Abstract
Driven by needs for flexibility and cost efficiency organizations frequently use contingent workforces for skilled jobs and longer periods, but do not seem to invest as much in their socialization as in core workers. This may explain why contingent workers often show poor work attitudes and behaviors and could be caused by a strictly distinctive allocation of resources in terms of Lepak and Snell’s Human Resource Architecture theory. Since especially organizational socialization has been found to be crucial for positive initial work attitudes and behaviors of newcomers the present study highlights the role of employment characteristics as potential antecedents for both, the use of socialization tactics and the proactivity of newcomers by comparing these variables in the skilled core and contingent workforce. Using data of 359 newly hired contingent and core workers results show that even in skilled jobs organizations seem to apply socialization tactics depending on type of work contract. Though a temporary-to-permanent-employment had no impact on the behavior of both the organization and the individual in the socialization process, the duration of work contract showed significant relationships to proactive information seeking. Further, this form of newcomer proactivity was significantly associated with a structured onboarding. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Published Version
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