Jennifer Watts
Email: Jennifer.Watts@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
2003-2006 BA (Hons) Combined Honours (Geography, Egyptology and History), University of Liverpool
2006-2007 PGCE Secondary Geography, University of Leicester
2007-2008 MA Research Methodology (Population Studies), University of Liverpool
2008- Present PhD Human Geography, University of Manchester
The Institutional Context for Temporary Staffing: a European cross-national comparative study.
Supervisors: Neil Coe and Kevin Ward.
Ongoing research into the globalization of the temporary staffing industry is currently being carried out by members of the Geographies of the Temporary Staffing Industry (GOTSU) at the University of Manchester. The research highlights how fast the temporary staffing industry is growing and becoming an increasingly global industry. This project has already taken significant steps towards understanding the organisational and growth strategies of the leading transnational temporary staffing industries and also argues that due to the wide range of sectors they are involved in, temporary staffing agencies should be conceptualised as active intermediaries in national labour markets. The research has revealed that we know relatively little about the interactions between the temporary staffing companies in different political-economic and regulatory contexts in which they are embedded. This lacuna provides the prime motivation for undertaking this Phd project.
The PhD project seeks to explore the positions and wider role of the temporary staffing industry in three different political-economic systems. The main aims of the research are:
- To explore the role of the temporary staffing industry in three contrasting political economic contexts;
- To position temporary staffing agencies within the wider landscape of labour market intermediaries in those contexts;
- To understand how the activities undertaken by agencies, such as where types of workers are placed and in what sectors, are shaped by national context;
- To illuminate the interactions and interdependencies between temporary staffing agencies and other public and private sector labour intermediaries in different national contexts;
- To explore the varying capacity for the temporary staffing industry to act as an active agent of labour market change in different contexts;
Ultimately, this research project seeks to explore the role of temporary staffing agencies within the wider landscape of public and private sector labour intermediaries, and how and why this differs from country to country. An initial review of literature on different national systems, drawing upon notions of varieties of capitalism (e.g. Hall and Soskice, 2001) and different kinds of national labour regimes (e.g. Boyer and Hollingsworth, 1999), potential cases have been selected which exemplify three different kinds of regime within Europe:
- Neoliberal labour regime: The UK will be used as an exemplar of a neoliberal policy environment;
- Corporatist labour regime: Germany will be used as an exemplar of a corporatist policy regulatory context;
- Post-Socialist labour regime: The Czech Republic offers an example of a post-socialist labour regime;
These differences in labour market regime will clearly influence the form, size, nature and overall significance of the temporary staffing industry. Investigating these countries will allow further exploration into the industry and its interactions with other aspects of the national contexts within which it can operate.
Working Brief: The Italian Temporary Staffing Market - September 2011 (PDF, 350KB).
Working Brief: China and the Temporary Staffing Industry - September 2011 (PDF, 210KB).
Working Brief: European Temporary Staffing: The Changing Regulatory landscape- September 2011 (PDF, 460KB).
Working Brief: Varieties of Capitalism - November 2009 (PDF, 275KB).
Working Brief: National Varieties of Temporary Staffing: an Introduction to Three Case Studies - October 2009 (PDF, 57KB).