A motivation profile analysis: the case of temporary agency work

With the aim of providing a valuable resource to access the motivations of contingent workers, this chapter is divided in two parts. The first part introduces the basic concepts of the self-determination theory and shows how these principles can be applied to the specific context of temporary agency workers (TAW; a type of contingent employee). It also presents a measure developed by Lopes and Chambel (2014) to assess TAW‟s motivation toward their employment situation. The second part, addresses the study and construction of a TAW motivation profile. The results confirm the validity of the instrument in use (Lopes and Chambel, 2014) and identify five different profiles: the High Involuntary, with the domain of the external motivation; the Low Motivation, with low scores in all of the motivations; the Moderate Involuntary, in which the differences between external, identified, and integrated motivations are much lower than those presented by High Involuntary profile; the Moderate Balance with the majority of motivations being at a moderate level; and the Balance Motivation with all motivations scoring above the mid-scale point. We demonstrate that these profiles relate to individual personal characteristics and TAWs‟ well-being (inside and outside work).