TOWARD AN ORGANIZATIONAL-BEHAVIOR OF CONTRACT LABORERS - THEIR PSYCHOLOGICAL INVOLVEMENT AND EFFECTS ON EMPLOYEE COWORKERS

This study investigated differences in the psychological involvement and task assignments of labor-contractor and employee engineers and the effects of the contractors on the attitudes of their employee coworkers. Findings partly supported the hypothesis that supervisors shift interdependent tasks to employees when contractors are present in their work groups. However, employees were not found to have greater quasi-moral involvement than contractors. In addition, the presence of contractor co-workers was associated with employee reports of lower organizational trustworthiness, as expected.