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How Do Employers Choose between Types of Contingent Work? Costs, Control, and Institutional Toying

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  • Chiara Benassi
  • Andreas Kornelakis

Abstract

The increasing variety of contingent work raises the question of how employers choose between various types of contractual arrangements. The authors review relevant Employment Relations and Strategic HRM literature and distinguish four types of contingent contracts along the dimensions of costs and control. They argue that employers are making choices based on cost and control constraints but are able to reshape these constraints through “institutional toying.†Their case study of a German manufacturing plant and R&D center illustrates the mechanisms of institutional toying, which are consistent with the literature on institutional loopholes and exit options. The article develops propositions that explain the diversity of contingent work arrangements and show how toying strategies enlarge the range of options available to employers.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiara Benassi & Andreas Kornelakis, 2021. "How Do Employers Choose between Types of Contingent Work? Costs, Control, and Institutional Toying," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(3), pages 715-738, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:74:y:2021:i:3:p:715-738
    DOI: 10.1177/0019793920944910
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    1. Virginia Doellgast & Matthew Bidwell & Alexander J. S. Colvin, 2021. "New Directions in Employment Relations Theory: Understanding Fragmentation, Identity, and Legitimacy," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(3), pages 555-579, May.
    2. Dongwoo Park, 2023. "Lopsided inclusion: The impact of multi‐employer bargaining and class‐based unionism on non‐regular employment in South Korea," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(1), pages 110-132, March.
    3. Maxime Bellego & Virginia Doellgast & Elisa Pannini, 2023. "From Taylorism to teams: organisational and institutional experimentation at France Télécom," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(3), pages 355-370, August.

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