & Gallagher, 2004). In recent years, globalizing competition has spurred flexible personnel staffing strategies, such as part-time, fixed-term, or on-call employment (OECD, 2002). These forms of employment imply a reduced presence in the organization and uncertainty about the future of the job, and they are hypothesized to relate to poor well-being and detrimental organizational attitudes (Beard & Edwards, 1995). To date, however, results on the association between alternative employment and psychological outcomes have been inconsistent (De Cuyper et al., 2008; Thorsteinson, 2003). In this paper, we focus on two explanations for this inconsistency. These explanations underline different aspects of the heterogeneity in alternative employment arrangements. First, unlike some earlier studies, we distinguish among different types of alternative employment arrangements: we argue that stress risks and, hence, strain, are conditional upon the specific type of arrangement (Aronsson, Gustafsson, & Dallner, 2002; Bernhard-Oettel, Sverke, & De Witte, 2005). Second, another aspect of heterogeneity concerns employees job and contract preferences (Aronsson & Göransson, 1999; Connelly & Gallagher, 2004). Some employees accept a flexible arrangement because it was offered with the job they wanted or because they prefer a flexible arrangement. Others are forced to accept any assignment they are offered (Guest, 2004; Thorsteinson, 2003). This difference in preferences may lead workers to appraise similar employment conditions differently, and it may induce differences in perceived control over life and career (Krausz, 2000); factors that are known to relate to strain (e.g., poor well-being). Strain, in turn, may prompt withdrawal, or it may encourage employees to leave the current situation, implying unfavorable consequences for the organization (e.g., affective organizational commitment and turnover intention). This study investigates different types of alternative employment forms and individual s preferences for job and contract in relation to employee s well-being (health and life satisfaction), as well as organizational attitudes (organizational commitment and intentions to quit).

3 Well Being and Attitudes in Alternative Employment 347 ALTERNATIVE EMPLOYMENT, WELL-BEING, AND ORGANIZATIONAL ATTITUDES Alternative employment can take many forms depending on countryspecific labor market laws and organizational needs (Connelly & Gallagher, 2004). The most typical examples in Europe and Sweden in particular are part-time, fixed-term, and on-call employment (Bernhard-Oettel & Isaksson, 2005; Parent-Thirion, Fernandez, Hurley, & Vermeylen, 2007). Other groups are agency work and independent contracting (De Cuyper et al., 2008). We chose not to include these last groups because these workers are not directly hired by the organization, and definitions of the contracts differ across countries. For example, agency workers have a permanent contract with the agency in some countries, whereas in other countries, their contract with the agency is temporary (OECD, 2002). Part-Time Work Part-time work accounts for about 17% of the European workforce and deviates from the standard in number of working hours (Parent-Thirion et al., 2007). This implies some specific stressors; for example, limited inclusion in the organization (Martin & Sinclair, 2007), weaker social relationships at work (Thorsteinsson, 2003), and fewer promotion and training opportunities (Corral & Isusi, 2004). Nonetheless, unfavorable outcomes in part-time compared with full-time workers have not consistently been found: research has reported either no differences (Krausz, Sagie, & Biderman, 2000) or more positive attitudes for part-time workers (Guest, Oakley, Clinton, & Budjanovcanin, 2006; Martin & Sinclair, 2007). According to a recent review, few studies have concerned well-being or the role of voluntary/ involuntary choices (Thorsteinson, 2003). Temporary Work About 13% of the European workforce is employed on a temporary contract; that is, a contract that expires at a specific date or upon the return of another employee (OECD, 2002). Temporary work is assumed to relate to poor well-being and unfavorable attitudes owing to employment uncertainty (De Cuyper et al., 2008), lower wages, and limited access to benefits (OECD, 2002). However, empirical research has revealed a more complex pattern (Connelly & Gallagher, 2004). A meta-analytic review has associated temporary employment, particularly in contracts with high instability, with

4 348 Bernhard-Oettel, De Cuyper, Berntson, and Isaksson increased psychological morbidity (Virtanen et al., 2005). This underlines differences between more steady forms of temporary employment, such as fixed-term contract work, and very precarious contracts, such as on-call contracting. Fixed-term contract workers generally have relatively long contract durations and associated tenure-related benefits. On-call workers are hired on an as-needed, short-term basis of some hours or days. Compared with fixed-term contract workers, stressors are exacerbated in on-call workers; for example, in terms of higher uncertainty of employment and income streams, and very limited inclusion at the workplace. Although some studies have reported higher risks for ill-health (Aronsson, Dallner, Lindh, & Göransson, 2005), no differences or even less health complaints have been found in other research (Bernhard-Oettel et al., 2005). Still, studies about on-call workers are scarce, particularly when organizational attitudes are concerned. Another drawback is that few studies have accounted for the importance of perceptions of the work situation (Isaksson, Aronsson, Bellaagh, & Göransson, 2001), such as preferences, for example. To sum up, part-time employment, fixed-term contract work, and on-call work differ in important aspects from permanent employment and from each other. This probably affects stress appraisal, strain, and eventually organizational attitudes. Accordingly, the first aim of this study is to investigate the relation between type of employment contract, and well-being and organizational attitudes. Preferences for Contract and Job, Well-Being, and Organizational Attitudes Research in the realm of part-time and temporary employment has underlined differences in individual s preferences in relation to well-being and attitudes. Employment according to one s preferences may induce control over one s life situation (Krausz, 2000), and provide a better person-job fit. This is likely to generate well-being and the willingness to continue working in the chosen environment. The opposite may be true for individuals who had to accept undesired jobs and/or employment conditions. Contract Preferences The proportion of involuntary part-time workers, that is, those who would rather want to work full-time, is about 22% in the EU (Parent-Thirion et al., 2007). Involuntary part-time workers have been found to be less satisfied (Thorsteinson, 2003), and they reported higher levels of burnout

5 Well Being and Attitudes in Alternative Employment 349 than those who voluntarily worked part-time (Krausz et al., 2000). Many temporary workers take on their contract involuntarily (Tan & Tan, 2002). About 30% of the temporary workforce is employed on voluntary grounds (Guest, 2004), mainly to improve their résumé or because of the freedom it implies (Tan & Tan, 2002). Empirical studies have established that involuntary temporary work compared with voluntary temporary, and in some cases, permanent, work was associated with higher levels of irritation (De Cuyper & De Witte, 2007), tended to increase role stress (Krausz, 2000), related to less job and reward satisfaction (Ellingson, Gruys, & Sackett, 1998; Krausz, 2000), and higher turnover (Isaksson & Bellaagh, 2002). Much of the empirical evidence comes from either voluntary or involuntary temporary agency workers, who were compared with permanent full-time workers. Two drawbacks exist here: first, contract preferences might be more reliably captured along a continuum from voluntary to involuntary (see, e.g., De Cuyper & De Witte, 2007; Ellingson et al., 1998; Tan & Tan, 2002). Second, as argued earlier, it could be important to differentiate among types of alternative employment contracts (Guest et al., 2006). Job Preferences In most industrialized countries, the available high skilled jobs do not match the growing number of high skilled workers (Rifkin, 1995). A significant proportion of the workers are employed in jobs of low intrinsic quality (Corral & Isusi, 2004; Loughlin & Barling, 2001), which do not match their desire for more stimulating jobs and career opportunities. Not being in the preferred job has been associated with psychosomatic complaints (Aronsson & Göransson, 1999), it may lead to detrimental feelings toward the jobs, and to reduced motivation (Loughlin & Barling, 2001). Few empirical studies have investigated the role of job preferences and its relative importance compared to contract preferences in relation to well-being or organizational attitudes. Accordingly, the second aim of this study is to investigate the association between preferences for job or contract, respectively, and wellbeing and organizational attitudes. How Do Employment Contract and Job and Contract Preferences Interact? Little is known about possible interactions between different heterogeneity indicators; that is, contract types and preferences for the contract and/or

6 350 Bernhard-Oettel, De Cuyper, Berntson, and Isaksson job. It could be argued that multiple stressors, for example, flexible employment and low preferences for job or contract, interact in a multiplicative way, so that outcomes become particularly unfavorable for workers in alternative employment, who do not prefer their job and/or contract. The evidence to date is puzzling: the relationship between contract (De Cuyper & De Witte, 2007; Guest et al., 2006) or job preferences (Aronsson & Göransson, 1999), and well-being and organizational attitudes was stronger in permanent compared with temporary workers. Because these studies mostly concerned temporary versus permanent employment, and either contract or job preferences, the third aim of this study is to investigate possible interactions of different types of contracts, and preferences for job and contract on wellbeing and organizational attitudes. METHOD Procedure The data were collected in 2004 through a questionnaire, which was distributed to Swedish employees from 28 organizations in three sectors: food manufacturing, education, and retail. The selection of organizations was based on two criteria: first, given our specific research question, the selection of organizations was conditional upon a minimum number of fixed-term contract and on-call workers. Second, to increase generalizability of findings, we aimed at seven different organizations per sector. A list of potential organizations was made using telephone catalogues, sector organizations, information from the unions, and search machines on the Internet. In a next step, these organizations were contacted by telephone, and they received an information letter. Among those unwilling to participate, frequently cited reasons were the engagement in other projects, the preference for own screening of workers well-being and attitudes regularly applied in the company, work overload, or managers disagreement about the importance of their company s participation. However, a diverse sample was collected, including 7 private companies in the food industry, 9 public and private schools teaching children as well as adults, and the teaching staff from a university department in the educational sector, and 12 food markets, clothing stores, and building material suppliers in the Stockholm area. All questionnaires were distributed at the work place, with the exception of one evening school that chose to mail the questionnaires to the homes of their employees. Along with the questionnaire, a letter explained the study s purpose, assured that participation was voluntary, and that responses would be kept confidential. The completed questionnaires were returned to the

7 Well Being and Attitudes in Alternative Employment 351 research group in sealed envelopes, either directly or via a coordinator in the company. Up to three reminders were given to the employees. Sample A total of 768 participants returned their questionnaire, corresponding to an overall response rate of 50%. After listwise deletion of missing data that served as input for the analyses, the final sample comprised 716 individuals. Of these, 468 (65%) were employed on permanent full-time contracts, 68 (10%) were permanent part-time workers, 135 (19%) worked as temporary employees in fixed-term contracts, and 45 (6%) were temporarily employed on-call. The average age of the sample was 36.8 years and about half of them (55%) were women. On average, participants worked 34.1 hours per week and half of them (50%) had an academic degree. With respect to sector, 36% worked in the educational sector, 35% in food industry, and 29% in retail. There were significant differences among the employment groups in terms of background characteristics (see Table 1). Permanent full-time workers were significantly older than fixed-term employees. Compared with both permanent groups, a significantly higher proportion of workers in both temporary groups achieved academic education. The proportion of men and women was about equal across all groups. Almost half of the part-time and on-call workers were found in the retail sector. Four out of 10 permanent full-time and fixed-term workers worked in the food sector. To provide a detailed account of differences among the groups, a descriptive overview was added for well-being, organizational attitudes, and contract and job preferences. The differences that were found between permanent workers, both part-time and full-time, and on-call workers are presented in Table 1. Measures The scales in this study were validated in earlier research in different employment settings and in different types of contracts (Clinton et al., 2005). They showed single factor structures (PCA) and satisfying reliabilities exceeding.70, except for organizational commitment that was slightly below (.68). Information about means, standard deviation, estimates of Cronbach s alpha reliabilities, and intercorrelations of all variables can be found in Table 2. Unless stated otherwise, respondents were asked to indicate their agreement on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Mean value indexes were calculated where applicable.

8 352 Bernhard-Oettel, De Cuyper, Berntson, and Isaksson Table 1. Well-Being, Organizational Attitudes, Preferences, and Background Characteristics Permanent full-time Permanent part-time Fixed-term workers On-call workers [1] [2] [3] [4] N Well-being Health Life satisfaction Organizational attitudes Commitment Intention to quit Preferences Job preferences Contract preferences Background characteristics Age (years) Gender (% female) Educational level (% academic) Sector food % Sector retail % p.05. p.01. p.001. Type of Employment Contract For the alternative employment forms, we constructed three categorical dummy variables following recommended procedures (Aiken & West, 1991); namely, permanent part-time (1 part-time workers, 0 other), fixed-term (1 fixed-term, 0 other), and on-call (1 on-call, 0 other). Permanent full-time work served as the comparison group, as it represented the standard employment form. Preferences Job preference was measured with one item ( My current job is my preferred job ) adapted from Aronsson and Göransson (1999) and Aronsson, Dallner, and Gustafsson (2000). Contract preferences were measured using a four-item scale (Clinton et al., 2005). An example item was My current employment contract is the one that I prefer. Well-Being General health was assessed with five items (e.g., I am as healthy as anybody I know ) from the SF36 health survey, which has been adapted and validated in the Swedish population (Sullivan, Karlsson, & Ware, 1995). Life

9 Well Being and Attitudes in Alternative Employment 353 in Permanent Full-Time Versus Alternative Employment Forms Total Univariate F 2 Group comparisons ; ; 1 4; ? ; 1 4; 2 3; 2 4; satisfaction was measured with five items from Guest and Conway (1998) (e.g., How satisfied are you with your life in general? ). Respondents rated their level of satisfaction on a scale ranging from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied). Organizational Attitudes Organizational commitment was measured with three items from Cook and Wall (1980); for example, I feel myself to be part of the organization. Intentions to quit were assessed with a three-item scale, modified from Price (1997) to fit both permanent and temporary employment. For example, one item read Despite the obligations I have made to this organization, I want to quit my job as soon as possible. Background Characteristics Individual and work related background characteristics that were intertwined with employment form and with the outcomes were controlled for. Age was measured as a natural scale. Gender (0 male, 1 female) and education (1 academic university or college education, 0 high school education or below) were dummy variables. In terms of sector, dummy variables were constructed (Aiken & West, 1991), representing the food

10 354 Bernhard-Oettel, De Cuyper, Berntson, and Isaksson Table 2. Correlations, Means and Standard Deviations for All variables, and Reliabilities Variable Background variables 1. Age Gender (female) Educational level (academic) Sector food Sector retail Employment contract 6. Part-time Fixed-term On-call Preferences 9. Job preference Contract preference Well-being 11. General health Life satisfaction Organizational attitudes 13. Commitment Intentions to quit Note. Scale range: 0 1 (variables 2 8 [for these variables the mean value symbolizes the p.05. industry (1 food industry, 0 other) and retail (1 retail, 0 other), with the educational sector as the comparison group. Statistical Analysis We used hierarchical regression analyses. We screened the data in terms of multicollinearity, skewness, curtosis, and two outlier cases were removed. Analyses were done for each outcome variable separately, as follows: the background variables (age, gender, education, and sector) were entered in the first step. In the second step, we entered type of employment, and, in the third step, preferences for the contract and preferences for job were entered. In a fourth step, the following interaction terms were entered: two-way interaction terms between employment forms (permanent part-time, fixed-term, and on-call contract) and each of the two types of preferences (contract preferences, job preferences), the two-way interaction term between the two types of preferences (contract preferences job preferences), and three-way interaction term between employment forms (permanent part-time, fixed-term, and on-call contract) and the two types of preferences (contract preferences job preferences). The interactions were created with the cross-product of the variables. Following recommendations by Aiken and West (1991), continuous predictors were centered before the cross product was calculated to avoid

11 Well Being and Attitudes in Alternative Employment 355 for Scales (N 716) M SD proportion scoring 1]), 1 5 (variables 9 11, 13 14), 1 7 (variable 12), years (variable 1). artificial multicollinearity. In significant interactions, slopes were tested for significance with t tests, and significant three-way interactions were plotted. RESULTS The results of the regression analyses for general health, life satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intentions to quit are presented in Table 3. Type of employment was significantly related to organizational attitudes, but not to general health and life satisfaction. The pattern of results was as follows: on-call workers reported significantly less commitment compared with permanent full-time workers, and workers in all three forms of alternative employment expressed lower intentions to quit than permanent workers. Job preferences displayed robust positive associations with all four outcomes: job preferences associated with better general health, higher levels of life satisfaction, higher levels of organizational commitment, and lower levels of intentions to quit. Contract preferences were associated positively with life satisfaction and negatively with intentions to quit. No such relations were found for general health and organizational commitment. In the final model, we found significant two-way interactions for life satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intentions to quit, but not for health. More specifically, life satisfaction was significantly higher for individuals with high contract preferences and high job preferences, t 3.97,

12 356 Bernhard-Oettel, De Cuyper, Berntson, and Isaksson Table 3. Predicting Well-Being and Organizational Attitudes: Standardized Regression Coefficients (N 716) Well-being Organizational attitudes General health Life satisfaction Commitment Intention to quit last step last step last step last step Step 1 Background characteristics Age Gender (female) Education (academic) Sector-food Sector-retail R 2 change Step 2 Contract Permanent part-time contract Fixed-term contract On-call contract R 2 change.00 n.s Step 3 Preference variables Preference for job Preference for contract R 2 change Step 4 Interaction terms Contract job preferences ns ns Contract contract preferences ns ns ns ns Job preferences contract preferences ns ns ns Contract job preferences contract preferences ns ns R 2 change Total R p.05. p.01. p.001. p.001 than for those with only high contract preferences, t 2.37, p.001. Furthermore, we found that organizational commitment was higher in permanent full-time workers with high as compared with low job preference, t 9.27, p.001, whereas organizational commitment was unrelated to job preferences for on-call temporary workers, t 0.53, p.05. Intentions to quit were lower for permanent full-timers with high as compared with low job preference, t 13.76, p.001, and, although pointing in the same direction, this relationship was weaker for fixed-term workers, t 7.14, p.001. In addition, we found significant three-way interactions for general health and intentions to quit. In terms of health, the interaction of job and contract preferences had different implications for fixed-term compared with permanent full-time workers. As shown in Figure 1, for fixed-term workers with low job preferences, high compared with low contract preferences tended to relate to better health. The effect was weak, and a significance test of the slope, the t-value, t 1.86, p.05 was slightly below the 5%

13 Well Being and Attitudes in Alternative Employment 357 Figure 1. Interactions of job preferences and contract preferences on general health (scale 1 5). significance level (requiring t 1.96). No such tendency of an interaction effect was found for permanent full-time workers. The significant three-way interactions between employment types and job and contract preferences for intentions to quit are plotted in Figure 2. For permanent full-time workers, those with low job preferences tended to express higher intentions to quit, and no interaction with contract preferences was found (t 1.22, p.05 for high job preferences, and t 1.74, p.05 for low job preferences). For permanent part-time workers, however, respondents with low job preferences reported lower intentions to quit when their contract preferences were high as compared with low, t 3.21, p.001. The control variables related significantly to the outcomes, and thus helped to explain some variance in organizational attitudes and well-being. DISCUSSION Earlier studies on the psychological consequences of alternative work arrangements have resulted in contradictory findings; a fact that many schol- Figure 2. Interactions of job preferences and contract preferences on intentions to quit (scale 1 5).

14 358 Bernhard-Oettel, De Cuyper, Berntson, and Isaksson ars ascribe to the heterogeneity of alternative employment forms, and to differences in individual preferences for job and contract. The overall aim of this paper was to further clarify how differences in objective contractual agreements and subjective preferences for job and contract, alone or in their combination, related to workers well-being (general health and life satisfaction) and organizational attitudes (organizational commitment and intentions to quit). In doing so, we controlled for individual and work background characteristics. Unlike earlier studies (Aronsson et al., 2002; Virtanen et al., 2005), but in line with the study by Bernhard-Oettel et al. (2005), we found only weak and overall nonsignificant associations between employment contract and well-being. Thus, our findings did not support the suggestion that different alternative employment contracts imply different stressors, which associate with poor well-being. Contract type was associated with organizational attitudes: on-call workers reported lower organizational commitment than the other groups, and all three alternative groups reported lower intentions to quit than permanent workers. Perhaps the relevance of existing employment theories may be questioned for alternative employment forms (Connelly & Gallagher, 2004). Except for on-call workers, workers in alternative employment did not differ significantly from permanent full-time workers with respect to organizational commitment, but they all expressed lower turnover intentions. This finding challenges common Human Resource assumptions that building organizational commitment prevents turnover. Apparently, quitting is an option less often considered by individuals in alternative employment contracts, and in the light of this study s finding on well-being, there may not be a need to withdraw from a contract that is not perceived as a threat to one s well-being. In addition, the lower commitment levels may actually signal a strategy to manage uncertainty and stress that otherwise may be induced by building relations before knowing whether this pays off. In a next step, we argued that important aspects of heterogeneity may also stem from the workers contract and job preferences. As the results show, subjective indicators of job and contract preferences displayed a stronger and more consistent relationship with the outcomes than the different types of contracts. This parallels earlier research that underlines the importance of subjective interpretations over objective characteristics of the work situation (Bernhard-Oettel et al., 2005; De Cuyper & De Witte, 2007). In a relative comparison, the results seemed to indicate a particular importance of job compared with contract preferences: job preferences were positively related to general health, life satisfaction, and affective organizational commitment, and negatively to turnover intentions. Contract preferences were positively related to life satisfaction, and negatively to turnover intention, however not to health and organizational commitment. These findings highlighted the importance of job preferences in particular. This

15 Well Being and Attitudes in Alternative Employment 359 urges a thorough investigation when exploring the impact of different kinds of choices across different employment groups (see also Aronsson & Göransson, 1999). Working in the preferred job most likely is congruent with an individual s skills and knowledge, which may induce feelings of mastery that can be seen as a resource to manage strain. It may furthermore strengthen workers attachment to the organization, as it is conceivable that working in a preferred job is in accordance with one s goals and interests, and may therefore easier align with the organization s goals and interests. We continued by investigating interactions to see whether contract preferences, job preferences, and contract types interact in a multiplicative way. The analyses revealed that being in a preferred job and a preferred contract significantly increased life satisfaction, but had no such effect for general health or organizational attitudes. This finding may indicate that being in a preferred job and contract is a situation most congruent to one s goals, which is known to relate to subjective well-being, for which life satisfaction may be a general proxy (Diener, Suh, Lukas, & Smith, 1999). No significant interactions between contract type and contract preferences were found. This result aligned with our earlier speculation that other types of preferences, job preferences in particular, are more important, or that preferences of job and contract should be investigated simultaneously. Indeed, we found that being in a preferred job was more strongly related to commitment and reduced turnover intention in permanent workers as compared with fixed-term workers and on-call contractors, respectively. This result may add to the debate on how being locked-in in a nonpreferred job may have different implications for different contract holders (Aronsson et al., 2000; Aronsson & Göransson, 1999). Unlike earlier studies that focused upon well-being, we demonstrated that the locked-in phenomenon may have organizational costs, as well. Being locked-in in a nonpreferred job is perhaps managed easier by temporary workers, who may see their employment as transitory. It may be particularly stressful for permanent workers, since they may fear disadvantages when giving up seniority and other safe-guards against employment insecurity. With respect to interactions including both types of preferences and contract, we found some indications that workers in alternative employment allocate contract preference a more important role than permanent fulltimers. For example, permanent part-time workers, but not permanent fulltime workers, reported the intention to remain in a nonpreferred job, if it was in the preferred contract. Similarly, our results suggested that health may be better for fixed-term workers in nonpreferred jobs, if they preferred their employment contract. This did not seem to be the case for permanent full-time workers. These findings may reflect an idea of first employment status, then job career : individuals in alternative employment forms strive to enhance their contract status, no matter what job they, for the time being,

16 360 Bernhard-Oettel, De Cuyper, Berntson, and Isaksson perform. Core workers may try to improve the fit to the (aspired) job in accordance with their current career status or ambitions. LIMITATIONS As with all research, there may be limitations to this study. First, the use of cross-sectional data may limit causal interpretation (Tarris & Kompier, 2003), and it may enhance common-method variance (Podsakoff, McKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). Even though our results were in line with theoretical propositions, and partly replicated and extented earlier findings, it appears important to test the assumptions in a longitudinal design. However, the difficulties inherent in the follow-up of the temporary employees in the same organizational and job-related context should be acknowledged. A second limitation of this study related to sample characteristics and generalizability, for example in terms of sector and employment types. However, we sampled different organizations in each sector, which should enhance heterogeneity and generalizability, and we chose contract types that were most representative in Sweden and in other parts of the Western world. In addition, the composition of the alternative workforce in this sample was in line with trends in the Swedish labor market: for example, the larger share of part-time employment in the retail sector reflects the unions striving to shape flexibility with part-time work instead of temporary employment whenever possible. The fact that both types of temporary arrangements expressed lower contract preferences, and that on-call arrangements were related to lower job preferences, aligned with results reported in representative samples from the Labor Survey (see Bernhard-Oettel & Isaksson, 2005). However, further research is needed in other national contexts, other sectors, and other types of alternative employment contracts (e.g., self-employment, subcontracting), to estimate the generalizability of our findings. Third, the interaction effects reported here were small; an observation that is common in field as compared with laboratory studies (for a more profound discussion on little R 2 changes despite significant interaction terms, see McClelland & Judd, 1993). An explanation close at hand in this study is that many terms had to be added to account for the different employment forms, and when testing three-way interactions. In addition, because different alternative employment forms are more or less widespread, sample sizes in the groups differed, which is known to have unfavorable effects for parameter estimation. It has to be noted, however, that significant interaction effects carry important meaning in that they alter the interpretation of main effects, even though they just slightly reduce unexplained variance.

17 Well Being and Attitudes in Alternative Employment 361 CONCLUDING REMARKS Despite these limitations, we believe that the present study contributed to research in the realm of alternative employment in at least three ways. First, we demonstrated that a further distinction among types of alternative contracts versus permanent contracts advances the understanding of employees organizational attitudes. However, it did not explain earlier inconsistent findings concerning well-being. Second, we concluded that psychological mechanisms related to preferences, job preferences in particular, add to the understanding of workers well-being and organizational attitudes. Third, and perhaps most innovative, was our finding that preferences for job and contract, alone or in their interaction, displayed different associations with well-being and attitudes, depending on which type of contract an individual held. More specifically, we found that job preferences tended to be particularly important for permanent workers, whereas for the alternative workforce, contract preferences may be more relevant. REFERENCES Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Aronsson, G., Dallner, M., & Gustafsson, K. (2000). Yrkes- och Arbetsplatsinlåsning. [Being Locked-In in Occupation and Workplace.] Arbete och Hälsa, 5. Aronsson, G., Dallner, M., Lindh, T., & Göransson, S. (2005). Flexible pay but fixed expenses: Personal financial strain among on-call employees. International Journal of Health Services, 35, Aronsson, G., & Göransson, S. (1999). Permanent employment but not in a preferred occupation: Psychological and medical aspects, research implications. Journal of Organisational Health Psychology, 4, Aronsson, G., Gustafsson, K., & Dallner, M. (2002). Work environment and health in different types of temporary jobs. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 11, Beard, K., M., & Edwards, J. R. (1995). Employees at risk: Contingent work and the psychological experiences of contingent workers. In C. L. Cooper & I. T. Robertson (Eds.), Trends in organizational behavior (Vol. 2, pp ). New York: Wiley. Bernhard-Oettel, C., & Isaksson, K. (2005). Work-related well-being and job characteristics among Temps in Sweden. In N. De Cuyper, K. Isaksson, & H. De Witte (Eds.), Employment contracts and well-being among European workers (pp ). Aldershot: Ashgate. Bernhard-Oettel, C., Sverke, M., & De Witte, H. (2005). Comparing three alternative types of employment with permanent full-time work: How do employment contract and perceived job conditions relate to health complaints? Work & Stress, 19, Clinton, M., Guest, D., Budjanovcanin, A., Staynvarts, N., Krausz, M., Bernhard-Oettel, C., et al. (2005). Investigating individual and organizational determinants of the psychological contract: Data collection and analysis. London: King s College.

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