Organizational commitment, organizational support and social support : dual effects for contract workers

A major trend in current employment practices is to employ workers in contract positions. Against this background, the study reported in this paper investigated the dual commitment of contracted employees to their employing agency and to the client firm for whom they were contracted to work. One hundred and four employees in the Australian building industry were surveyed about their commitment to both their employing agency and the client building organization for which they were currently working. Organizational commitment (affective, continuance and normative), was measured using Allen and Meyer’s (1990) scale. The study also investigated the effects that perceived support from supervisors, co-workers and organizations had on employees’ commitment to the employing and client organizations. The results indicate that employees can feel committed to both the organizations although this commitment is engendered by different factors.