Dispatch Of Strategic Options, System Configuration And Integration Of Resources

Non-standard employment has been penetrating in the industrial economy and societies since the end of the 20th century, and at the micro-level motivated by labors, employers and the intermediaries like temporary service agencies. Among all the alternative employment modes, contract labor is recognized most influential to the standard employment, given its possible scale and scope economy externally. For the increasing contingencies in the social and economic environment, the traditional industrial relations, employment relations and labor relations might be changing and should be reconsidered. In turn, the traditional stabilities are turning to the flexibilities promoted by both employers and labors at all levels.Labor contracting is generally reflected as the three-party employment relation, covering the temporary service agency, client company and contract labor, different from the traditional two-party employment relation. So far, this atypical employment has shown its remarkable growth potential around the world economies, in the labor markets and among the enterprises. Meanwhile, the three-party relationships also bring more complexities and uncertainties in terms of practice and theory. First, the temporary service agency might have a competitive resource dependency over the client company. Second, the external employment sometimes impacts the available inside organizational atmosphere and the relevant outcome socially and economically. Thus, in comparison with the strategic human resource management and labor relations, how should people recognize the probable orientations and causations inside the triangle? In other words, who has the final say in the external employment, and leads the institutional design for all the involved parties?To remove the still confusion over the labor contracting, this paper tries to go through the process of utilization purpose, institution configuration and resource integration on the part of the client company, manifesting the contingent characteristics of labor contracting. The writer believes that employment externalization might come from the strategic option of the client company, which can be in line with the integral or systematic strategy of the organization. Also the external employment may be only the ad hoc choice that cannot be institutionalized organizationally. In the first case, it is likely that the client company will have a penetrating contractor utilization characterized as holistic, continuous and systematic. In contrast, the client company will be more like a one-time buyer in the second case, with the contractor utilization characterized as partial, temporary and unsystematic.Given the divide in the utilization option, the strategic selector may have a further institution configuring over the labor contracting, which might be staffed in the ways of mixing and segmentation with the reference of the standard employment. In the mixed staffing, the insider and outsider will be under the common strategic orientation, and share the integral systematic process and the relevant mission targets. Also the two groups of people will have a mutual referring and the extending interaction in the internal activities. Given this premise, there might be a spillover effect from the standard employment towards the contractors, both in terms of structure and degree. As a result, the outsiders tend to be more like the insiders, and the potential cognition differences will be gradually replaced by the mutual realization.In the segmented staffing, the outsiders will independently shoulder the internal function such as the logistics, sanitation and sales work, which makes them staffed in the parallel or aligned organization process and form the exclusive working system. Given this premise, the contractors will be more characterized as the outsiders for the organizational identity and institutionalized externally. Correspondingly, the import of the external contractor will not significantly undermine the insiders of the client company. Although it is still from the strategic option, labor contracting here will be in a clear contrast against the standard employment.In turn, being a business organization, the client company expects the economic utility from the agencies and the contractors for the relevant option. From the strategic perspective, there might be a clear resource integration process including resource match, complementation and substitution, in the dimensions of scale, scope and stability. Furthermore, the staffing approach and institutional configuration will promote the accomplishment of the resource integration throughout the three steps consecutively. For the resource match, the human resource of the contractors will first match the organizational and material resources from the client company, directly making the economic outcomes. For the resource complementation, the contractors and the regular employees at the client company will together form a cooperative working relationship, enriching the structure of the economic outcome. For the resource substitution, the contractors might replace, filter out or update the regular employees. In short, to a certain degree, the client company can achieve the resource readjustment for the sake of external force.Given the utilization motive and the practical process, the paper raises the theoretical model of the contractor utilization for the client company. It signifies that the external employment may not merely stay at the peripheral layer of, or be excluded by the organization. Actually, the external institutions and resources can effectively and efficiently modify the organization in the specific orientation. On the other hand, the penetration of labor contracting into a certain organization should be realistically viewed with all the possible contingent elements, such as external regulation, market competition, labor supply and the resource basis of the agencies.Having the theoretical analysis, the paper presents a case study obtained by the writer's field work in a multinational corporation in China making wide use of contract labors. Through the detailed descriptive analysis, the theoretical model is solidified on the practical justification, which is vital to the validity of the research conclusions of the paper.In the end, the paper from the macro and micro perspectives concludes by the normative suggestions to the field parties and the fundamental logic for the penetration mode of labor contracting. Finally, the writer points out the existing limitations throughout the paper as well as the future direction of the relevant study over the general and Chinese practice.