Corporate Social Responsibility in Temporary Agency Work: A Study of Restaurant Work in Finland

Abstract

Ever expanding use of temporary agency work (TAW) easily attracts irresponsible actors on the business field in the hopes of making big profits and many narratives frame the emergence of contingent agency work as a positive evolution for employers and workers alike. The purpose of this study is to examine corporate social responsibility (CSR) in temporary agency work (TAW) in a small restaurant context to consider what kinds of challenges and opportunities can be identified from the perspectives of the workers, agencies, and user companies. A directed content analysis method was used on semi-structured interviews collected from restaurant workers, managers, and temporary agency experts, including a pension insurer and a labour union in Finland. To gain a new holistic understanding of this phenomenon, the pressures–disorganization–regulatory failure (PDR) model was used as a research framework. The CSR challenges identified were multifaceted, and conflicting views were common. A wide variety of CSR challenges and evolving strategies were found to avoid TAW regulations.