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The purpose of this paper is to examine “black box” links between HRM innovations and organizational performance by investigating the perspective of a workforce often excluded from the HR realm. Professional Independent Contractors (IPros) play a vital role in achieving workforce flexibility and innovation. While the use of such arrangements has been examined often using a compliance-oriented lens, the authors explore the value of adding a commitment aspect.

In total, 375 IPros working in Australian organizations completed an online questionnaire distributed by a national business support services provider.

Results show organizational support significantly predicted work engagement and affective commitment. Self-efficacy, age and gender were also significant predictors.

The cross-sectional nature of this study and reliance on self-reported data limit the reliability of the findings. In addition, the findings may be specific to the Australian labor market.

The study present the views of a difficult to reach population and the findings suggest by adopting an innovative hybrid commitment-compliance HR configuration, practitioners may positively increase desirable contractor outcomes.

Concerns that organizational imperatives for efficiency, quality and high performance will be compromised by considering the human side of non-employee work arrangements are not supported. Indeed, as previously outlined, much of the concern with the employee/non-employee dichotomy is legally based and an artefact of a system of labor law that in many settings has failed to move with the times.

Few investigations of the impact of high commitment HRM practices have incorporated the perspective of professional, non-employees. While IPros are recipients of compliance focused contractor management practices, carefully integrated commitment-based HRM aspects have the potential to deliver positive outcomes for both individuals and organizations.

While educators and students alike are increasingly moving to use on-line technologies, there is still much to be learned about how these tools influence student learning. The purpose of this paper is to present a comparative investigation of the online use of one undergraduate (UG) and two postgraduate (PG) student cohorts undertaking similar “introduction to management” courses.

The authors used the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework to examine student cohorts’ (UG vs PG, with two nuances within PG) use of the same online learning platform.

Students’ acceptance and use of technology increases as the authors move from UG to PG with little to no work experience and were highest for PG students with two years plus work experience. These findings suggest that educators delivery of materials via online learning platforms requires a more nuanced approach than the “one-size fits all” that tends to be adopted.

The study is confined to students undertaking management in the academic rather than vocational area and the authors have limited the study to a quantitative methodology which uses regression analysis.

This current study provides academic practitioners with an insight into some of the challenges facing higher education in managing different student cohorts in ways that provide them all with what is seen as a quality learning experience.

Given the relatively recent development of the UTAUT model, the authors suggest that an important part of its value is in providing comparative UG vs PG views as to the effectiveness of online and technology-assisted learning tools.

The notion of worker vulnerability is often seen as synonymous with disadvantage in discussions of nonstandard work. The purpose of this paper is to separate and examine these two notions by considering economic, social and psychological perspectives and exploring the reality as experienced by agency workers.

In total, 178 Australian clerical agency workers employed by eight agencies completed a mail questionnaire. Personalised responses were subjected to computer-assisted template analysis.

Sample characteristics revealed a gendered and heterogeneous workforce. Findings showed evidence of economic, psychological and social vulnerabilities although favourable features were also reported. This apparent contradiction suggests linkages between the features of nonstandard work, worker preferences, individual characteristics and the experience of worker vulnerability.

The notion of varying degrees of worker vulnerability offers a new lens to investigate agency work. The relatively small sample size, focus on clerical work and features of the Australian context may limit generalisability.

Findings demonstrate the nature and extent of agency worker vulnerability which allows us to offer policy interventions for governments, agencies and user organisations and insights for prospective agency workers.

The widespread use of agency workers provides an imperative for frameworks to assess the nuances of the agency work experience. This study presents the reality of agency work as experienced by the workers and reveals the good and bad aspects of agency work.

This chapter looks at how work on emotions, particularly positive emotional states and perceptions of work, has provided the basis for gleaning new insights and understanding the work the engagement of independent professionals. We present the first set of results of the Entity Solutions11Independent Professional (IPro) is a contemporary term used to describe white collar contractors. IPro Index (ESII), the leading benchmark survey for identifying trends, issues and attitudes of IPros in Australia. Prior research indicates the important role that personality traits such as positive affectivity, self-efficacy and internal locus of control can have in determining a positive emotional state at work. These findings lead to the identification of five key areas of lifestyle (overall job satisfaction), well-being (engagement, psychological and emotional aspects), commitment to current client (workplace), perceived support from current client (workplace) and trends (current issues) which underlie the ESII. We use this research as a foundation for developing further understanding of the emotional experiences of those working outside of the traditional employer–employee relationship and in doing so, focus specifically on four of the key areas: job satisfaction, well-being, commitment and perceived organizational support. The descriptive results are derived from 365 responses gathered in an online survey conducted during June and July 2010 from IPros working in Australian organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between professional contractor (PC) wellbeing and organisational support as one of mutual benefit for both parties.

Four hypotheses were tested via hierarchical regression techniques using survey data gathered from a sample of 375 PCs working in a range of Australian organisations. Content analysis techniques were used to examine PC responses to a related open‐ended question.

The results demonstrate a positive relationship between self‐efficacy, organisational support, work engagement and knowledge sharing with wellbeing. Adding the PCs’ individualised perspectives provides further insight into the value that PCs bring to an organisation.

The study is limited to PCs within Australia and examines PCs rather than professionals generally. The authors limit the analysis approach to regression techniques rather than structural equation modelling.

First, demonstration of the importance of organisational support to PCs is an important finding for organisations in itself. Second, this finding allows us to suggest specific interventions and guidelines for organisations seeking to efficiently engender contractor engagement and knowledge sharing.

The role of contractor management has become important as organisations increasingly rely on outsourced and contracted work arrangements. The authors consider how organisations and PCs can benefit from organisational practices perceived as being supportive. It is important for both organisations and PCs to be able to identify and develop the key factors which shape the contractual exchange prior to, and throughout, contracted work assignments.

The paper seeks to provide perspectives on the job search expectations and job seeking strategies of Australian graduates, including their perceptions of University Careers Centres (UCCs).

A total of 45 new graduates and representatives of five UCCs were interviewed.

Both Australian graduates and UCCs are aware of the misalignment between graduates' high expectations and job search realities, but currently do little to proactively redress it. The study also found major inconsistencies between the viewpoints of graduates and UCCs regarding the usefulness of UCCs, as not only did most graduates not use these services, they were often completely unaware of them. This suggests that many graduates find employment based on learning through adversity and persistence rather than good career management.

The research interviewed a small number of new graduates across many disciplines. Focussed interviews from more students in specific discipline areas would be useful.

UCCs should develop strategies for engaging students in the career seeking process early in their studies, and promote the availability and utility of their services. In addition, strategies should be developed to increase students' awareness of the realities of job and career seeking, and to develop their resilience in this area.

The paper increases understanding of student experiences when job seeking, which can be used by universities and UCCs to better prepare students for, and support students during, this process.

Perhaps no other workplace issue represents better the harm that can come of neglecting emotional experiences in organizations than workplace bullying. Organizational interventions aimed at the reduction of workplace bullying generally emphasize the identification of negative employee behaviors and the punitive consequences associated with the manifestation of these behaviors at work. While such interventions raise awareness of the unacceptability of workplace bullying, we argue that they generally adopt a “compliance” approach aimed solely at dealing with bullying after it has occurred rather than developing strategic initiatives that proactively promote workplace wellness. We detail a project within the Victorian public sector, which developed a proactive framework for the prevention of workplace bullying based on the principles of positive psychology. The chapter concludes with the view that the Positive Workplace Environment framework we develop is clearly applicable to a much wider range of issues than bullying and that embedding any call for organizational change within such a framework is likely to find resonance with both practitioners and researcher alike.

This paper aims to be a response to the “Call for Papers” on challenges for the practice of, and new modes of questioning and delivery in, business education. The authors seek to do this through an investigation of the disadvantages and benefits associated with the move towards using online technologies in an on‐campus undergraduate first year management subject.

The authors conducted a survey of 362 first year students undertaking a blended learning course in management.

Students prefer interactive tutorials over lectures or online material they can access themselves as needed. They also mainly access the online material they believe will be most useful in achieving higher grades, and prefer online material that is related to assessment outcomes, rather than that designed for greater understanding.

The findings suggest that the community of inquiry framework, although designed to evaluate online learning, can also be used to frame the comparative utility of online and other teaching strategies. The paper also explores issues related to the Technology Acceptance Model's prediction that ease of use of online learning resources is important, and finds that many students are restricted by the cost of downloading and printing online learning material in university libraries and laboratories.

The research focuses upon first year management students, and transition implications of the findings are discussed.

This paper examines the notion of work commitment within the professional contractor workforce – a working relationship that typifies the growing number falling outside that of the traditional and ongoing employer/employee relationship. In particular, attention is given to the commitment‐related implications associated with the contracting relationship where both an employing organisation and a contracting agency are involved as both have a vested interest in managing the contractor within this construct. A specific focus of this research is the ability of a contractor to hold dual commitment and to investigate the factors that influence the levels of commitment to each party. The limited nature of data available within Australia means this study is supplemented with the much larger body of data and research from the USA. Implications from the findings of this study for human resource management practices in both contracting agencies and host organisations as well as future research needs are discussed.

Mirele Cardoso do Bonfim is Professor of Psychology at Salvador University, Brazil, and she is psychologist at Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology, Bahia (IFBA). She received her master's degree in Organizational Psychology from Federal University of Bahia. Her primary researches have been focused on emotions at work and emotional labor. C.V.: Available at http://lattes.cnpq.br/2452149954749191