Independent contracting: finding a balance between flexibility and individual well-being

Abstract

In recent years there has been a well-documented international trend involving the gradual restructuring of employment contracts away from the standard or traditional ongoing employer–employee relationship and more toward increasing organizational reliance on contractual work arrangements which are more contingent, precarious, or fixed-term in nature (Connelly and Gallagher, 2004; Kalleberg, Reynolds, and Marsden, 2003; Mauno, Kinnunen, Mäkikangas, and Nätti, 2005; Quinlan and Bohle, 2004; Silla, Gracia, and Peiró, 2005). This is not to suggest that the “standard” employment deal of the twentieth century is in immediate danger of extinction. However, there does appear to be a growing strategic interest by contemporary organizations in hiring workers on a contingent basis as a means of making labor itself more of a “variable” rather than a relatively “fixed” operating cost. Such an interest in fixed-term contracts also appears to fit well in the context of rising organizational focus on flexibility in the production of goods and services within many post-industrial nations (Handy, 1989; Piore and Sabel, 1984; Reilly, 1998). For many people, contingent or fixed-term contracts are often seen as being synonymous with organizational reliance upon the services of temporary-help staffing firms (e.g. Adecco, Manpower, Randstad, etc.) to provide workers on an “ad hoc” basis. Traditionally the temporary-help staffing industry in Europe and North America has served as an efficient market mechanism for providing employers with clerical and manual laborers to serve the purpose of replacing absent permanent staff (e.g. holiday coverage, illness, etc.

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