1. Maria José Chambel, Mafalda Espada & Filipa Sobral Leuven,October 27 th, 2011 Interdisciplinary conference: “External forms of flexibility in the labour market: competition or complementarity” *This paper was submitted at the Human Resource Management Journal.

2. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications Temporary agency workers increased all around the world in recent years. In Portugal it doubled from 1998 to 2008 and it penetration rates increased from 0.6% to 0.9% (CIETT, 2010). TEMPORARY AGENCY WORK Employment Incertitude  Workers that have a temporary contract do not know how long they will be employed or how long will they work in the organization where they are at the moment.  Thus, employability, especially when linked to training, has been pointed as an alternative to security of tenure, that is viewed as a crucial step towards improving access to employment.

3. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications Traditionally Organizations may invest in employee development, like training, to guarantee their employability and in exchange employees will respond with positive answers (Galunic& Anderson, 2000). Organizations exchange security of long- term employment with employees’ positive attitudes and behaviors. In the context of Temporary Agency Work

4. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications Employability External employability Workers’ perception of their potential to apply for available job opportunities within another organization. Internal employability Workers’ perception of their potential to apply for available job opportunities within the current client organization.

5. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications Employability Studies have highlighted that organizational actions that promote employability entail a social exchange relationship with temporary workers (Chambel & Sobral, 2011). Other important focus of research into workers’ employability is related with its significance on the assurance of workers’ well-being (Berntson & Marklund, 2007). Employability Social exchange relationship Workers’ well-being Our study was designed and built by integrating these two lines of research.

6. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications The objective of this research is to investigate whether the perceptions of temporary workers about training plays a crucial role in explaining their affective commitment regarding the organization and their exhaustion at work. In particular, the perception that training promotes their internal or external employability is expected to affect their exchange relationship with the client organization. Benson (2006) showed that development actions that promote internal employability and those that promote external employability had different effects on employment exchange relationship. However, Benson’s research was developed with employees that had a permanent contract. We believe that for temporary workers the necessity of employment in the future is a fundamental need (De Cuyper & De Witte, 2008), so we can considerer that both actions (promoting internal or external employability) relates with their affective commitment toward the client organization.

7. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications Training for external employability Exhaustion Affectivecommitm ent H4 H2 Training for internal employability H1 H3 H5 H6 H1: Perceived training as promoted internal employability is positively related to temporary workers’ affective commitment. H2: Perceived training as promoted external employability is positively related to temporary workers’ affective commitment. H3: Perceived training as promoted internal employability is negatively related to temporary workers’ exhaustion. H4: Perceived training as promoted external employability is negatively related to temporary workers’ exhaustion. H5: Exhaustion will partially mediate the relationship between perceived training as promoted internal employability and temporary workers’ affective commitment. H6: Exhaustion will partially mediate the relationship between perceived training as promoted external employability and temporary workers’ affective commitment.

8. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications SAMPLE 425 blue-collar temporary agency workers from four Portuguese industries; Temporary workers hired to face of market fluctuations; Temporary workers with similar tasks, management requirements and work conditions, namely training, than permanent workers; Men: 53.9%; Woman:45.6%; Younger than 30 years: 57.1%; Between 31 and 40 years: 22.2%; Older than 40 years: 20.7%; Our sample represented 87.1% of temporary agency workers’ population in these organizations.

9. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications MESURES Training as promoted employability: 3 items to assess external employability (α=.82) and 3 to assess internal employability (α=.71 ); Affective commitment: 6 items (Meyer, Allen & Smith, 1993) already used in another study (Chambel & Sobral, 2011) - α=.82; Exhaustion: Portuguese version of the Exhaustion scale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey (Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach & Jackson, 1996) used in another study (Castanheira & Chambel, 2010) - α=.86; Control variables: voluntariness (- α=.73), age and gender.

10. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications Modelsχ 2 Δχ 2 SRMRTLICFIRMSEA Model1 (Partialme diation) χ 2 (152) = 475.51 0.060.92 0.07 Model2 (Total mediation) χ 2 (154) = 509.81 Compare to Model 1 Δχ 2 (2) = 34.3** 0.070.91 0.07 Structural Equation Modeling Note: ** p<. 01.

11. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications Training for external employability Exhaustion Affectivecommitm ent H4 (0.10 n.s.) H2 (-0.14*) Training for internal employability H1 (0.44***) H3 (- 0.47***) H5 (Z= -2.8**) H6 - 0.33** Note: * p<.05; ** p<.01; ***; p< 00. n.s.: non significant.

12. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResults Conclusions Limitations Pratical Implications The perception of training that promoted internal employability entails a social exchange relationship of temporary workers, in which they answer to that positive action with their affective commitment. The temporary workers who considered that organization invests more in training that promote internal employability also were those with lower exhaustion. Our findings suggest that temporary workers’ exhaustion is a mechanism that contributes to explain this social exchange. The perception of training providing external employability does not relate with affective commitment. Perceptions related to training as a promoter of employment opportunities in another organization can be related with commitment toward the agency (?). Training wich promotes external employability is not an organizational practice that contributes to lower stress of temporary workers. Training that promotes external employability does not contribute with skills and competences useful in actual functions and may not relate with temporary workers strain.

13. Subject-MatterHypothesesMethodResultsConclusionsLimitations Pratical Implications Multiple measurements over time of exhaustion and organizational commitment would have provided a more accurate picture of the effects of training perceptions. There are potential limitations to the generalization of the findings due to the particularities of the relationship between these companies and their temporary agency workers. All variables were measured with self-reported survey measure. It was only analyzed the affective commitment toward client organizations and it was not included the liaison with the agency. Ideas for future research... … verify the relationship of training with both liaisons of temporary workers: agency and client organization. … verify if there is a relationship between knowledge acquisitions and insecurity to explaining temporary workers’ strain. … replicate this research but with a sample where temporary workers are treated differently from permanent workers, namely in training opportunities.

14.  Training could have either a positive or a negative relationship with commitment and exhaustion, depending on the nature of perceptions about training actions and whether temporary workers considered that actions as internal or external employability promoters.  Is a good option to invest in initial and ongoing training programs designed to equip temporary workers with the skills and knowledge they need to conduct their jobs and improve their performance.  Invest in human resources, whatever the link between them and the company, contributes to an effective employment relationship and this is vital to organizational effectiveness as it relates with a critical attitude, namely workers’ affective commitment. Subject- Matter HypothesesMethodResults Conclusions Limitations Pratical Implications

15. Maria José Chambel, Mafalda Espada & Filipa Sobral filipa.sobral@fp.ul.pt *This paper was submitted at the Human Resource Management Journal.