Managing temporary workers' well-being: The role of resilience and work alienation

Abstract

The well being of temporary workers is still understudied, especially the role of individual resources as promoters of well being. As such, t his paper aims to examine the role of resilience as a resource for enhancing work engagement and reducing burnout of temporary agency workers. Additionally, thi s study tests the mediating role of work alienation. The study follows a quantitative approach. Based on a sample of 2.054 temporary agency workers, a set of hypotheses were tested using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS SEM), usi ng SmartPLS3.0. The results show that resilience is positively related to work engagement and negatively related to burnout. Work alienation plays a mediating role between resilience and burnout and work engagement of temporary agency workers by reducing t he effect of resilience. This study novelty highlights the contribution of resilience as a mechanism to reduce burnout and enhance work engagement, but also about the importance of preventing work alienation. Since resilience can be learned and work aliena tion can be avoided, this study has important implications for human resources management strategies and practices.