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The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which perceived financial preparedness, social retirement anxieties, and level of income influence mature aged workers' preferences to enter different retirement employment options within the contingent and the flexible work arrangements (FWA) types of bridge employment.

Data for this study was collected in 2008 using a questionnaire with 31 items. A total of 144 mature aged workers from multiple firms, aged 50 years and over, working full‐time, in the construction industry participated in the study. The collected data was analysed using correlation and regression analyses.

The results indicate that the study variables have positive and negative influences on pre‐retirees' preference for the retirement employment options within the contingent and the FWA bridge employment. It was also found that while income failed to moderate, social retirement anxieties did significantly moderate the relationship between perceived financial preparedness and the different employment options within the contingent bridge employment.

This study clearly provides practitioners and career counsellors a new insight that the work and non‐work predictors for the retirement employment options within each of the contingent and the FWA bridge employments vary between factors of perceived financial preparedness, social retirement anxieties and level of income.

In contradiction to the existing literature that “comfortable” social retirement adjustment as a determinant for bridge employment, this study's findings revealed that if pre‐retirees perceive that they are not adequately financially prepared for retirement, they would opt for bridge employment irrespective of levels of social retirement anxieties.

The dual forces of an increasing dependency ratio and lower labor market participation on the part of mature individuals does not bode well for the American and European Communities. To begin to better understand such macro influences, changing demographic trends in the U.S. and European community with regard to the aging population and workforce participation are reviewed. In addition, recent research which continues to dispel the myth of a negative relationship between age and job performance is reviewed. A more informative way of looking at possible relationships between age and job performance is presented. A variety of contingent work arrangements and flexible employment policies are reviewed as a potential solution to the decreased supply of skilled labor for employers and the need for continued income and community involvement on the part of mature individuals. In addition, a call for a redefinition of how we currently view retirement is sounded. We conclude with recommendations for both employers and mature individuals on dealing with the issues presented.

Few studies aim to uniquely conceptualize the experiences of bridge employees after they enter the workforce. Supported by the psychological contract theory and the self-determination theory, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the bridge employment experience by examining how the expectations of bridge employees shape their experiences.

This paper first reviews the extant literature on bridge employment. It then discusses the psychological contract theory and the self-determination theory, and examines the expectations of bridge employees through the theoretical perspectives of these two theories, to examine experiences in bridge employment.

Discord in the bridge employment relationship may be attributed to a lack of understanding of the implicit expectations of bridge employees. More specifically, unmet expectations may be detrimental to the bridge employment experience, and ultimately jeopardize both employer and employee outcomes.

This paper examines expectations and experiences of bridge employees from a theoretical perspective. Theoretical tenets are utilized to analyze how and why implicit expectations may influence bridge employees in ways that result in detrimental outcomes for both employers and employees.

This paper sheds light on why bridge employment arrangements may result in adverse outcomes. Specifically, when there is a lack of understanding between bridge employees’ expectations and experiences, both individual and organizational outcomes may be impaired. An improved understanding of the bridge employment experience will likely result in an enhanced working relationship between bridge employees and employers, and minimize misunderstandings about this cohort of the workforce.

Using the guidelines of the psychological contract theory and the self-determination theory, we develop a model to examine how expectation of bridge employees may affect the experiences and ultimately, the outcomes of bridge employment. The authors also identify factors uniquely applicable to bridge employees. This is the first paper that examines the experiences of bridge employees through such theoretical perspectives.

By relying on a sustainable career perspective and recent studies on senior employees’ late career phase, this study aims to examine senior (50+) nurses’ late career narratives in the context of extending retirement age. Given the current global nursing shortage, there is a pressing need to find ways on how to promote longer and sustainable careers in the health-care field. Yet, there is limited knowledge about the extended late career phase of senior nurses.

Empirical data were derived from 22 interviews collected among senior (50+) nursing professionals working in a Finnish university hospital. The qualitative interview data were analysed using a narrative analysis method. As a result of the narrative analysis, four career narratives were constructed.

The findings demonstrated that senior nurses’ late career narratives differed in terms of late career aspirations, constraints, mobility and active agency of one’s own career. The identified career narratives indicate that the building blocks of sustainable late careers in the context of extending retirement age are diverse.

The qualitative interview data were restricted to senior nurses working in one university hospital. Interviews were conducted on site and some nurses were called away leaving some of the interviews shorter than expected.

To support sustainable late careers requires that attention be based on the whole career ecosystem covering individual, organizational and societal aspects and how they are intertwined together.

So far, few studies have investigated the extended late career phase of senior employees in the context of a changing career landscape.

The main goal of this article is to present a new taxonomy of contingent employment that better represents the wide variety of part‐time, temporary, and contract employment arrangements that have emerged since Feldman's review.

Reviews the literature over the past 15 years.

The paper suggests that contingent work arrangements can be arrayed along three dimensions: time, space, and the number/kind of employers. In addition, analysis of the recent research on contingent employment should be expanded to include worker timeliness, responsiveness, job embeddedness, citizenship behaviours, quality of work, and social integration costs.

The article suggests that a wider range of individual differences (including education, race, citizenship, career stage, and rational demography) all serve to moderate the relationships between different kinds of contingent work arrangements and outcome variables.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of contingent labour in the construction and civil engineering sector in the UK.

The paper presents the findings of a national postal survey of employment practices within the UK construction and civil engineering sector. The survey was conducted in 2002 and covered firms of all sizes within the sector. This technique has been supplemented with in‐depth interviews to provide a deeper understanding of the issues raised.

The paper finds that employers' use of contingent labour is widespread and that in many cases, the use of contingent labour has increased over recent years. It is argued that recourse to the use of contingent labour may increasingly be a constrained choice for employers, reflecting overall labour shortages and recruitment difficulties in the sector. The paper also finds that the use of contingent labour contributes to skills shortages in the industry, with the scope of training offered to workers on these contract forms being limited in nature.

The paper reveals the complex relationship between the use of contingent labour and ongoing skills shortages in the sector. The paper concludes that the cycle of turning to contingent labour in response to recruitment difficulties does not replenish the skill profile of the sector and therefore offers no long‐term solution to the skills shortages within the construction industry.

In this study the authors examine whether bridge employees tend to hold non-standard jobs, and if so, whether non-standard job choice is deliberate. Moreover, the authors examine whether fulfillment of employment expectations affects the personal and work attitudes of bridge employees.

The authors' research and hypotheses are supported and developed through psychological contract theory. The authors collected data from 195 bridge employees, employed in a variety of jobs, through an online survey. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression.

This study suggests that some bridge employees may engage in non-standard employment deliberately. Moreover, we show that fulfillment of perceived obligation by employers (psychological contract) is associated with personal and work attitudes (life satisfaction, job satisfaction, affective commitment, normative commitment and intentions to stay) of bridge employees.

While this study supports psychological contract theory as an important framework for understanding bridge employment, sample size, cross-sectional data and a lack of diversity in the sample limit causality, generalizability and data robustness. Future research should strive to replicate and extend the current findings.

The present study underlines the importance of designing jobs to meet the expectations of bridge employees. Also, it highlights the preference of bridge employees to engage in non-standard employment.

The authors extend bridge employment research by empirically examining the relationship between unmet employment expectations and the personal and work attitudes of bridge employees.

The purpose of this editorial is two‐fold: first, to provide an overview of team‐related issues in the particular realm of contingent work arrangements, and second, to introduce the collection of articles encompassing this special issue.

The editorial is a general literature review that provides the readers of this special issue with a broader scholarly literature framework. The editorial also provides a historical context of the field. First, the phenomenon of contingent work arrangements is discussed. Second, attention is given to identification of major strategic factors, which have been contributing to the growth of contingent work arrangements. Third, team‐related issues of differentiation, integration, and cooperation are discussed.

The overview of research in the area of contingent work arrangements demonstrates that such work arrangements are diverse in their contractual structure. The rationale for which organizations use contingent work arrangements are diverse, as are the reasons why employees undertake such work outside the scope of the traditional employment model. Research in this area has grown primarily with the focus on economic, legal, and social factors influencing the expansion of non‐standard work arrangements. Less research is found in the area of individual, managerial, and organizational consequences of this expansion.

This editorial – and the special issue in particular – gives attention to understanding the array of experiences associated with contingent workers with the purpose of accumulating theoretical knowledge in this field, but also – and perhaps more importantly – to add to the transition from evidence‐based knowledge to practical advice.

This paper seeks to challenge the claim that traditional and non‐traditional employees differ significantly in terms of their needs, personality characteristics, and work motivation patterns, by surveying management consultants in Canada.

The study is based on a quantitative online survey undertaken among 204 Canadian management consultants in 2008, representing both traditional employed consultants, contingent consultants, and company representatives.

The study demonstrated no significant differences with regard to needs, motivation, and personality characteristics between traditional and non‐traditional employed management consultants, which means that no significant changes to existing human resource management policies seem to be needed.

The existing literature on contingent employees' needs, personality characteristics and work motivation has mainly been devoted to the study of differences between traditional and non‐traditional work arrangements seen as single groups. This study extends and complements the understanding of the underlying dimensions of both the explicit and the implicit contract within the contingent management consultant‐organization relationship in order to explain the influence of these dimensions on the human resource management strategies. The underlying assumption is that non‐traditional work arrangements vary according to the type of job and the context in which the job is performed.

Presents 35 abstracts from the 2001 Employment Research Unit Annual conference held at Cardiff Business School in September 2001. Attempts to explore the theme of changing politics of employment relations beyond and within the nation state, against a background of concern in the developed economies at the erosion of relatively advanced conditions of work and social welfare through increasing competition and international agitation for more effective global labour standards. Divides this concept into two areas, addressing the erosion of employment standards through processes of restructuring and examining attempts by governments, trade unions and agencies to re‐create effective systems of regulation. Gives case examples from areas such as India, Wales, London, Ireland, South Africa, Europe and Japan. Covers subjects such as the Disability Discrimination Act, minimum wage, training, contract workers and managing change.