Description:
Organizations are now facing the challenges of managing a 'blended workforce', i.e. a workforce consisting of both direct hires and contractors. With the evolution of the use of agency work in the Western world over the past decade, the chapters in this volume show how a focus on the management and organization of temporary agency work can be helpful to see possibilities and pitfalls for the use of temporary employment in the wake of changed employment practices and challenges to labor market stability and welfare structures. Its particular uniqueness lies in the empirical richness and variety of local case studies and the way in which these are related to wider policy aims, ideological shifts, and the dynamics of organizational practice, with a particular focus on the organization and management of 'blended workforces'.
Review Quotes:
'This book is timely and smart. It handles a particularly significant economic/social change, the study of which is still relatively under-developed. I particularly liked the mix of national accounts of new labor institutions with cross-national accounts of the impact of flexible labor in the workplace, especially as it discusses issues of integration and compatibility with "stable" labor forces inside the firms. This poly-focus is a strength, and a novelty with respect to other books in the field.' -Michael Blim, City University of New York