Uncovering and Explaining Variance in the Features and Outcomes of Contingent Work

Abstract

Existing research tends to depict contingent work either as having similar implications for firms and workers in all settings or as varying in its implications depending only on contingent workers' occupation or personal characteristics. In contrast, the author of this paper identifies systematic differences in contingent jobs across organizational contexts that are due to the strategies and practices of management. She uses internal labor market theory and data collected from two comparative case studies, both conducted in 1996–97, to develop four distinct models of how contingent work may be managed. Each of the contingent employment subsystems had distinct practices—related to job definitions, wage rules, and deployment through career ladders—put in place by management in response to technological factors and performance objectives. Each also raised challenges for integrating regular and contingent workers and generated trade-offs for both groups of workers as well as for the firm.