Perceived likelihood of standard employment by client organizations and the career mobility of outsourced employees: a self-driving human capital increment model

Abstract

Externalized employment, aimed at reducing labor costs, is becoming increasingly prevalent. However, the effective implementation of management practices to improve the career mobility of outsourced employees remains unknown. Drawing from social cognitive theory, this study constructs a self-driven career mobility model for outsourced employees. What’s more, this study proposes the concept of differentiation in perceived organizational supports (DPOS), that is ‘the relative degree of outsourced employee’s perception of support from client organizational exceeds that from supplier organization in triangular employment relationships’, and regards it as a key boundary condition for outsourced employees to interpret the cognition of employment opportunities. Data were collected from a three-wave survey of 271 outsourced employees from 52 interorganizational teams. Results showed that the perceived likelihood of standard employment (PLSE) by client organizations positively predicts outsourced employees’ turnover intention from supplier organization. Job-related human capital development (JRHCD) and occupational self-efficacy play a chain mediating role between PLSE and turnover intention. DPOS moderates the relationship between PLSE and JRHCD, and also moderates the mediating and chain mediating effect of JRHCD and occupational self-efficacy. We discuss the implications of findings for outsourcing management research and practice.

Keywords:

• Perceived likelihood of standard employment
• job-related human capital development
• turnover intention
• differentiation in organizational supports
• social cognitive theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Qin. C. Y, upon reasonable request.

Notes

1 The number and proportion trend of listed companies adopting labor outsourcing can be found in the attachment of the ‘China Industrial Economy’ website (http://ciejournal.ajcass.org).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Education of Guangdong Province (2023WT SCX039); Young and Middle-aged Teachers Basic Ability Improvement Project of Guangxi Universities (2023KY0002); National Natural Science Foundation of China (71902046; 71832003;72002072); Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences in Guangxi Universities and the project of Guangxi Development Strategy Institute (2023GDSIYB06).