New publication by S. Imhof and Prof. Dr. M. Andresen on subjective well-being of German temporary agency workers

Susanne Imhof and Prof. Dr. Maike Andresen recently published a study based on the specific relationship between temporary agency workers and their employing temporary work agencies in Germany that is characterized – in contrast to other European countries – by agencies’ central role in employment and the prevalence of permanent contracts. The study addresses a research gap in understanding the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS) provided by temporary work agencies in the relationship between employment-specific antecedents and temporary agency workers’ subjective well-being (SWB). Based on a sample of 350 temporary agency workers in Germany, the mediating role of POS provided by agencies is analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings show that procedural justice, performance feedback and social network availability positively relate to POS while perceived job insecurity shows the expected negative influence and distributive justice has no impact on POS. POS, in turn, positively relates to SWB. The partially mediating effect of POS between employment-specific antecedents and SWB is also confirmed. The results highlight the importance of agencies creating POS and reducing perceived job insecurity for improving temporary agency workers’ SWB. Thus, the study contributes to previous POS research by focusing on the agencies’ role and by showing the mediating effect of POS on temporary agency workers’ SWB in Germany. The study was published in the scientific journal The International Journal of Human Resource Managementand is availablehere.

Imhof, S., & Andresen, M. (2017). German temporary agency workers’ SWB: the impact of POS provided by agencies, Employee Relations: The International Journal

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-08-2016-0162