IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nms/mamere/doi_10.1688-1861-9908_mrev_2009_1_duetschke.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Flexible Employment as a Unidirectional Career? Results from Field Experiments

Author

Listed:
  • Elisabeth Duetschke
  • Sabine Boerner

Abstract

Although the number of flexible workers is constantly growing, little is known about career paths built up on flexible employment. In this article, we investigate the chances of former flexible workers to be employed in a permanent full-time position. In two field experiments, we asked for employers’ evaluation of applicants with a flexible employment history. Results indicate that former part-time work is in fact perceived as a disadvantage for candidates when applying for a permanent full-time position while other types of flexible work (e.g., fixed term contracts, part-time work, and interorganizational mobility) are not. Implications of these results for individual careers and employers’ understanding of personnel are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisabeth Duetschke & Sabine Boerner, 2009. "Flexible Employment as a Unidirectional Career? Results from Field Experiments," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 20(1), pages 15-33.
  • Handle: RePEc:nms:mamere:doi_10.1688/1861-9908_mrev_2009_1_duetschke
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0935-9915-2009-1-15
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    2. Burkert, Carola & Seibert, Holger, 2007. "Labour market outcomes after vocational training in Germany : equal opportunities for migrants and natives?," IAB-Discussion Paper 200731, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    3. Brewster, Chris & Mayne, Lesley & Tregaskis, Olga, 1997. "Flexible working in Europe," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 133-151, July.
    4. Oliver Heil & Thomas S. Robertson, 1991. "Toward a theory of competitive market signaling: A research agenda," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(6), pages 403-418, September.
    5. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. De Castro, Julio O. & Balkin, David B. & Shepherd, Dean A., 2008. "Can entrepreneurial firms benefit from product piracy?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 75-90, January.
    2. Stevens, Charles E. & Makarius, Erin E. & Mukherjee, Debmalya, 2015. "It Takes Two to Tango: Signaling Behavioral Intent in Service Multinationals' Foreign Entry Strategies," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 235-248.
    3. Ferdinand Thies & Sören Wallbach & Michael Wessel & Markus Besler & Alexander Benlian, 2022. "Initial coin offerings and the cryptocurrency hype - the moderating role of exogenous and endogenous signals," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1691-1705, September.
    4. Rod Mccoll & Yann Truong & Antonella La Rocca, 2019. "Service guarantees as a base for positioning in B2B," Post-Print hal-02326105, HAL.
    5. Nakabayashi, Masaki, 2011. "Schooling, employer learning, and internal labor market effect: Wage dynamics and human capital investment in the Japanese steel industry, 1930-1960s," MPRA Paper 30597, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Shih‐Chu Chou & Zhe‐An Li & Tawei Wang & Ju‐Chun Yen, 2023. "How the quality of initial coin offering white papers influences fundraising: Using security token offerings white papers as a benchmark," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 3-18, January.
    7. Jascha-Alexander Koch & Michael Siering, 2019. "The recipe of successful crowdfunding campaigns," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 29(4), pages 661-679, December.
    8. Gnekpe, Christian & Jimenez, Alfredo, 2023. "Smoke signal: When firms' patent strategy and local patent protection system affect equity stakes in cross-border acquisitions," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(6).
    9. Trevon D. Logan & Manisha Shah, 2013. "Face Value: Information and Signaling in an Illegal Market," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(3), pages 529-564, January.
    10. Danny Zhao‐Xiang Huang, 2022. "An integrated theory of the firm approach to environmental, social and governance performance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1567-1598, April.
    11. Naiditch, Claire & Vranceanu, Radu, 2011. "Remittances as a social status signaling device," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 305-318, December.
    12. Fatima, Samar & Desouza, Kevin C. & Denford, James S. & Dawson, Gregory S., 2021. "What explains governments interest in artificial intelligence? A signaling theory approach," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 238-254.
    13. Besancenot, Damien & Faria, Joao Ricardo & Vranceanu, Radu, 2009. "Why business schools do so much research: A signaling explanation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 1093-1101, September.
    14. Mensi, Walid & Shafiullah, Muhammad & Vo, Xuan Vinh & Kang, Sang Hoon, 2022. "Asymmetric spillovers and connectedness between crude oil and currency markets using high-frequency data," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Ciro D. Esposito & Balazs Szatmari & Jonathan M. C. Sitruk & Nachoem M. Wijnberg, 2024. "Getting off to a good start: emerging academic fields and early-stage equity financing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 1591-1613, April.
    16. Narcyz Roztocki & Heinz Roland Weistroffer, 2015. "Investments in enterprise integration technology: An event study," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 659-672, June.
    17. M. Lahandi Baskoro & Benny Tjahjono & Macarena Beltran & Anna Bogush & Yichuan Wang, 2024. "The imperative of communication signals in boosting business strategies of the bioplastic packaging industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 307-334, February.
    18. Lamotte, Olivier & Chalençon, Ludivine & Mayrhofer, Ulrike & Colovic, Ana, 2021. "Intangible resources and cross-border acquisition decisions: The impact of reputation and the moderating effect of experiential knowledge," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 297-310.
    19. Claude Diebolt, 2016. "Modelling Education Dynamics with Cliometrics Foundations," Working Papers 01-16, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC).
    20. Naiditch, Claire & Vranceanu, Radu, 2009. "Migrant wages, remittances and recipient labour supply in a moral hazard model," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 60-82, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    flexible employment; standard employment; contemporary careers; evaluation of CVs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nms:mamere:doi_10.1688/1861-9908_mrev_2009_1_duetschke. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nomos.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.