Temporary Employment and Perceived Employability: Mediation by Impression Management

Abstract

Perceived employability (PE) has been advanced as the upcoming resource for career development, particularly for temporary workers. The question is how temporary workers become employable. Our hypothesis is that temporary workers more than permanent workers use impression management to become employable, both on the internal and the external labor market. This hypothesis was tested with a sample of 371 Belgian temporary and permanent workers from the educational sector and using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results suggest that (a) temporary workers were more likely than permanent workers to use impression management; (b) impression management related positively to the worker’s perception of being employable, both on the internal and the external labor market, which; (c) in turn, related to the perception of availability of better job opportunities. That is to say, impression management is an important mechanism available to temporary workers to first secure their labor market position and then for career advancement.