Abstract
Like many healthcare providers, Shepherd's Grace Hospital struggles to appropriately staff their Emergency Room. Electing to follow employment trends, the hospital has engaged with a staffing agency for four traveling nurses. The purpose of this case is to explore the challenges of bringing contingent workers into an organization and how these short-term employees are viewed by the others more permanently embedded in the organization and the community. Also of importance is how social and psychological capital develop within an organization and how these roles can conflict when translated into a leadership role. This case follows four days of events for a traveling nurse, a traditional nurse, the Director of Nursing Services, the Director of Human Resources at the fictional Shepherd's Grace Hospital in the real city of Little Rock, AR. Upon conclusion, readers are asked to analyze the actions of these four characters along with the interactions of their circumstances (personal, professional, and geographic) to make decisions for how the hospital should move forward.
TopBackground
Temporary or day laborers have been used for centuries. Historically, employment carried with it no guarantee of continuance and workers, who were not in some type of indentured or forced service, had no expectation of any type of job stability. This changed in the late eighteenth century with the legal interpretations of British Judge William Blackstone, who offered that unless otherwise stated at the beginning of employment, one could expect that positions should last for one year (Blackstone, 1893). These interpretations were later used to create the idea of “employment at will” where in both parties agreed at the onset that either could terminate the contract of employment at any time (Summers, 1983). Today, the idea of at-will employment is seen as the counterpoint for right-to-work employment, in which employees have the ability to leave a position “at-will” but employers can also end the worker’s employment at any time without reason or notice, under legal regulations. These legal regulations, which are meant to protect employees from unlawful termination, have been credited for the pronounced rise (an estimated 15%) that was seen in contingent workers during the mid to late twentieth century (Miles, 2000).
The modern view of contingency in the United States can be found in the mid-nineteenth century where a shortage of labor within the mining and railroad industries sparked the creation of a contract labor system designed to attract cheap labor, primarily from immigrants (Clouatre, 2020). By definition, a contingent worker is one who does not have an “implicit or explicit contract for ongoing employment” (“Contingent”, 2018). Contingent workers can be subdivided into three categories: 1) temporary help, those sent by an agency to fill a temporary need; 2) direct hire, those hired in house to fill seasonal or occasional work, and 3) independent contractors, those hired by an organization to complete a specific task (Bauer, Truxillo, Mansfield, & Erdogan, 2012). Today, it is estimated that 20% of the American workforce is contingent, with that number expected to rise to 50% by 2030 (Noguchi, 2018).
For Contingent Workers
Benefits
While the nature of many jobs might seem a natural fit to contingency design, the rise in the number of contingency positions indicates potential benefits to those using their skills in such capacity. For the contingent worker comes primarily the ability to choose how and when they will work (Independent Contractors, 2020). Women, especially those with specialized skills, benefit from contingent situations in that they have more control over their working conditions and work/life balance than do their traditional counterparts (Albert & Bradley, 1998). Overall, contract employment has been shown to allow for higher levels of life satisfaction (Green, Kler, & Leeves, 2010) and lower levels of role conflict and job conflict (Parker, Griffin, Sprigg, & Wall, 2002).
Drawbacks
Unexpected downsides of a contingent lifestyle are potentially found in one’s personal rather than professional life. While there are the previously mentioned benefits for women in balancing career and family, a study by De la Rica and Iza (2005) found that contingent employment was a barrier to women in deciding to have a child. The same study found that men in contingent employment are more likely to delay marriage than their traditional employment counterparts, a finding echoed by Ahituv and Lerman (2005) who found that job instability among men led to lower probabilities to marry or remain married than those in stable positions.
While higher levels of life satisfaction are seen for contingent workers, these same individuals tend to exhibit lower levels of job satisfaction (Green, Kler, & Leeves, 2010) with the job satisfaction being correlated to the length of the contingent position (De Graaf-Zijl, 2005). As over half of all contract workers work without benefits (Noguchi, 2018), having to manage their own administrative tasks such as payment of taxes and procurement of insurance can lead to increased stress and contribute to lower job satisfaction for the contingent worker.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Contingent Worker: Highly qualified, non-permanent member of the workforce who is hired to complete specific tasks under a statement of work order. Contingent workers are sometimes called freelancer, independent contractors, consultants, or outsourced team members. The meaning of contingent work as evolved from being one who is simply hired for a specific short term or unskilled task.
Traveling Nurse: A travel nurse is a fully qualified and credentialed registered nurse who is hired by a hospital or clinic on a contract basis to fill staffing needs.
Organizational Commitment Theory: Theory which explores the manner in which an individual or collection of individuals identify with the goals of an organization along with the manner in which these constituents hold loyalty toward the organization.
Temp Agency: Organizations which specialize in finding positions for those looking for a temporary work arrangement who also work with other organizations to fill temporary employment vacancies.
Psychological Capital Theory: Theory focusing on the positive psychological state and development of an individual, including elements of self-efficacy, confidence, optimism, perseverance, and resilience.
Critical Human Resource Theory: Theory which promotes structural changes within organizations as to challenge the relationships of power in an effort to bring pluralism, empowerment, and equity.
Social Exchange Theory: Theory which concerns the interaction between two interested parties working together to achieve a goal they could not achieve separately, through a series of actions which generate obligations, both tangible and intangible.
Functional Structure: A type of organizational structure which organizes departments around a specific function or area of expertise. This type of structure is characterized by clear lines of reporting and authority and creates challenges when trying to integrate work with other departments.
Place Attachment Theory: Theory addressing the long-term bond one has with a particular area along with the meanings attached to that bond.
Work-Life Balance Theory: Theory which explores the balance between the work and non-work aspects of an individual’s life, usually in which one side (typically work) needs to be restricted in order to have more time for the other (typically life).