Influences of new employee development practices on temporary employee work‐related attitudes

Abstract

AbstractThe need to make organizations more flexible and thus more responsive to environmental change has led to many organizations using a flexible workforce that includes temporary employees. The article's purpose was to examine relationships between new employee development (NED) practices that promote organizational socialization and temporary employee attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention). We developed and empirically tested two models depicting the influence of the dual nature of NED practices on employee attitudes in a temporary agency employing workers at many U.S. sites. Results supported nearly all hypothesized relationships. Concerning the client organization, we found positive relationships between NED practices and job satisfaction and organizational commitment and a negative relationship between NED practices and turnover intention. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment partially mediated the NED practices and turnover intention relationship. Similar results were found for relationships between NED practices and employee attitudes in relation to the temporary agency. Implications of these findings are discussed.