Exploring Stress and Gender Diversity in Temporary Agency

Working: A Mixed Method Design.

The “Temp” Workforce

• An ‘alternative’ or ‘non-standard’ way of working

• Stigmatisation?• Little existing research in UK• Much more research in Scandinavian

countries and in USA• Focus on detrimental job characteristics• Research gap

• The Preliminary Study

Well-being and Health at Work

• Important factor for both organisational and individual outcomes

• Many different manifestations: physical, psychological.

• Concept of ‘well-being’ related to a number of factors – psychological health, satisfaction etc

Health and the Temporary Workforce

• Existing research is split between two arguments

• Isaksson and Bellagh (2002) – health of temps related to their perceptions about the job. Few benefits = worse psychological health

• Benevides et al (2000) – temps have fewer health problems as escape the stress of organisational politics

Health continued…

• Many different workplace characteristics shown to impact upon health of temporary workers

• Length of contract (Aronsson et al, 2000)

• Contract Preference (Ellingson et al, 1998; Isaksson and Bellagh, 2002)

• Efforts vs. Rewards (Siegrist, 1998)

The Gender Issue

• Temps mainly female• More males undertaking stereotypically

female roles as a result of down-sizing etc• How do male and female temps’ experiences

of temporary work differ? Does this impact on health?

• How do temporary workers’ experiences relate to gender diversity theory?

The Gender Dichotomy

• Do males or females fare better in temporary employment?

• Cockburn (1985) – men working in women’s roles undergo negative perceptions and experiences

• Hicks-Clarke and Iles (2003) – male self belief mean they will have more opportunities to advance and have more positive experiences

Methodology

• Aim – to investigate the impact of job characteristics on male and female temporary workers’ experiences and assess the link to psychological health.

• Structured Questionnaire Methodology: demographics, job characteristics, health.

Participants

• Recruited from employment agencies

• Questionnaire sent by post to temps’ home address

• Anonymous and confidential

• Sent to 286 temporary workers

• Response rate 36%, n=103.

Results

• GHQ Total for whole sample – above threshold for norms suggestive of psychological disturbance.

• Females scored higher than males (statistically significant).

• Satisfaction with certain job characteristics differed dependent upon gender (learning, perceived org support, job security).

• Hierarchical multiple regression for whole sample found that job characteristics that affected health were: job security, pay satisfaction and learning.

• Female temps = perceived organisational support was an important predictor of health.

Model of Findings

•Less satisfaction and treatment from others

•Less Organisational Support

•Less satisfied with Job Security

•More training

•More Learning

Temporary Workers

•More satisfaction andTreatment from others

•More Organisational Support

•More Satisfied with Job Security

•Less Training

•Less Learning

Discussion

• Temporary work appears to have a negative impact on psychological health

• This relates to a number of important job characteristics. Poor benefits = reduced psychological health.

• Preliminary findings suggest gender differences in predictors of health in relation to work

• The Research Proper

The PhD Study

• 3 stage sequential mixed methodology

• Aims = to greater explore the challenges faced by male and female temps

• Issue of Occupational Stress = broaden from wellbeing/ghq.

Theoretical Frameworks

• Diversity as a Theoretical Framework1: stats to suggest certain individuals are clustered into this way of working, often involuntarily (young, women, ethnic minorities – TUC, 2006).

• Occupational Stress as a Theoretical Framework2: Many of the individual characteristics addressed by existing research have links to theories in organisational stress (Cooper and Cartwright, 2001; Sulsky and Smith, 2007), yet it appears no research has addressed the full picture of stress for the temporary clerical agency workforce.

TEMPORARY WORKERS

TEMPORARY WORKERS

Stress

Gender Diversity

Male and female temps.Inequality/statistical/demographic information

Differences in Opportunities for Career progression

Related to lack of benefits

Individual and Organisational outcomes

Indicator of Psychological Health

Poor satisfaction

Poor Job Security

Few Opportunities for

Career Progression

Other lack of benefits

The research aims are:“to explore the stressors experienced by the temporary workforce and investigate gender diversity as a factor in increasing or decreasing stressors and stress outcomes for male and female temporary workers”

The Subject Group: The Temporary Clerical Agency Workforce

Theoretical Framework 2:

Gender Diversity Theory

Theoretical Framework 1:Occupational

Stress

Research Output: An understanding of the stress

experiences for male and female temporary clerical agency workers

Research MethodologyStage 1: Qualitative pilot interviews and interviews proper (n =50)

Rationale: exploring the experiences of stress and identifying any potential stressors experienced in temporary clerical agency work. Exploring any gender diversity issues as identified in the pilot study and any further issues relating to gender diversity.

Stage 2: Longitudinal qualitative case study inquiry (audio diaries case study) (n =6)

Rationale: elaborating on the exploration of phenomena unearthed in stage one by following six temporary workers for a duration of four weeks. This will give a much more detailed picture of the intricacies of this type of employment and help to understand if and how stress occurs. This stage of the data collection aims to capture a number of other prominent stressors that may not be unearthed by a singular interview technique.

Stage 3: Large Scale Quantitative Questionnaire Study (n =227)

Rationale: using a stress questionnaire (ASSET) and developing further questions deriving from the research stages 1 and 2. This stage of the research seeks to validate the findings in stages 1 and 2 by administering the questionnaire on a large sample of temporary workers (n=227).

Stage One: Qualitative Interviews

• Empirical Standpoint: exploratory, unearthing experiences, exploring possible stressors and complexities

• Semi-structured qualitative interviews. Questions constructed from review of literature and previous study.

• Sample size n = 50 temp workers within an office environment ( male = 25, female = 25)

• Sourced through a number of avenues: 4 host organisations, 1 recruitment agency.

• Working in a number of different industry sectors, both public and private.

Stage One: Qualitative Interviews

• Other information: 10 item likert scale questions for preliminary quantitative info based on areas of lit review.

Results

• Male and female temporary workers face a number of challenges

• Much dissatisfaction with working as temporary workers

• Evidence that this does impact on psychological health and stress outcomes

• A number of pertinent stressors emerge from the qualitative data.

Emergent Themes

• 1) Harassment/Bullying

• 2) Lack of Variety in Workload

• 3) No opportunities for progression

• 4) Financial Pressures, often have to take on another job

• 5) Poor relationship with recruitment agency staff

• 6) Not listened to/appreciated

Linking to Stress: The Evidence

Financial Responsibilities

• “At one point I had two jobs, this one and a night job in the pub, just so I could pay the rent. I never knew when this one could end so I had to have something else more secure aswell. It was awful, I was a monster as I was so tired and just snapped at everyone the whole time”

Linking to Stress: The Evidence

Workload Issues and Treatment from Others

• “I am constantly feeling stressed, angry and frustrated. I am given nothing interesting to do and no one cares about me at work. Its as though this is how I should be treated because I’m temporary. Its like a secret code: as soon as people realise I’m a temp they stop making an effort to talk to me”

Linking to Stress: The Evidence

Relationship with Agency

• “I didn’t have a ‘employee-employer’ relationship with the recruitment agency. It was more like a ‘customer – sales’ relationship. I was the service they used to make money for themselves”

Linking to Stress: The Evidence

Harassment

• “ It was just banter really, but looking at your definition [of sexual harassment] I suppose some of those things might be true. No one meant it though, it was a laugh for them and I knew it was a joke…but I still felt uncomfortable”

Individual Factors 1• Evidence that individual factors play an

important role in how experiences affect stress and well-being, possibly related to personality traits;

“As far as I’m concerned I know I’m here to do a boring job, and that’s fine by me. It’s what I was expecting”

Compared to“I knew this job was going to be awful but I

wasn’t prepared for how annoyed and stressed it would make me and how much I wish I could find something – anything – else.”

Results Stage 2: Longitudinal Audio Diaries

• The sampling framework using age and gender as a way of selecting a wide variety of circumstances was useful

• Results highlighted a number of pertinent issues linked to stress that were not uncovered in the interviews

• Namely: periods of unemployment/gaps between assignment, ongoing communication difficulties about assignment length, the temp as a ‘secret-keeper’, the difficulty in seeking other work whilst employed as a temp.

Results Stage 2: Longitudinal Audio Diaries

• Analysed in idiographic case study format

• Data = rich and detailed• Challenging to summarise• 2 main themes from findings =A) Emergence of ‘new’ stressorsB) Emergence of complexities between

demographic criteria and experiences

Learning Outcomes – Methodology and Theory

• Stress within the clerical temporary workforce appears to be extremely complex. Associated gender differences are difficult to quantify from such enquiry, although they appear to exist.

• Qualitative data appears to unearth some of these complexities and apply a framework

• However, quantitative enquiry needed to help to model and create conclusive theory in this domain.

• Next stage of the research process = large scale quantitative adjusted ASSET questionnaire utilising new items from qualitative results

(N =6) Summary Emergent Stressors?

Participant A

(MALE)

20, White British Male, temping for 6mths. Not within a contract at the beginning of the recording period – In week 2, attains a new temporary role. Using temporary working as a way of gaining experience in different orgs to inform future career decisions.

Unemployment – communication with agency can be problematic, although appeased by living circumstances (with parents). Positive focus on future career. Some difficulties with acceptance, training and discrimination, although minimal.

Participant B

(MALE)

29, Asian Male, temp for 1 year, sales administrator on fairly secure contract (6mths remaining). Married, with one child. Works as a temp as couldn’t find perm work

Range of stressors present, remained fixed through 4 week period, mainly focused around desire for permanent role although enjoys the job itself. Dissatisfied with mismatch between aspirations and employment status. Worried about future employment situation. Frustrated by lack of training and poor relationship with management. Perceived Under-employment.

Participant C

(MALE)

56, white British Male, temp for 3 years, current assignment as clerical officer for 7 weeks, unsure of assignment duration. Entered temporary employment after redundancy three years ago. Married with three children over age of 18.

Great evidence of stress with respect to poor communication and associated uncertainty about assignment length. Pertinent stressor of age discrimination in attaining permanent post. Not accepted by others in Org. Sometimes likes temping nonetheless.

Participant D

(FEMALE)

19, White British Female, temp for 2 months. In current assignment as receptionist for 2 weeks, unsure about expected duration. Engaging in temp working to save for travelling

Little evidence of stress. Only 2 prompts discussed: Dissatisfaction with Workload and Acceptance. Additional stressors of lack of holiday and sick pay discussed.

Participant E

(FEMALE)

23, White British Female, temping for 6 months after completing Law Degree. Temp assignments vary through 4 week period but revolve around legal profession as secretarial posts. Seeking a graduate job, temping until attain one.

Stressors encompass: desire for permanent work, training and learning, being entrusted with secrets, having to carry out short term assignments in roles unrelated to future career aspirations, being taken on by the organisation and released from the employment agency and feeling guilty about still wanting to attain different employment.

Participant F

(FEMALE)

41, White British Female, temp for 17 months, in current assignment for 2 months (part time), reasons for undertaking temporary work: route back into employment after caring for children full time.

Enjoys her role as temporary, feels external to organisational politics and loyalty to org. Speaks positively about most aspects of employment, although encountered difficulty on 2 occasions with respect to leaving work on time – H/W balance.

Research Stage 3: Quantitative Questionnaire• Offer validation to emergent

themes in stages one and two, via large sample size to enable statistical comparison between males and females

• Quantify stressors and stress outcomes as a function of gender

• Asset Questionnaire (Faragher, Cooper and Cartwright, 2004)

Supplementing Asset

• Additional scales/items derived from emergent themes from qualitative stages:

• Adjustment• Overqualification/Under-employment• Perceived Organisational Support• Sexual Harassment• Bullying• Discrimination• Contract Preference• Relationship with Agency• Secret Keeping• Conflict with Other Employment Seeking

Questionnaire: Core Findings

• Stressors = high exposure on all Asset subscales, apart from work-life balance

• Distinct gender differences apparent• Surprisingly, good psychological and

physical health• Commitment (from ind to org, and org

to ind) perceived as very low• Intentions to quit high

Confirmed Gender Differences

Stressors where males have higher exposure

Work RelationshipsOverloadJob SecurityAdjustmentBullyingSexual HarassmentStress Experience

Stressors where females have higher exposure.

Work-life BalanceAspects of the Job

Modelling Relationships between Stressors and Stress Outcomes

  Significant Predictors for the Whole Sample

Significant Predictors for Males

Significant Predictors for Females

Test Set1: Predicting Physical Health

None None DiscriminationSexual HarassmentPay and BenefitsAssignment Duration Expectations

Test Set 2: Predicting Psychological Health

Intentions to QuitAgency EffortMartial StatusAssignment Duration Expectations

None Intentions to Quit 

 

Test Set 3: Predicting Individual Commitment

Job SecurityPay and Benefits Contract Preference

Stress ExperienceJob SecurityPerceived Overqualification/ UnderemploymentNumber of Children

Job SecurityPerceived Overqualification/ Underemployment

Test Set 4: Predicting Perceived Organisational Commitment

Job SecurityPay and BenefitsSecret Keeping

Perceived Overqualification/ UnderemploymentWork-life Balance 

 

ControlAspects of the JobPay and Benefits 

Test Set 5: Predicting Intention to Quit

Gender DiscriminationIndividual Commitment 

None DiscriminationGender DiscriminationPerceived Organisational Support

Discussion

• Exposure to stressors high in temps• Male temps fare worse re exposure to

stressors• Serious negative impacts on commitment

and intentions to quit• Health positive = appraisal/coping strategy• Individual differences = person-environment

fit (Cooper and Edwards, 1996)• Core implications for individuals,

employment agencies and organisations

Best Practice

• Appropriate selection re- matching• Culture that is accepting and value

organisational importance of temps• Induction procedures• Training for managers and

employment agencies• Managing diversity and challenging

stereotypes and stigma

Further Research

• Development of stress audit tool for alternative forms of working

• Development of selection tools and training aids

• Evaluation of interventions• Address other forms of temporary

working

Any Questions?