Public Sector has been hit by the economic downturn and have opted to Dissertation

Public Sector has been hit by the economic downturn and have opted to recruit fixed term or temporary posts rather than recruiti - Dissertation Example Temporary employment is becoming common in Europe and the UK also but its impact on firm performance and productivity has not been studied extensively, state Camerman, Cropanzano, and Vandenberghe. The cost to a company does not merely include the wages and the employee benefits. It should also include the recruitment and selection costs, the costs of training and development, and more importantly the employee contribution towards organizational performance. While it is difficult to measure individual employee contribution towards organizational performance, employee commitment and motivation would, to some extent, impact productivity. The increased use of temporary workers by the public sector has given rise to concerns of employee commitment and consequently the indirect costs associated with temporary or fixed-term workers. 1.2 Rationale for research The public sector employers have a positive outlook on temporary workers, the motivation being that it gives them access to specific skill sets (Woods, 2010). Forty four percent of the public sector employers even site this as essential to the success of their organization. A flexible workforce is essential to allow the businesses to grow. The public sector needs a major transformation and this demands a team of talented professionals to manage change. Skills are required in diverse sectors such as project management, budgetary control, procurement, HR outsourcing and transformation. Flexible workforce appears to be the key to a successful organization. Labour market regulation affects labour productivity growth through its impact on worker motivation and effort. If the wages are below the fair wage perception of the workers, the efforts of employees would be reduced. The higher the wage, the higher will be the effort put in by the employees due to higher cost of job loss (Storm & Naastepad, 2007). A study of 20 OECD countries suggests that regulated labour markets promote long-run labour productivity growth bot h in case of temporary and full-time workers. Regulation raises worker commitment and motivation. Several public sector organizations such as Caerphilly County Borough Council, Cardiff Council, RCT, Torfaen and Merthyr Councils have been employing temporary workers. However, not much of research is available on employee motivation among temporary workers in public sector organizations. It is hence difficult to ascertain to what extent these employees provide competitive advantage. Hence, with the aim to ascertain the strategic decision that public sector organizations should take in staffing and human resources, the research questions for the study are: Are employee commitment and motivation among temporary workers directly related to productivity? To what extent employee motivation and commitment of directly employed temporary workers in public sector organizations differ against the permanent workers? Is it more economical to hire temporary workers against permanent employees taki ng into account the benefits that have to be given to permanent workers in such organizations? 1.3 Definition of terms Temporary workers Temporary workers are employees who are not permanently hired but hired just for limited periods of time (Entrepreneur Media, 2011). They work for a specific purpose for a specified period of time. Motivation Motivation according to Hardre (2003) is an internal process that controls and regulates behavior. It has been defined as a