Well-being, dual commitment and job insecurity of Italian agency workers. Some Evidence from a National Study on the Temporary Work Agency Industry

Although the use of agency contracts has become the norm in all public and private organizations, existing studies are mostly cross-sectional in nature, generally comparing behavioral differences between permanent full time workers with the plethora of all contingent workers, making difficult to generalize results. Few empirical investigations have so far studied attitudes and behaviors of agency workers and how the peculiar type of contract influences their work-related attitudes. In particular, there is no consensus about how agency contract affects individual behavioral and psychological variables as affective dual commitment, job insecurity, satisfaction, turnover intention. In order to fill this gap, the main goal of the study we present in this paper is to analyze well-being of Italian temporary and permanent agency workers, according to a perspective that emphasize positive aspects. We aim to understand how workers experience to be agencies, enhancing also critical implications against well-being.