Excluded or included – structural preconditions for occupational well-being among blue-collar temporary agency workers within the Swedish manufacturing industry

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to explore structural preconditions for occupational well-being among blue-collar temporary agency workers within the Swedish manufacturing industry based on managers’ views and expectations of the worker. Through 25 interviews, we investigate how blue-collar temporary agency workers are seen by management using critical realism and the concept of ‘norm circles’ to analyse spatial, relational, sociotechnical and normative structures. We show how structures and norm circles possess alienating or dealienating mechanisms that precondition blue-collar temporary agency workers’ occupational well-being. The findings indicate management’s role as an important gatekeeper in determining structural preconditions for blue-collar temporary agency workers’ occupational well-being. By introducing aspects of skill and acquired skill, along with social aspects changing over time, this article contributes to the existing literature on blue-collar temporary agency workers’ occupational well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Industrial relations
• manufacturing
• blue collar
• temporary agency worker
• occupational well-being
• critical realism

Introduction

Temporary work agencies have, in Sweden, since the beginning of the 1990s served the function of providing client organizations with temporary agency workers. This implies a triangular relation where temporary agency workers are in a double relationship with the temporary work agency managers on the one hand and the production leaders of the client organization on the other hand. The significant use of temporary agency workers (Competence Agencies of Sweden 2023), and divergent structural preconditions determined by spatial, temporal and technical characteristics of temporary agency work, calls for additional research (Hünefeld, Gerstenberg, and Hüffmeier 2020; Imhof and Andresen 2018). This applies especially to blue-collar temporary agency workers (BC-TAW), as manufacturing industries are employing a majority of the temporary agency workers (Competence Agencies of Sweden 2020; Heinrich, Shire, and Mottweiler 2020).

When the temporary work agencies provide the labour power and the client organization owns the labour task, this duality underpins a risk of unclarity as regards the responsibility for the work environment and occupational well-being of BC-TAW (Gossett 2006; Håkansson and Isidorsson 2016). Underhill and Quinlan (2011) found uncertainty and irregularity, poor introduction, mismatches in terms of competence and required tasks affecting both health and safety. This may also set the BC-TAW in between two stools feeling excluded by the employing agency, while not feeling included in the client organization (Håkansson and Isidorsson 2016). That said, the purpose of this article that is informed by critical realism is to map structural preconditions for work-related well-being among BC-TAW within the Swedish manufacturing industry based on temporary work agency managers’, production leaders’ and union representatives’ views of BC-TAW.

As temporary work agency managers, union representatives and production leaders within the client organization temporally precede the worker (Lawson 2015; Wong, Kelloway, and Makhan 2015), they ipso facto constitute the structural preconditions (Augustsson, Olofsdotter, and Wolvén 2010; Svensson 2015), which was the basis of our decision to interview temporary work agency managers, production leaders and union representatives.

Occupational well-being

Experienced well-being can in a wide meaning imply a sense of appropriateness (Jaeggi 2014, 121), described as a ‘cognitive process of contentment, satisfaction or happiness derived from optimal functioning’ (Lindert et al. 2015, 732). A definite and widely agreed definition of well-being, however, does not exist (Alexandrova 2012; Lindert et al. 2015).

Well-being is here seen as multi-dimensional (Charalampous et al. 2019), yet as including domain-specific aspects whereby occupational well-being (Van Horn et al. 2004) is understood to be constituted by affective (e.g. job satisfaction), professional (e.g. competence), social (e.g. support), cognitive (e.g. focus) and psycho-somatic (e.g. health complaints).

Hence, this article describes occupational well-being through e.g. job demands (requirements for fast and hard work), role expectations, control in terms of BC-TAW ‘objective or perceived freedom or possibility to exercise control’ and the ‘perception that one’s responses produce a desirable outcome or result’, i.e. mastery at work (Nordic Council of Ministers 1997, 51, 63); dependent on both emotional social support, e.g. encouragement, and instrumental social support, e.g. instructions (Thoits 2011); and relating to experiencing job security, job safety and job satisfaction (Hopkins 2017; Sinclair et al. 2021), while not experiencing e.g. physical hazards (Koranyi et al. 2018) or psychosocial hazards (Dollard and Bakker 2010), or exhaustion (Chambel et al. 2015).

BC-TAW preconditions for occupational well-being, therefore, are seen as being included; enabling (1) perceived emancipation, e.g. autonomy and ability to affect one’s occupational well-being, (2) relatedness to the client organization and the temporary work agency, in contrast to (3) being excluded; e.g. not having social relatedness and being unable to affect one’s occupational well-being; and (4) not perceiving connection to either client organization or the temporary work agency; in Marxist terms, being alienated (Jaeggi 2014; Melman 2001).

Blue-collar temporary worker interaction

Labour can be subject to ‘make-or-buy’ decisions, opting for externalization to decrease overhead and administrative costs (Knox 2014). The use of BC-TAW may vary over time depending on economy and organization (Holst, Nachtwey, and Dorre 2010; Jahn and Rosholm 2018; Ono and Sullivan 2013), and assignments may vary greatly in time and frequency (Holst, Nachtwey, and Dorre 2010; Underhill and Quinlan 2011). When different BC-TAW appear within the client organization, its employees’ attitudes towards the organization, job and work arrangements, in general, may be affected (Augustsson 2014). Some managers assign BC-TAW dangerous tasks, without informing them of the risks involved (Cardone, Tümpel, and Huber 2021). Micromanagement in addition to BC-TAW wearing different clothes than client organization employees can be stigmatizing for the temporary worker as they may feel inferior (Boyce et al. 2007; Cardone, Tümpel, and Huber 2021).

BC-TAW extended introduction and inclusion in job-specific training by production leaders has in recent years been shown beneficial (Cardone, Tümpel, and Huber 2021; Kirkpatrick, Hoque, and Lonsdale 2019). With inter-organizational relationships, key notions of human resource management are influenced by culture, loyalty and identity (Augustsson 2014; Augustsson, Olofsdotter, and Wolvén 2010). Thus, it seems the inclusion of BC-TAW is much dependent on management expectations and the way management thereby views the blue-collar temporary agency worker. Therefore, the first research question is stated:

(1a) How do temporary agency managers, production leaders and union representatives view blue-collar temporary agency workers and what do they expect from the blue-collar temporary agency worker?

Client organizations have an interest in profiting from the use of BC-TAW by controlling the work intensity (Knox 2014), while temporary work agency has an interest in profiting by controlling time at work, thereby, despite rigorous legal protection, linking BC-TAW subjugating strategies from both firms (Olofsdotter 2012). Control over compliance and aligning interests may make it hard for the temporary worker, fearing replacement, to question or complain about their working conditions (Chambel, Castanheira, and Sobral 2016). This may lead to enforced competition between workers, and even client organizations looking for the most eager and dedicated BC-TAW (Strauss-Raats 2018). Structures of control can be found at two general levels (Davis-Blake and Broschak 2009); on a central level, a mutual bureaucracy of both temporary work agencies and client organizations secures BC-TAW compliance through rules and sanctions. On a decentralized level, client organization employees could implicitly shoulder a supervising role with interpretive perception on how to perform work tasks; the temporary workers may therefore experience higher pressure and implicit demands for constant attendance, than client organization employees (Bosmans, Hardonk, et al., 2015; Boyce et al. 2007; Hünefeld, Gerstenberg, and Hüffmeier 2020).

On an assembly line, simpler tasks may be assigned to BC-TAW, obstructing job rotation and causing a larger workload for client organization employees, and in turn, an increase in sick leave among the latter, feeding a vicious circle of increased need for BC-TAW, albeit introductions remaining short or even non-existing (Håkansson and Isidorsson 2012). The use of BC-TAW within the client organization can thereby render structures understood as core and periphery (Håkansson and Isidorsson 2012), where client organization employees and management constitute the core, and BC-TAW constitute the periphery. They may thereby be stuck as an excluded outsider (Bosmans, De Cuyper, et al., 2015). Client organization with only high-skilled tasks implies a pure core. Oppositely only low-skilled tasks for both client organization employees and BC-TAW may imply only a periphery, i.e. ‘the doughnut effect’ (Håkansson and Isidorsson 2012).

However, Strauss-Raats (2018) found that BC-TAW being integrated into competence development and job rotation set the core–periphery dichotomy in need of being related to skill and autonomy. Indeed, time spent on site may benefit both acquired skills and the social embeddedness (Cardone, Tümpel, and Huber 2021; Kirkpatrick, Hoque, and Lonsdale 2019), thereby altering structures. By virtue of their positions, managers instil a constitutive part of these preconditioning structures for temporary workers’ occupational well-being (Bosmans, Hardonk, et al., 2015), which is much dependent on the managers’ either excluding or including views. To explore the structural preconditions for the temporary workers’ occupational well-being, the subsequent research question is posed:

(1b) How do temporary work agency managers’, production leaders’ and union representatives’ views and expectations of blue-collar temporary agency workers precondition blue-collar temporary agency workers’ occupational well-being?

Through this research, light is shed on the views (explanandum) of blue-collar temporary agency workers, and how it preconditions well-being (explanans). This is where critical realism comes into play.

The theoretical framework of critical realism

A key to understanding the concepts of critical realism is the notion of a stratified ontology (Archer 1995; 2010), and the distinction between the real, the actual and the empirical (Bhaskar 2016). The empirical and the actual are parts of the real, but they do not comprise the whole of it. Structures and mechanisms, which are part of the domain of the real, condition the more or less regular events, including demi-regularities (Hartwig 2007, 116), taking place within the domain of the actual (Bhaskar 2016, 7). Neither the structures and mechanisms nor the events are necessarily empirical, as the domain of the empirical is comprised by our experiences of those events (Hartwig 2007, 400). It is here understood that social structures and their mechanisms always precede social interaction, i.e. they are conditioning social interaction and subsequent structural elaboration (Archer 1995, 168).

In a deviation from Margaret Archer’s framework, Dave Elder-Vass argues that ‘social structure is best understood as the causal powers of social groups’, and includes ‘normative institutions’ in his understanding of social structures, which are defined as the ‘emergent causal powers’ of a ‘specific type of social group’ he designates ‘norm circles’ (2010, 115). In Elder-Vass’s account of structures as it is applied to our context, structures can be spatial (Elder-Vass 2017) as in defining a factory building, relational as in between positions of individuals (Elder-Vass 2010, 157), e.g. production leader and BC-TAW, socio-technical where human and machine together make up the structure (Elder-Vass 2017), e.g. a production line, and normative, understood as the product of ‘interactions between members’ of norm circles (Archer and Elder-Vass 2012; Elder-Vass 2010). Where Archer understands a cultural system to be constituted by ideas, Elder-Vass considers the people possessing these ideas as constituting the norm circle, which will be our concept of choice throughout this article. In our interpretation, two individuals may be part of the same relational structure while holding very different norms. Relational structures and norm circles are therefore treated as two distinct entities even though they may overlap where people agree with one another. Whereas with ‘norm circles’ Elder-Vass refers mainly to the social groups ‘committed’ to ‘endorsing’ and ‘enforcing’ certain norms (2010, 123), in our use of the term we refer also to those particular norms themselves.

When their constituents are ordered in a specific manner, both structures and norm circles possess properties that cannot be reduced to their single components, and thereby possibly emergent powers, that is, causal mechanisms in their own right (Elder-Vass 2010; Lawson 2012). However, not all causal powers are set in motion; while those that are should be referred to as tendencies (Hartwig 2007, 458). Actual events are the products of ‘an unruly mess’ of interacting mechanisms and their liability to have an impact, i.e. the inherent powers of these mechanisms and their interaction with one another (Elder-Vass 2010, 47).

This article proposes some mechanisms in the social realm to be either alienating or dealienating. More specifically, an alienating mechanism in our context implies a possible alienation of the worker, thereby creating, in the words of Jaeggi (2014, 25), a relation of relationlessness, ‘distancing one from something in which it is involved or to which one is in fact related – or in any case ought to be’. Dealienating mechanisms imply the reverse, possibly causing solidarity among workers through included decisions made by the labourers implementing the work (Melman 2001, 435; Womack, Jones, and Roos 2007), thereby implying a sense of belonging by creating coherence and mutual trust (Alperovitz 2013; Stoehr 1994).

Building on the work of Bhaskar (2008), Archer (1995; 2010), Elder-Vass (2007; 2010; 2017) and Lawson (2012; 2015), a critical realists’ taxonomy is in brief offered in Tables 1–3. It should be noted that while in the framework offered here we have eclectically synthesized some elements from Lawson, Archer and Elder-Vass, there are substantial points of divergence between their formulations, which will not be elaborated in the limited scope of this article. For a discussion of the important differences between the approaches of the latter two, see Archer and Elder-Vass 2012.

Table 1. Structural conditioning.

Category	Definition	Characteristics / Examples
Relational structures	A continuous relation of the positions of two or more people.	Relational structures depend on associations that can be either weak or strong, negative or positive. Spatial and temporal characteristics have an impact. E.g. a team, a family, or an opponent.
Norm circles	Certain groups of people who maintain particular norms, beliefs and common behavioural standards. We use the term to refer also to these norms, beliefs and standards themselves. These may be formalized in terms of laws and regulations or can be unspoken.	Norm circles can be weak or strong. Spatial and temporal aspects may differ from one norm circle to another. As individuals may hold different beliefs, several norm circles may overlap within a relational structure. E.g. a production quota, a reasonable learning time for a certain task. and/or a belief that a BC-TAW should or should not be included in the team.
Socio-technical structures	A structure that is dependent on human interaction with a machine.	The skill required to be a part of the socio-technical structure may vary from low to high, e.g. simple/complex manipulation. E.g. a production line.
Spatial structures	Spatial structures define the characteristics of our surrounding environment.	E.g. factory building(s), public transport, restaurant or beach, mountain etc.
organization	An entity constituted through a combination of relational structures, norm circles, socio-technical structures, and spatial structures (artefacts).	An organization is comprised by its members. A member may act on behalf of the structure through the role they incorporate, e.g. manager, production leader, BC-TAW etc.
Mechanisms	Mechanisms are causal powers of emergent entities. When activated in specific contexts, these powers are analysed as tendencies.	There can be several mechanisms deriving from one structure at the same time. In the interest of research of this article, the focus is on mechanisms characterized as being either alienating or not dealienating.

Table 2. Social interaction.

Transformative agency

The ability to transform or sustain prevailing structures and norm circles

E.g. a manager may make her voice heard in order to cause a change, then acting both as an individual and through the role of her office.

Table 3. Structural elaboration.

Outcome

Structural elaboration results in either morphogenesis or morphostasis.

A transformation or the preserving of a structure through social interaction. E.g. Social movement for change, or maintaining democracy through voting.

Social interaction (Table 2) constitutes the everyday events and demi-regularities of social life, in this case, taking place within the Swedish manufacturing industry. The ability to interact with, influence and affect prevalent structures and norms is dependent on the ability of social actors to mobilize power together, i.e. their combined transformative agency (Archer 1995, 258).

Structural elaboration (Table 3.) constitutes the outcome of the social interaction, through either morphostasis where existing structures and norm circles are maintained, or through morphogenesis where structures and norm circles are transformed (Archer 1995, 136; Elder-Vass 2010).

The focus is here primarily on structures, norm circles and the mechanisms they possess. As management and unions, unquestionably both constitute part of these structures and interact with them, they comprise the research field; to this, the article turns next.

Methodological description

The Swedish manufacturing industry is spread out over the whole of the country, however with some concentration in certain regions. There are large industries employing several thousand workers, typically on assembly lines. In contrast, there are also a lot of small industries employing no more than twenty or thirty people. A medium-sized industry typically employs fifty to two hundred workers. That said, the labour tasks, i.e. the actual work being done, also vary ranging from low skill to high skill. A low-skill job can be emptying and loading containers, doing simple assembly work etc. A high-skill job on the other hand may include programming, operating complex machinery, quality assurance etc. Common work tasks include operating a traverse, driving various forklifts, operating a lathe, welding and assembling etc.

Interviewees were recruited in middle and southern Sweden using both a convenient selection and a snowball selection. Convenient in the sense that various temporary work agencies were specifically approached to gain access and understanding of various types of industries, e.g. size, production and geographical location. The temporary work agency respondents and the union respondents were asked for additional contacts within either the temporary work agency or client org., i.e. snowball selection.

Nine agencies ranging from small to big were approached through a cold call, followed by additional information, an introductory letter and ethical aspects sent by email. Eight agencies agreed to participate, and one dropped out, rendering eight interviews within seven different agencies with eight temporary work agency managers.

Ten client organizations, ranging from small (<30 employees) to large corporations (>1000 employees) were approached, rendering a total of fifteen interviews with production leaders, in seven different factories.

Also, two union representatives were interviewed, as unions play a central role in Swedish labour and labour law. The representatives interact with several client organizations offering valuable data despite here being a numerical minority.

As all aspects of the diverse research field were of interest, no exclusion criteria were of relevance. However, some of the approached respondents did not return emails confirming a date for an interview. Others asked to postpone the interview to the second quarter of 2022 due to the high workload and one small industry declined participation for the same reason. Even though it was not an initial inclusion criterion, the common nominator of the respondents rendered, is the Swedish metal industry. In total, 25 interviews (Table 4), ranging from 40 to 120 min, were conducted with 8 women and 16 men, aged 26 to 61 years.

Table 4. Interviewees.

Interviewee no.	Organization type	Role
1–6	External temporary work agency	Temporary work agency manager
7–8	Inhouse temporary work agency	Temporary work agency manager
9–10	Union	Union representative
11–18	Low – High skill industry / Assembly line	Production leader
19–21	High skill industry / No assembly line	Production leader
22–24	Industry inhouse logistics	Production leader
25	Industry inhouse flex pool	Production leader

The research was approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (Ref No 2019-06220) and the study followed the ALLEA (2017) code of conduct for research integrity.

In the interest of answering, within a theoretical framework of critical realism, the preconditioning what and why of BC-TAW well-being in addition to the how, a qualitative onset using semi-structured interviews was the method of choice (Pawson and Manzano-Santaella 2012). Questions were formulated openly, inviting discussion and probing follow-up questions in search of understanding of the field (Manzano 2016). Respondents were typically asked to describe their work context, desirable BC-TAW properties, the purpose of engaging BC-TAW, introduction and the nature of the tasks undertaken by the temporary worker. Respondents were also asked to elaborate on their relationship with the counterpart, i.e. client organization or temporary work agency. In the interest of understanding different narratives, the respondents were asked to share a situation of their choice where they felt things did not work very well, and equally, where things did work very well. In a set of concluding questions, the respondents were also asked about their perception of the pros and cons of a temporary workforce and their view on hiring vs. recruiting.

All interviews were conducted using a simultaneous combination of video calls, e.g. Zoom or Teams and phone calls, as the latter is both more stable and offers better sound quality. All interviews were conducted in Swedish, sound recorded and transcribed verbatim continuously by the corresponding author, as a continuous transcription offers a deeper insight (Belfrage and Hauf 2017; Easton 2010; Pawson 1996). The quotes from the respondents presented below are translated by the authors.

Coding and analysis

Critical realist research takes an explanatory approach through the process of retroduction (Belfrage and Hauf 2017; Elder-Vass 2010, 48), working metaphorically backwards from the experiences of agents (or people) to the unobservable social structures and mechanisms that condition and partially determine their actions and interactions, cf. Lawson (2012). Retroduction also implies an iterative process where initial understanding may emerge while transcribing and then reading the transcripts, enabling the identification of structures and norm circles (Table 1) through a rational abstraction (Pawson 1996; Sayer 1992, 87). This article takes an interest in social interaction and, thus, follows the retroductive route from structural elaboration towards structural preconditioning.

To contextualize these preconditioning structures descriptive suffixes were added, e.g. close/distant, long/short, weak/strong, thereby enabling retrodiction; the process of understanding how the identified structures and their mechanisms may relate to one another (Elder-Vass 2010, 48). In other words, the comparison of testimonies from various contexts and situations enabled the notion of mechanisms being either alienating or dealienating depending on the identified structures they derive from.

Analysed findings of relevant structures, norm circles and mechanisms are presented below.

Analysed findings of temporary work agency managers’, production leaders’ and union representatives’ views and expectations of BC-TAW

On the surface, preconditions seem favourable for BC-TAW occupational well-being. However, when analysing underlying structures and norm circles, a different reality appears. Demands on BC-TAW such as the level of skill required to fulfil the job, and spatial arrangements, affect structures and norm circles with either dealienating or alienating mechanisms, thereby favouring or impairing preconditions for occupational well-being. Further, temporary work agency managers and production leaders play an important role as gatekeepers in preconditioning BC-TAW occupational well-being. To this, we turn next.

The empirical surface of BC-TAW occupational well-being

In general, temporary work agency managers testify to a close and including relationship with the temporary worker, calling them their most valuable asset. A manager, working within the context of a big agency operating over a vast geographical area, elaborates on who comes first, the customer or the worker.

To us, the consultant must come first. But surely the client is very important. You know, it’s the client who’s our customer. If we don’t have any customers, we don’t have any consultants. But we don’t have any clients if we don’t have any consultants either, so that’s … like … eh … hen and the egg … I don’t know which. [Interviewee 1]

Some production leaders view the BC-TAW as any other worker. They say the BC-TAW is given the same tasks, and that a BC-TAW has the same influence on working conditions as any other worker, thereby testifying to an including view of BC-TAW. A production leader on an assembly line, says in regards to what he is looking for in a BC-TAW:

I also want to see one interact … I treat them exactly [emphasis] the same way I treat a client organisation employee. […] You know, they run a third of my daily business … so I try not to see any difference really between them. Regardless of how long they’ll be here. [Interviewee 10]

A production leader, employed for many years in a high-skill industry where the workers plan and organize their work themselves, testify to making no difference between BC-TAW and client organization employees:

I consider them to be there on the same terms. They should be there on the same hours, they are employed to be there, they should do exactly the same job as … as first-hand employees. [Interviewee 20]

A senior temporary work agency manager niched on highly skilled labour is asked if he sees any drawbacks of being a BC-TAW:

I don’t think so … not if it is handled right (laughing). […] I can almost see it the other way around, that it can be advantageous. If it fails at the client organisation, then they keep their job … the person has his job and we arrange another place to work. [Interviewee 5]

Expressed expectations of the interviewed temporal work agency managers and production leaders seem to support social and well-being among BC-TAW. However, underlying structural demands on BC-TAW reveal a different story.

Norm circles constituting demands on BC-TAW

In contrast to the testimonies above, the union representatives share, through the context of their position, a different experience. Job demands for a BC-TAW may be higher than for a client organization employee, as the client is purchasing a service, whereby the production leader may expect ‘a superman or superwoman’ [Interviewee 9]. A union representative testifies to production leaders’ excluding norm circles of not being part of the regular team of client organization employees; the BC-TAW should provide service with a smile.

I have members who call me and say ‘Well, today I was called Cinderella, is that ok?’.

(Laughter)

What?! ‘Yeah, they think I can do all the boring work, the dirtiest and the heaviest. But I should do it with a smile on my lips since I’m there and make good money … Houff! [Interviewee 9]

The union representatives’ testimonies offer a valuable nuance, as the BC-TAW, subject to alienating mechanisms of excluding norm circles, turn to the union and the structure provided in search of inclusion and rectification.

Interviewees testify to BC-TAW being initially hired on a fixed six-month employment that may be converted into permanent employment within the temporary work agency. However, a fixed six-month contract does not fulfil the requirements of the full membership of the society, e.g. having a mortgage etc. Also, the position filled by the BC-TAW in the client organization is still considered as vacant by the Swedish labour law. As such, a client organization's employees should always be prioritized for filling it. Hence, many respondents understand a BC-TAW assignment as taking the role of prolonged recruitment, i.e. a trial for being client organization employed. Work arrangements are subject to business contracts, the client organization’s use of a BC-TAW can therefore be terminated with immediate effect; a flexibility cherished by production leaders, making the BC-TAW exchangeable. A BC-TAW may thereby feel forced to work while in reality having legitimate reasons to stay home. One production leader reflects on the difficulties of BC-TAW parental leave.

In my eyes, it is not an advantage to be at home. You can’t perform. You can’t show what you’re good for, you know. So I’d say I have a little higher tolerance for an employee. The temp I want to be here to show what it’s good for before being hired. And if you’re at home with sick children for a couple of days every second week … then the … that possibility disappears. Someone else gets that chance, maybe ahead of you then … . [Interviewee 11]

One union representative shares, despite lacking the words, a current issue of a member:

I had one of those cases just now. So I’ve been taking part through (laughing) her, her whole pregnancy, from getting pregnant to ultrasound, to … you know … talked to her boss. And … and … it will be great. They are very pleased with the client organisation. But the fear of losing one’s job due to the joyful child in the womb … You know, that’s not … [silence]. [Interviewee 10]

If the performance of the BC-TAW does not comply with the production leaders’ expectations, the BC-TAW run the risk of being terminated, with an additional risk of instigated stigma. An in-house temporary work agency manager; whose BC-TAW was terminated, while having a six-month fixed employment, was let go due to a lack of other assignments. Several years later, he still proves to be exceedingly difficult to reengage at any client organization.

If you’ve once been terminated, it’s hard to make a comeback.

Is it stigmatising?

Yeah … it is … and … it’s not us.

Not you?

No, no! I have no problem bringing this one in. I’d rehire him in the blink of an eye if I had an assignment that would accept him. [Interviewee 8]

When the BC-TAW is on a fixed six-month employment, union representatives pragmatically urge their members, to keep quiet and carry on, and not to raise any fuss before being either permanently employed by the temporary work agency, or converted into a client organization employee. This may also explain why several production leaders testify to problems arising after the conversion of the BC-TAW. Among some of the workers, a change in attitude, productivity and punctuality has been seen by production leaders. This suggests that BC-TAW are more susceptible to alienating mechanisms than client organization employees as the former refrain from acting in their interest.

In sum, our research shows how underlying norm circles of an excluding and scrutinizing trial to possess alienating mechanisms and thereby possibly cause diminishing control, lack of work mastery and occupational well-being among BC-TAW.

Structures and norm circles favouring preconditions for BC-TAW well-being

Structures and norm circles may be both physically and socially close or distant, thereby in context altering the structural preconditions for well-being among BC-TAW accordingly. A BC-TAW with a temporary work agency manager in an office within the client organization premises will implicitly have, through the spatial structure, closer proximity, as the temporary work agency manager can be physically present at the production site daily, thereby establishing and maintaining social support. A manager at an in-house office explains:

… our office has been … guess where it is now, inside the premises, closer to […] fourteen years. I’m close to doing my tenth year … we have frequent dialogue and contact with our customers daily, so we think, I guess, that we are pretty well informed in both operations. [Interviewee 7]

The founding partner and operative manager of a small temporary work agency, employing around 60 BC-TAW, including 20–25 full-time employees, testify to a close relational structure where norm circles have dealienating mechanisms:

Yes, I’d like to say, very good contact. That is really the key, because it’s like I said, very competitive, and a lot of people get in touch who work in other agencies, who hardly met their manager you know. […] consultants who come to us are almost in shock: ‘Wow! So this is the way it should be?’. [Interviewee 6]

In sum, our research shows that a context of close spatial proximity enables common norm circles to be established (morphogenesis) and maintained (morphostasis) with dealienating mechanisms causing favourable preconditions for both cognitive and social well-being among BC-TAW.

Structures and norm circles impairing preconditions for BC-TAW occupational well-being

Contracts between temporary work agencies and client organizations differ in time between a few months and several years. BC-TAW assignments may be as short as a few hours on each site. As the average hourly earnings differ from site to site, a union representative testifies to an extreme case of a BC-TAW being subject to 15 different average hourly earnings in one week. BC-TAW assignments spread out over vast geographical areas, may be directed through text messages from the temporary work agency. This constitutes a physically and socially distant structural positioning, making the establishment of common norm circles and social support difficult, and hence alienating mechanisms impairing preconditions for BC-TAW well-being.

Regardless, several temporary work agency managers see themselves as labour market facilitators, enabling elaboration of client organization structures, i.e. finding a position for the BC-TAW, rather than an employer. A manager, running his own office, within a large temporary work agency, reflects on how he thinks the BC-TAW views him as an employer:

I think … as a consultant you automatically have your closest manager where you work. We become … an umbrella organisation where … I think that’s the image one has of a work agency as an employer … it says the name on my paycheck. [Interviewee 3]

This is not necessarily so. Confirming excluding norm circles and weak relational structures, production leaders tell of temporary work agency managers who only answer phone calls from the production leader. The latter urging: ‘You need to call your BC-TAW!’ [Interviewee 15]. Equally, in mid-winter, the large factory production leader, supervising logistics in an open-door storage calls a temporary work agency manager and orders him to appear as soon as possible; ‘Your worker needs warm clothes and shoes!’ [Interviewee 16]. Another production leader recalls how one temporary work agency manager proved to be unreachable for the young BC-TAW whose six-month fixed contract ended the following day. She called her production leader to ask whether she should show up for work the day after or not.

A high turnover of temporary work agency managers leads to a maintenance of weak relational structures (morphostasis) and a lack of including socially supportive norm circles between BC-TAW and the temporary work agency. A 35-year old high skill production leader, in search of a temporary work agency manager, tells about how she asked several BC-TAW if they knew who their manager was:

Yeah, I asked some of my workers if they knew who their manager was, and they don’t know. […] ‘Well, it’s you who’s our boss’. Yeah, sure, but your temporary work agency manager? ‘Oh … dunno who it is right now, ‘cause they change all the time’. [Interviewee-19]

On the other hand, a temporary work agency manager shares the story of a small factory employing no more than 30 workers, where all client organization employees were obliged to take daily COVID-19 tests during the pandemic. This did not, however, apply to the three BC-TAW working there daily, as the client organization would not pay for COVID-19 tests for anyone else but their staff. In other words, the client organization employees were here included, while the BC-TAW was seen as providing a purchased service making them excluded, and thereby not subject to the client organization’s norm circles of concern for occupational well-being. Ironically the client organization did not consider the risk involved, even for their staff.

The different excluding and including norm circles of the BC-TAW are epitomized at seasonal highlights; production leaders tell us how the temporary work agency manager brings two equally large Easter eggs filled with candy; one as a gift for herself as a production leader and one to be divided among the 30 workers (BC-TAWs and client organization employees) on the assembly line. Likewise, client organization employees on the assembly line are treated to the annual Christmas buffet. The BC-TAW working on the same line are also invited but must cover the expenses themselves, and redeem their money from the temporary work agency. In times like these, it becomes evident that, despite production leaders’ ambitions to treat the BC-TAW as an included peer with client organization employees, structural obstruction prevails, inflicting alienating mechanisms.

In sum, our research shows alienating mechanisms where structures are distant, impairing BC-TAW preconditions for both affective and social well-being. Likewise, excluding norm circles of us and them possess alienating mechanisms, thereby through lack of social support equally impairing preconditions, e.g. social BC-TAW well-being.

Context of simple socio-technical structures and preconditions for BC-TAW well-being

This research suggests technical skill required to do the job has an impact on the BC-TAW’s ability to integrate into socio-technical structures of production lines and in norm circles among other workers.

However, most production leaders and temporary work agency managers testify to expectations of the BC-TAW having the will to learn, being interested in their work, and showing loyalty towards both the temporary work agency and the client organization. Punctuality and presence are more important than actual skill. Another production leader even claimed to be satisfied with ‘legs, a pair of arms, and a will!’ [Interviewee 14]. Only one production leader in a high-skill production lamented the lack of competence.

Where low skill is required for manipulating simple socio-technical structures, e.g. emptying a container, the BC-TAW is easily replaced. The BC-TAW may therefore be forced to unwillingly comply with less favourable norm circles and alienating mechanisms, impairing structural preconditions for job security and occupational well-being.

If the complexity of the socio-technical structures exceeds the ability of the BC-TAW, his or her performance will be considered insufficient, causing either redistribution of the BC-TAW, or termination of the assignment. When asked to recall a situation that did not work out very well, a vast majority of the respondents refer to workers failing to meet the client organization’s norm circles in terms of production quota, being punctual, complying with safety requirements and keeping their hands on their private smartphones. Whether this is due to alienating mechanisms remains unclear as several managers also recognize a possible lack of introduction, and therefore do not solely blame the BC-TAW.

Context of complex socio-technical structures preconditioning BC-TAW occupational well-being

Based on the testimonies of expectations and views on BC-TAW, our research suggests that the ability to affect well-being is dependent on the complexity of the socio-technical structure possessing either alienating or dealienating mechanisms affecting the preconditions.

Few socio-technical structures constituting the workplace of a factory can be instantly accessed, and some introduction must be considered a minimum. Even though the nature of assembly labour is typically described as unskilled, the learning period required for reaching full production at an assembly line may vary from a few weeks up to a full year. A BC-TAW filling in for short-term sickness leave, not knowing all stations on the assembly line, affords us a textbook example of not being able to be fully integrated into the socio-technical structure. The one suitable station according to the BC-TAW’s technical skill will therefore be blocked from the rest of the team, and (partly) disabling much sought-after job rotation. A production leader on an assembly line reflects on extreme times during COVID-19:

We ran locked stations every day for a month and it became heavy for the rest of the team. And we could not teach the new ones, ‘cause we had no staff. So therefore we must bear the burden, and it can actually be a bit of unfair treatment towards the new ones, I think. Because it creates some sort of, not hostility, but it a bit of ‘well, you get to be there all of the time’. [Interviewee 12]

This may explain the structural disparity, while adding insult to injury in an already polarized workforce (Davis-Blake and Broschak 2009; Olofsdotter 2008), with BC-TAW refraining from approaching the client organizations’ norm circles, e.g. on production quota, while also disabling integration into other norm circles of collegial social support prevalent within the relational structure of the client organization employee. As sick leave is currently low among client organization employees in a large factory, temporary work agency managers now call the production leaders every morning to check-in. In the interest of avoiding a lack of skill, they are also providing the client organization with BC-TAW trainees for future reference. Some large factories have even established their in-house flex-pool, using high-skill client organization employees along with high-skill BC-TAW. Blocking the job rotation can thus be avoided. However, even in such cases, elaboration of norm circles can be difficult. A production leader illustrates this in a large factory employing some 1200 workers:

It’s often like that, regretfully, that the ones who are lent out for the day get to do what’s a bit more boring, a bit more repetitive, because often you adopt the line. […] Then you enable the spot and take it from someone who … well … sorts screws and bolts, or whatever it might be. [Interviewee 25]

A BC-TAW engaged on a contract, in stark contrast to filling in for a short-term sick leave, is given an introduction to norm circles and structures constituted by safety rules, the safety ombudsman, the local union club, along with a presentation of the local team where a tutor may be assigned. As time goes by and the technical skill of the BC-TAW increases, the more eligible they become to be part of the socio-technical structure. Replacing a BC-TAW, within a complex socio-technical structure, will thereby impose a higher cost on the client organization, as its employees will suffer from the additional work imposed by the new tutorship taking its toll. A production leader shares her experience from supervising disobedient BC-TAW where the socio-technical structure demanded complex manipulation:

It was just to … either, you let it be and try to set the person straight, or you have to face the fact and start over, and then everything else suffers. [Interviewee 13]

Thus, integration, or lack thereof, into socio-technical structures requiring complex manipulation, can be understood as having either dealienating or alienating mechanisms, affecting preconditions for BC-TAW job security and professional well-being, while enabling or disabling the BC-TAW to disregard some of the norm circles, and thereby be more or less susceptible to the alienating mechanism.

The role of transformative agency and BC-TAW occupational well-being

Management, production leaders and union representatives play an important role as gatekeepers for the BC-TAW. Through the position of their role, they may act on behalf of the structures within the client organizations, thereby also altering (morphogenesis) preconditioning structures and norm circles for the well-being of the BC-TAW.

Within the socio-technical structure of an assembly line, as illustrated by several respondents, temporal and spatial conditions offer little or no option for socializing. Rather, socializing is undertaken during a few breaks throughout the working day. In some factories, a norm circle, as an unspoken truth, implies that the BC-TAW, in order not to take a seat frequented by a client organization’s employees, should enter the lunchroom last. This practice is even encouraged by one of the union representatives, who urges BC-TAW union members to wait their turn. Thus, a combination of spatial and relational structures along with certain norm circles possessing alienating mechanisms may impair preconditions for social well-being.

However, production leaders tell of a recent change, towards new norm circles of including BC-TAW in regular meetings and employee surveys, as they may constitute a substantial part of the total workforce, cf. Strauss-Raats (2018). Such norm circles thereby have dealienating mechanisms improving structural preconditions for cognitive and social BC-TAW well-being.

While a team with a high turnover of workers constituting many different norm circles may exemplify a weak relational structure with a lack of social support, a team working together for a very long time may instead manifest a strong relational structure subject to strong norm circles of social support, making the structure more difficult to elaborate. A production leader explains:

Are some teams more welcoming?

Yeah. It’s not ok, but it’s the way it is. Not that there is any bullying, because that’s not what’s happening, but some of our crews have worked with each other for eight, nine, ten years … so they have a completely different dialogue and they almost know each other better than their partner do. And me for that matter … . [Interviewee 22]

The factory floor with its workers constitutes a messy complex of overlapping structures, norm circles and mechanisms. While some structures are obvious, like the socio-technical structure of the production line, norm circles are more latent and at times exceedingly difficult to grasp.

Managers, production leaders and union representatives constitute part of some of these structures and norm circles with mechanisms preconditioning well-being (or non-well-being). Through their role production leaders possess transformative agency for social interaction and in turn elaboration (morphogenesis) of both relational structures and norm circles and can thereby incorporate a BC-TAW into the structures of the client organization, enabling dealienating mechanisms. However, previous research described in the introduction along with these findings suggests that, despite good intentions, oftentimes this does not happen, whereby alienating mechanisms prevail.

Discussion

Through research question 1a; ‘How do temporary agency managers, production leaders and union representatives view blue-collar temporary agency workers and what do they expect from the blue-collar temporary agency worker?’, it is here shown how a façade of equality and inclusion is underpinned by differing job demands and expectations on the BC-TAW.

Building on the stratified ontology of critical realism, this article suggests through research question 1b; ‘How do temporary work agency managers’, production leaders’ and union representatives’ views and expectations of blue-collar temporary agency workers precondition blue-collar temporary agency workers’ occupational well-being?’, a mapping of structures and norm circles based on managers’ views of BC-TAW as presented above, giving a richer understanding than previously offered by simpler models of core and periphery (Ackroyd 2002; Håkansson and Isidorsson 2012).

Inevitably, the BC-TAW is initially subject to both the temporary work agency and the client organization, and agreement between the two. Contributing to Holst, Nachtwey, and Dorre (2010) and Hopp, Minten, and Toporova (2016), using BC-TAW provides the production leaders with a trial of a potential employee, even though the extent of this remains unclear (Filomena and Picchio 2022), suggesting the chronology of transition to be pertinent. In line with Boyce et al. (2007) and Bosmans, Hardonk, et al. (2015), the findings presented here suggest preconditions of BC-TAW occupational well-being to not only be a question of structural composition but also of ability for the elaboration of these structures. Time spent within the client organization may cause BC-TAW mastery of work and inclusion in management’s norm circles of social support and socio-technical structures of the specific client organization, cf. Cardone, Tümpel, and Huber (2021), Chambel, Castanheira, and Sobral (2016), thereby diminishing alienating mechanisms and improving preconditions for BC-TAW well-being.

This article suggests preconditions for BC-TAW occupational well-being to be dependent on a combination of structures, norm circles constituted by how the BC-TAW is viewed, and social mechanisms along with spatial and temporal factors determining both the context and composition of these; e.g. based on management’s view of BC-TAW, the more included a BC-TAW is, the larger the possibility to affect (mobilize transformative agency) the situation and engage in structural elaboration (morphogenesis), cf. Archer (1995), altering alienating mechanisms into dealienating mechanisms.

Connecting research questions 1a and 1b also aids an explanation of the importance of introduction, of enabling the BC-TAW to perceive him or her as a valued part of a greater context, e.g. job satisfaction, work mastery and control (Augustsson, Olofsdotter, and Wolvén 2010). It shows how mobilizing managerial transformative agency, e.g. providing social support through a tutor hooking arm and aiding the elaboration of norm circles, is imperative for BC-TAW inclusion. This is where norm circles of game playing can be encouraged, taking the form of deliberately taking the usual seat of a client organization employee, or jokingly saying; ‘watch out for him!’ [Interviewee 12] while introducing the team. Equally, managers assigning the BC-TAW non-operational tasks, such as quality control, aid incorporation of the BC-TAW in the client organization’s structures, cf. Davis-Blake and Broschak (2009).

No research is perfect, nor is ours. As there were no BC-TAW, nor client organization employees among the respondents, the exact role preconditioning structures, their composure, or what role managerial transformative agency may play remain unknown. Structural conditions regarding full-time employees were subject to this research, leaving part-time BC-TAW’s preconditioning aside.¹ Also, representative access to a diverse field is always a challenge, not least since labour markets vary from one country to another (Kalleberg and Olsen 2003; Ono and Sullivan 2013). For the undertaken research, respondents mainly represented large corporations within Sweden, where rigid formal structures prevail. Smaller corporations do not usually enjoy this benefit. The testimonies provided by the union respondents are, therefore, of particular interest, albeit plausibly insufficient. Reliability of the result concerning smaller workshops may be recognized as a limitation, but credibility should still be considered satisfactory.

Clearly, the diverse contexts in which BC-TAW operate have different preconditioning implications for well-being accordingly. Critical realism as an under-labouring theory here serves the purpose of a deeper understanding of these diverse structures, norm circles and the mechanisms they possess. Thus, generative social practises of either including or excluding norm circles have implications for BC-TAW well-being. Although these are analysed here only in terms of alienating or dealienating, mechanisms may be many and specific to their context. As the outcome of the identified mechanisms here remains unknown, further research on BC-TAW well-being is proposed based on their testimonies. Such research may combine critical realism with other theories related to occupational health, e.g. Job Demand-Resource Theory (Bakker and Demerouti 2017), and the Psychosocial Safety Climate Theory (Dollard and Bakker 2010) is suggested to illuminate BC-TAW well-being further. Such research should involve the BC-TAW perception of their managers, perception of their coworkers, and not the least, perception of themselves. Also, in a macro-sociological scheme, concerning continuously reproduced structures of capitalism, the dichotomy between included and excluded should be subject to further research.

Conclusion

The research presented here contributes to the existing literature on BC-TAW, confirming the role of management as an important gatekeeper determining structural preconditions for the BC-TAW well-being (Augustsson, Olofsdotter, and Wolvén 2010; Davis-Blake and Broschak 2009; Håkansson and Isidorsson 2012). Much of the existing literature focuses on opportunities and challenges of work arrangements, BC-TAW precariousness and human resource practise involving BC-TAW, both on behalf of the temporary work agency and the client organization and joint efforts in regards to work safety and work health, e.g. Strauss-Raats (2018).

This is where the findings in this article offer additional dimensions, by introducing technical complexity along with social factors. As the BC-TAW spend time at the client organization, skill and social connections may increase, making management perceive the BC-TAW as closer to the client organization, thereby also improving preconditions for affecting working conditions, work health, and well-being. A BC-TAW in possession of high skills relating to a specific client organization is not as easily exchanged as a low-skill BC-TAW, and may thereby enjoy a more forgiving working climate and be less precarious.

A temporary work agency or a client organization (or both) having a close social relation to their BC-TAW implies dealienating mechanisms and thereby preconditions for well-being. On the other hand, BC-TAW with no close ties to either temporary work agency or client organization are thereby subject to excluding norm circles and alienating mechanisms, impairing preconditions for well-being.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 BC-TAW, by Swedish collective agreement, cannot be employed by a temporary work agency part-time without having another full-time occupation, e.g. studies.