Name: Damy Pieterse
Student number: 11083271
University: University of Amsterdam Department: Sociology
Track: Comparative Organisation and Labour Studies
First reader: Frank Tros Second reader: René Hulst
Date: August 2017
Title: IT professionals and contract decisions: an exploration of rational motives, labour market conditions and influence of social-cultural circumstances.
Summary
Flexibility on the labour market has been growing globally since the 1970’s (Kalleberg, 2001). This research focuses on the occupational group of IT professionals on the Dutch labour market. The Netherlands has one if the most flexible labour markets in Europe (Kremer, Went & Knottnerus, 2017; Muffels, 2013). So far, research has been done on Dutch employers demand for flexibility in general. These studies looked from a rational perspective at choices why employers choose for a certain contract (Chkalova, Goudswaard, Sanders & Smits, 2015; Donker van Heel, de Wit & van Buren, 2013; Van Echtelt, Schellingerhout & de Voogd-Hamelink, 2015; Goudswaard, van Wijk & Verbiest, 2014; Van der Klein, Jansma & Aussems, 2016; Stavenuiter, van der Klein & Aussems, 2016).
The studies mentioned did not focus on IT professionals specifically while this occupational group is getting more important at the labour market and the daily operation of organisations (CBS, 2011; 2016). Furthermore, studies mainly focus on rational motives and quantified results. Besides a lack of knowledge whether general researched motives for certain contracts apply to IT professionals, there is also a lack of qualitative studies on underlying motives (Storm, Risselada & Jahangier, personal communication, 2016).
This research aims to find out if and if so, to what extent employers have the same reasons for IT professionals as for other occupational groups to offer them certain contracts. This concerns employers of both profit and non-profit organisations. The theoretical starting point of this research is the core-periphery model of Atkinson (1984). It looks at rational reasons how organisations (can) deal with flexibility. In addition to the rational perspective, this study includes social-cultural circumstances and their role in contract decisions. Social circumstances were understood by the concept of isomorphism as written by DiMaggio and Powell (1983). Cultural circumstances refer to the influence of the organisational culture on contract decisions. Because the core-periphery model assumes a sufficient number of workers, this study also looks at the influence of the market for IT professionals. In addition to that, the role of educational background on type of contract is also part of this study.
Representatives of thirteen organisations were interviewed. Seven profit and six non-profit organisations. Based on the results, this research concludes that general motives also apply to IT professionals in most of the cases. For IT, organisations want to have a core of professionals supplemented with the knowledge of Zzp’ers (self-employed professionals without employees). Due to market conditions, organisations are sometimes forced to hire Zzp’ers for permanent positions. The most important external influencer related to the theory of isomorphism, is legislation. No clear indications of isomorphism were found on other features. Indications that internal culture has also effect on type of contract that is offered have been found at primarily profit organisations.
IT professionals do not have much more influence on the conditions of their contract compared to other employees if they are directly hired. But, because of the shortage of higher educated professionals, IT workers can easier choose to work as Zzp’er and sometimes oppose employers’ wishes by this.
Table of content
1 Introduction ... 6
§ 1.1 The emergence of flexible labour ... 6
§ 1.2 Starting point of this research ... 7
§ 1.3 Research problem ... 8
§ 1.4 Aims and objectives ... 9
§ 1.5 Importance of the research ... 10
§ 1.6 Research questions ... 11
§ 1.7 Reading guide ... 11
2 Theoretical framework ... 12
§ 2.1 Rational motives in relation to flexible labour ... 12
§ 2.1.1 The core-periphery model ... 12
§ 2.1.2 Rational motives in flexible labour and types of contracts ... 14
§ 2.1.3 IT professionals on the Dutch labour market ... 16
§ 2.1.4 Relationship between educational background and type of contract ... 19
§ 2.2 Influence of the IT professional on type and conditions of contract ... 20
§ 2.3 Influence of social-cultural circumstances ... 21
§ 2.3.1 Isomorphism ... 21
§2.3.2 Organisational culture ... 23
§2.4 Conceptual model ... 24
3 Method ... 26
§ 3.1 Perspective of this research ... 26
§ 3.2 Data and sources ... 26
§ 3.2.1 Type of data ... 27
§ 3.2.2 Semi-structured interviews ... 27
§ 3.3 Sources of data ... 28
§ 3.4 Interviewees and process ... 29
§ 3.5 Data analysis ... 30
§ 3.6 Ethical concerns ... 31
4 Results ... 33
§ 4.1 Rational motives ... 33
§ 4.2 Differences mbo and hbo/WO ... 37
§ 4.4 Social-cultural circumstances ... 44
§ 4.5 Interesting off-topic results ... 46
5 Conclusion ... 48
6 Discussion ... 50
Bibliography ... 53
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
FIGURE 1:CORE-PERIPHERY MODEL. ... 13
FIGURE 2:NUMBER OF IT VACANCIES COMPARED TO THE TOTAL NUMBER OF VACANCIES,1997-2011. ... 16
FIGURE 3:EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND ZZP’ER PER SECTOR ... 17
FIGURE 4:PERCENTAGE OF WORKERS WITH A FLEXIBLE CONTRACT, PER EDUCATIONAL LEVEL,2015 ... 19
FIGURE 5:CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE RESEARCH. ... 25
TABLE 1:SELECTION OF TYPES OF WORK ARRANGEMENTS. ... 18
TABLE 2:BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE INTERVIEWS. ... 30
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1 Introduction
This chapter describes the background of this research and includes the reason why this research has been done, the research problem, the aim of this study and its sociological, scientific and societal importance. Furthermore, the main research question and sub questions are provided. Operationalisation and further specifications are provided in other chapters.
§ 1.1 The emergence of flexible labour
Since the 1970’s the number of flexible workers on the Dutch labour market has grown significantly (Dekker & de Beer, 2015; Delsen, 1995; Looise, van Riemsdijk & de Lange, 1998). Although most workers still have a standard contract, the number of workers with a flexible contract grew to nearly two million between 2003 and 2016. The number of Zzp’ers (self-employed professionals without employees) has grown to nearly one million (Flexbarometer, 2017). Overall, the Netherlands has one of the highest number of flexible workers in Europe (Kremer et al., 2017; Muffels, 2013).
Kalleberg (2001) writes that between the 1940’s and the 1970’s, a relative stable situation existed. Most employees had a standard type of arrangement with their employer and worked their entire working life for one employer. Surprisingly enough, this situation was rather rare in the light of history. Before the mentioned period it was not irregular for workers to have flexible contracts. The ‘revival’ of flexibility since the 70’s has several reasons.
The emergence of flexibility during the last decades on the Dutch labour market is not isolated from the rest of the globalised economies (Crouch 2010; Córdova, 1986; Delsen, 1995; Kalleberg 2001, 2009). Córdova (1986) writes that sluggish economic growth and high rates of unemployment in Europe showed that economies were not able to create enough full-time arrangements. Growing globalisation resulted in competition between workers and firms on a much bigger scale than before. Kalleberg (2000;2009) writes that a major cause of globalisation were improvements in technology-, communication- and information systems. Nowadays, developments in one country could affect the economic situation of other countries. Organisations that first operated within one economy, face more uncertainty than before and required a flexible labour force to cope with it. Another important impulse for the rise of flexible arrangements, was the entrance of women and older people at the labour market (Kalleberg, 2000; Pfeffer & Baron, 1988). This increased the supply of the (flexible) labour force, especially because women and older people wanted to work part time.
The developments mentioned above had as a result that the standard employment arrangement was not always suitable anymore. Other types of work arrangements had to be invented to deal with the growing demand for flexibility. De-regulation of labour laws made it possible for firms to offer different types of contracts. Heyes and Lewis (2014) and Bosch (2004) write that since the 1980’s,
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European nations deregulated their labour market intensively. Although countries differ in approach and speed, the trend towards facilitating a firms’ ability to offer non-standard employment arrangements, has been growing. Nowadays, non-standard employment occurs in many forms (Donker van Heel et al., 2013; Van Echtelt et al., 2015; Goudswaard et al., 2014; Stavenuiter et al., 2016).
People can for example work as Zzp’er, agency worker, secondment worker or with a zero hour contract. Also working with a contract of fixed duration (or temporary contract) is seen as flexible labour.
Moving back to the Netherlands. Goudswaard et al., (2014) asked employers in nine different sectors about their expectations on flexible labour. Although all sectors differ, the employers expect that by the year 2020, 30% of the contracts is flexible. Kremer et al. (2017) in their study for The Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), interviewed two experts/scholars on flexibility, Paul de Beer and Ton Wilthagen. Both say that the standard arrangement is beyond its peak. Both support the statement of Kalleberg (2001) that the stable situation before the 1970’s was historically different compared to other periods. Flexible forms of labour will return more and more.
The development of growing flexibility on the labour markets, encouraged many scholars to research how organisations use flexible labour and incentives to hire workers in this way (Abraham & Taylor, 1996; Atkinson, 1984; De Beer & Kraamwinkel, 2012; Donker van Heel et al., 2013; Kalleberg, 2001). It inspired others to study the impact of a flexible contract on health (Benavides & Delclos, 2005; Bohle, Willaby, Quinlan & Mcnamara, 2011) or the relation between productivity and flexibility (Park, Natina, Lockwood & Williams, 2016; Smirnova, 2017).
§ 1.2 Starting point of this research
During the period before the elections in March 2017, flexible labour and how to deal with it was an important issue in the campaigns of several political parties in the Netherlands (Bouman, 2017). People without a standard or ‘vast’ contract, have an increased chance of facing health problems and poverty and less chance on getting a mortgage to finance a house compared to workers with a standard contract (CBS, 2016). Furthermore, flexibility on the labour market is an impulse for growing inequality (Kremer et al., 2017). Such concerns explain why many voters were engaged with flexibility on the labour market, especially the Dutch. This is not surprising because the Dutch labour market has seen a growing number of people working with a flexible arrangement, and has now one of the most flexible labour markets in Europe (Kremer et al., 2017; Muffels, 2013).
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At the same time, the importance of IT on the daily working lives of people and its importance for the Dutch labour market, has been growing. CBS (2016) reports that the number of IT professionals has been growing since 2012. Di Stasio (2014) states that the IT sector is highly dependent on globalisation and international technological developments. IT workers are mostly well-educated and stakeholders must respond rapidly to changes regarding new technological possibilities. Because of such developments, the demand for IT professionals is highly volatile. Furthermore, IT is present in almost every sector of the modern economy. IT has become part of the daily work of people in education, caring, sales, agriculture and many other sectors.
As said, the labour market was a significant topic during the last election period in the Netherlands and also during the formation of a new administration. Besides political interest during elections, (flexible) labour is under the attention of policymakers, researchers and topic of debate in society. Because of rapidly evolving circumstances, differences between nations and sectors and the numerous features related to flexible labour, some aspects of flexibility have not been researched yet.
Before moving to the following paragraph, it is necessary to inform the reader about the understanding of flexible labour in this research. Forms and conditions of flexible contracts vary highly, but all have in common that they differ from the standard working arrangement. This standard exists of having a contract of indefinite duration and working at the same location for the same employer (Kalleberg, 2000). Not only types of flexible labour differ, sectors and different occupational groups also cope or face various questions related to flexibility (Donker van Heel et al., 2013; Goudswaard et al., 2014; Van Echtelt et al., 2015; Stavenuiter et al., 2016).
§ 1.3 Research problem
As said, there are still aspects of flexible that have not been researched.
In the Netherlands, contracting IT professionals has not been researched, as a separate occupational group, with its own dynamics. Despite the growing importance and presence of IT professionals on the Dutch labour market, research so far on flexibility in IT was always part of a broader comparison with other occupational groups or sectors. Many reports have been written about employers’ motives to offer a certain type of contract (CBS, 2015; Donker van Heel et al., 2013; Van Echtelt et al., 2015; Goudswaard et al., 2014; Van der Klein et al., 2016; Stavenuiter et al., 2016).
These studies mentioned give insight in how often a certain work arrangement appears in a sector. In the case that researchers included motives, they mostly looked why employers choose for a specific contract based on economic and financial motives or arguments about work load or knowledge.
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Furthermore, the referred studies focused on the IT sector while IT professionals are becoming more important in organisations without IT as core business (UWV, 2017a). Other researchers say that a qualitative identification of underlying motives has not been done in recent studies on flexible labour (Storm, Risselada & Jahangier, personal communication, 2016, p. 4). When distinguishing different motives for choosing flexibility, it is important to see which alternatives exist for flexible labour or how, for example, unions and employers associations cope with this phenomenon.
IT professionals are becoming more important in their presence and significance on the Dutch labour market. CBS (2011) even states that the IT sector was an early gauge for the rest of the labour market developments since 1997. Studies about employers’ motives to offer a certain contract are mostly comparisons and based on rational considerations. There is a lack of knowledge of the dynamics of contracting IT professionals specifically. Also, qualitative research to underlying motives in contracting is absent.
§ 1.4 Aims and objectives
This research aims to contribute to existing knowledge about flexible labour by approaching flexibility from another perspective and with a different subject compared to previous conducted studies.
First, the focus of this research is on IT professionals in organisations and not to the IT sector. This means that at the end something can be said about the dynamics of contracting IT professionals specifically. By doing so, this research tries to fill a gap in knowledge about flexible labour. Organisations in this research are not required to have IT as core business. The first reason for this is that research on this specific part of the labour market has not been done before. The second reason is that IT is becoming of greater importance for organisations in general and is classified as gauge for the rest of the labour market.
Second, another aim of this research is to include social-cultural circumstances related to contracting. Specified on IT professionals. Previous studies usually approached contract offers from economic-financial-quantitative perspective. This research aims to contribute to already existing knowledge by including a different perspective. Social-cultural circumstances are about the context of the organisation and its culture.
Third, previous studies on the Dutch labour market in general found differences between educational background and type of contract offered. This study aims to find out if results from earlier studies apply to IT professionals on this feature. Finally, this study researches the influence of IT professionals on the conditions of their own contract compared to other workers. There is a scarcity
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of certain IT knowledge and skills on the labour market. This research tries to find out to what extent the tight labour market influences the position of IT professionals when they negotiate about their contract conditions. Further elaboration in these topics follow in the next chapter.
§ 1.5 Importance of the research
This paragraph elaborates on the sociological, scientific and societal importance of this research. Sociological importance
First, circumstances such as organisational culture, values, norms, isomorphism among organisations and the potential influence on contracting (IT) professionals, have not been researched yet in the Netherlands. The issues mentioned have to do with behaviour and social constructs. These issues are absent in studies why employers offer a certain contract. For that reason, this study wants to contribute to existing knowledge within the field of (organisational) sociology.
Second, including social-cultural circumstances might also be a chance for (organisational) sociology to participate in future studies on flexibility from the perspective this study chooses. This research introduces the field of sociology in studying dynamics on the labour market directly related to contracting. As said, this study is of an explorative nature so it might be the case that some findings require further research.
Scientific importance
First, this research contributes to the scientific knowledge of flexible labour. As said, flexibility on the labour market is related to a wide range of topics but research about Dutch employers’ motives on contracting IT professionals is absent. Especially absent when it comes to organisations without having IT as core business. This research makes it possible to understand a small, but well-defined part of flexibility slightly better.
Second, this research includes an unaccustomed perspective on flexibility. There is a lack of qualitative knowledge about employers’ motives. Already existing knowledge is mostly obtained via literature studies or quantitative research. Because of these two reasons, this research contributes to the scientific knowledge about an important feature of the current labour market in the Netherlands. Societal importance
Science is often public funded and has a responsibility to obtain reliable knowledge. This responsibility does not stop at solely obtaining knowledge. Findings need to be explained to society. Not only to politicians and policy makers, also to people without an university degree. As mentioned, flexibility is under the concern of many layers in society and work is an important feature of the daily lives of people. By contributing to the quality, scientists give something back. Furthermore, if this
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research really contributes to the knowledge of flexible labour, policy makers, unions, employers and other stakeholders are better informed to discuss and to cope with flexibility.
§ 1.6 Research questions
Previous paragraphs have resulted in the following research questions:
The main question of this research is: How do rational motives, labour market conditions and social-cultural circumstances affect the decision what type of contract IT professionals get?
The sub questions are:
- To what extent do rational motives to offer a certain type of contract, apply to IT professionals?
- To what extent does the type of contract offered to IT professionals depend on educational background?
- To what extent do IT professionals have influence on the conditions of their contract compared to other occupational groups in the organisation?
- What is the role of social-cultural circumstances in determining what type of contract is offered to IT professionals?
§ 1.7 Reading guide
At this point the research topic has been introduced and the research questions are presented. Chapter 2 contains the theoretical framework of this study. It contains theory on why employers demand flexibility, elaborates on potential underexposed influencers of flexibility and gives a description of the IT labour market in the Netherlands. Chapter 3 elaborates on the perspective of this research and why certain choices on method have been made. Chapter 4 presents the results of the data collection and analyses. The last two chapters contain the conclusion and discussion part.
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2 Theoretical framework
This chapter provides a selection of consulted literature and earlier conducted studies on flexible labour. One must keep in mind that the purpose of this research is to explore the dynamics of flexibility related to IT professionals. This chapter is divided in rational motives (§ 2.1 and sub paragraphs), influence of the tight labour market for IT professionals (§ 2.2), social-cultural circumstances (§ 2.3) and ends with the conceptual model of this research (§ 2.4).
§ 2.1 Rational motives in relation to flexible labour
Research on flexible labour has been mostly conducted from a rational perspective. Researchers focused on arguments related to economic reasons, financial arguments, variances in work load or knowledge why organisations opt for a certain contract. A significant fruit of this perspective is the core-periphery model (
§ 2.1.1)
. The rational component of contracting is further supplemented with an overview of the results of studies on why Dutch organisations opt for a certain contract and a description of the Dutch IT labour market.§ 2.1.1 The core-periphery model
Atkinson (1984) constructed a framework, the core-periphery model, to overview the possibilities in flexibility. Atkinson starts the theory with three core reasons for flexibility. He distinguishes functional-, numerical and financial flexibility. Based on these core reasons, the theory elaborates on how organisations structure the workers they need.
The first core reason, functional flexibility, means that employees can be redeployed easily across several activities and tasks. Atkinson (1984) gives the example of a multi-skilled craftsmen moving between several departments including complete changes of career. Functional flexibility means that current workers of a firm adapt to changes in the way production or services are organised. This form of flexibility is not so much in type or duration of contract, but much more in skills and knowledge. Numerical flexibility on the other hand, focuses mainly on labour power. The demand of labour changes and this kind of flexibility makes it possible to quickly increase or decrease the labour force. Hiring and firing are important to match the number of needed workers smoothly. One can think about the catering industry on beaches. During the summer, much more workers are needed compared to other seasons of the year.
The last form Atkinson (1984) describes, is financial flexibility. This core reason consists of two components. The first has to do with obtaining a balance of the firms’ pay and other costs compared to prices on the external labour market. The other component of financial flexibility is about
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remuneration. If the firm for example decides to make payments depending on performances, some flexibility in pay systems is necessary.
As explained, three main categories or core reasons for flexibility exist within organisations. Atkinson (1984) developed a model, the core-periphery model, to illustrate his these. The core group are employees with a standard-employment arrangement. These workers have the possibility to climb up in the hierarchy and the firm invests in these people to secure the organisation’s core competences. In exchange, the firm demands versatility (functional flexibility).
Figure 1: Core-periphery model. Reprinted from Manpower Strategies for Flexible Organisations Atkinson, J., 1984, Personnel Management, p. 4.
Next to the core group a firm has two types of periphery groups. The first group includes employees who have specific tasks. They are less flexible than their core counterparts. For that reason, the firm does not demand high versatility of this employees. The employees in the second group are hired for the short-term. They are mostly directly hired and work in the case that the demand for labour increased rapidly and for a brief period.
The last group, on the outside of the figure, consist of four parts. Self-employed workers are externally hired for their specific knowledge. Agency temporaries are also externally hired, via an intermediary, but are mostly hired for extra labour power. Not for their specific knowledge or skill set. The example given earlier of catering on the beach would be a suitable example. Sub-contracting means that other individuals or companies do a part of the work the firm cannot do. It happens often
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in the construction industry. Outsourcing means that another company carries out a business activity.
The core-periphery model is used by other scholars (Magnum et al. 1985: 599-601; Osterman 1988: 85-89, all mentioned in Kalleberg, 2001; Olsthoorn, 2011). The model makes a broad term as flexibility, insightful. However, Atkinson’s (1984) point of view are the needs of the organisation and assumes a sufficient supply of labour power, skills and knowledge. The core-periphery model is an ideal-type and other potential factors related to flexible contracts, such as the market, are not taken in consideration.
Inspired by the core-periphery model of Atkinson (1984), Olsthoorn (2011) specified types of flexible arrangements on strategies for flexibility. Olsthoorn states that it is important to make such a differentiation because organisations differ highly on many aspect so they use different strategies. The first strategy he distinguishes is external, numerical, flexibility. The arrangements that fit within this category are: temporary contracts, agency workers and Zzp’ers.
The second strategy is internal, numerical, flexibility and is divided in 1) flexibility of the extent of labour and 2) flexibility on time. Contracts that fit to extent of labour are: on-call-, zero hour-, part time- and fixed hours per year contracts and overtime. Contracts that fit to flexibility on time are: variable working hours, working in shifts and weekend work.
The third strategy Olsthoorn (2011) sees, is functional flexibility. This means the job description is by purpose vaguely described. Olsthoorn looks at the situation within organisations, so sub-contracting and outsourcing are out of his scope.
Olsthoorn (2011) is just as Atkinson (1984) focused on rational economic or financial reasons or fluctuations in demand of labour power and knowledge. Comments made about the core-periphery model, also apply for Olsthoorn. More about other factors follows in a forthcoming paragraph. The next section examines Dutch employers’ motives in deciding what type of contract is offered to employees in general. This is an empirical completion to the core-periphery model.
§ 2.1.2 Rational motives in flexible labour and types of contracts
Many reports have been written about Dutch employers’ motives to offer a certain type of contract Chkalova et al., 2015; Donker van Heel et al., 2013; Van Echtelt et al., 2015; Goudswaard et al., 2014; Van der Klein et al., 2016; Stavenuiter et al., 2016).
De Beer and Kraamwinkel (2012) state that, in general, organisations create a flexible shell because changing market conditions demand flexibility and it reduces costs of labour. Despite all the types of
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flexible labour, these two arguments form the foundation of flexibility. Chaklova et al. (2015) are a little more detailed in the general employers’ motives to offer some sort of a flexible arrangement (p. 118):
Nature of the tasks;
Volatility;
Insufficient availability own employees;
Lower costs;
Reducing risks related to labour law;
A way to recruit employees.
Donker van Heel et al. (2013) and Van Echtelt et al. (2015) researched Dutch employers’ motives to offer several types of flexible contracts. Both studies state that employers have assorted reasons for different contracts.
The standard arrangement is used to guarantee quality (knowledge and skills) and certainty of availability of this quality. Employers also think that a standard arrangement motivates employees (Donker van Heel et al., 2013). Donker van Heel et al. (2013) state that temporary contracts are mostly used to cope with volatility. With a contract of fixed duration employers can cope with changes in work load. Another reason is seeing temporary contracts as a possibility to hire permanent staff. Van Echtelt et al. (2015) confirm these reasons and add that uncertainty about the quantity of the work load is a third motive to offer temporary contracts.
Temporary agency workers are mostly hired to deal with volatility or having more flexibility in number of workers (Donker van Heel et al., 2013; Van Echtelt et al., 2015). Donker van Heel et al. (2013) also found that agency workers are hired to lower risks and the nature of the work. Compared to Zzp’ers, agency workers are less hired with ‘nature of the work’ as motive. This means the skills and knowledge of an agency worker are not of much importance for the job.
Payroll is mostly used out of economic motives. One can think about less administrative work, firing easily, avoiding costs in case of sickness or disability to work and for the simple reason it is cheaper to hire a payroll worker (Van Echtelt et al., 2015). Donker van Heel et al. (2013) also found that payroll workers are mostly used to reduce costs. Secondment workers are also hired to deal with volatility but the nature of the job is much more important compared with agency workers (Donker van Heel et al., 2013). This means secondment workers usually have certain skills and knowledge.
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Both the core-periphery model and the selection of conducted studies had eye for the rational component in contracting decisions. It seems that motives mentioned by Atkinson (1984) for the usage of several types of work arrangements, fit with the motives of Dutch employers. However, Atkinson is not as specific about lowering risks related to labour laws as motive in contract decision making. Furthermore, the studies on Dutch employers’ motives did not include outsourcing and sub-contracting. Also this research looks at the people working internal. For that reason, these two forms of contracting will be left out. The next section describes the developments within and current situation of the Dutch IT labour market.
§ 2.1.3 IT professionals on the Dutch labour market
The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB, 2000) researched the development of IT in the Netherlands between 1973 and 1995. Based on statistical analysis, the bureau concluded that in the mentioned period the productivity growth of IT was at least 1% higher each year compared with the total market productivity. In the late 1990’s and the early 2000’s, mobile telephony, e-mail and internet became more important in both organisations and the private lives of people. This resulted in further growth of the IT sector on many features.
Figure 2: Number of IT vacancies compared to the total number of vacancies, 1997-2011. Reprinted from “ICT en Economie” (p. 27) by CBS,2011, Den Haag/Heerlen: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek.
The number of IT professionals has been growing since 1997, as showed in figure 2. Compared to the total amount of vacancies, the IT sector differs at some points. After the economic downturn in 2009, the number of vacancies in IT grew harder compared to the total amount. In contrast with the period after the collapse of the internet bubble. The amount of vacancies declined harder that period. As mentioned in the previous chapter, CBS (2011) states that the IT sector was an early gauge for the rest of the labour market.
The number of vacancies continued to grow in recent years. CBS (2016) reports that since 2012, the amount of vacancies has been growing constantly. This means that this occupational group is an
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increasing part of the total labour force. Rabobank (2017) expects that the growth of volume will be about 3% in 2017. Although IT depends highly on the economic situation, investments in technology are expected to grow. This is mainly because irrespective of the economic situation, organisations are to become more dependent on IT. Furthermore, the report mentions that there is a shortage of sufficient qualified and specialised professionals. Last year, 11.000 positions were not filled in, 38% more compared to 2014. In 2005, 5% of the vacancies were IT related, in 2015 8% (CBS, 2016). Employers are worried whether there are enough IT professionals to fill in all the vacancies. Employers face major problems with filling in positions at hbo-level, 65% and WO-level, 24%. Only 11% of the hard-to-fill-in vacancies is at mbo-level.
In 2016, 337.000 people were working as IT professional, 4% of the total number of employees (UWV, 2017a). 287.000 IT professionals are employee, while 45.000 work as Zzp’er. Within the group of employees, only 13% of the IT professionals is working via a flexible arrangement. Nearly 90% of the IT professionals is male (CBS, 2011; UWV, 2017a) and they are rather high educated compared with all the other occupational groups. In 2016, 6% was lower educated, 33% middle and 61% higher. (UWV, 2017a) state that the overwhelming majority of IT professionals working as employee, have a standard contract. Only 13% has a flexible contract. This is relatively low compared with the total amount of other occupational groups (26%). As mentioned in the previous chapter, IT workers are relatively well educated. Only 6% is lower educated, much lower compared with other groups (21%).
Figure 3: Opleidingsniveau van ZZP’ers per sector [Educational background Zzp’er per sector].Retrieved from Zzpers in ICT en zakelijke advisering verdienen-meest, 2015 ( http://www.consultancy.nl/nieuws/10208/zzpers-in-ict-en-zakelijke-advisering-verdienen-meest).
Figure 3 shows that the majority of IT Zzp’ers is higher educated. IT is a knowledge intensive and complex profession with several specialisations and rapid changes. Therefore, it is understandable
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why there are not many lower educated IT Zzp’ers. Atkinson (1984) already stated that self-employed people are mostly hired for their specific knowledge. This seems right for the IT sector. As mentioned, IT is becoming of more importance. Technological developments follow up quickly and because IT infrastructure, security and applications are becoming more complex, specialisation is required. For that reason, jobs in IT can differ very much. A professional can work as a system administrator, software developer, support engineer, IT manager, security specialist, consultant, cloud engineer, network specialist and many more (NationaleBeroepengids, n.d.). Not all of these professions are necessarily represented in each organisation.
UWV (2017a) reports that on-call and zero hour contracts are very rare in IT. For that reason, these types of contracts are not included in this research any further. Furthermore, according to UWV 80% of the IT professionals, work full time. It would have been out of the scope of an extrapolative research to include part time contracts. The relevant work arrangements for this research are presented in table 1.
Dutch English
Vast Standard arrangement
Tijdelijk Temporary / fixed duration
Uitzend Temporary agency
Payroll Payroll
Detachering Secondment
Zzp Self-employed
Anders Other
Table 1: Selection of types of work arrangements.
Table 1 includes several types of work arrangements that will be researched in this study. This choice is based on previous studies on contracts and characteristics of the IT professionals. The standard arrangement is the most used contract for IT professionals who work as employee. Also Zzp is oft-recurring. The category ‘other’ is included in case of unexpected but interesting types of contracts pop up.
Dutch employers seem to use different types of contracts for the same reasons as Atkinson (1984) argues. In IT, most professionals work via a standard arrangement and the number of Zzp’ers is high. IT professionals are higher educated compared to the average of other occupational groups. There is a shortage of (higher) educated IT professionals, a growing importance of IT on daily business processes and working in IT requires specific knowledge and skills. Probably these reasons influence the relatively low number of flexible contracts in this occupational group.
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The next section elaborates on the relationship between educational background and type of contract.
§ 2.1.4 Relationship between educational background and type of contract
Before elaborating on the influence of education on type of contract, some explanation about the Dutch educational system is needed. After high school people usually attend tertiary education. Which level depends on the level they completed at high school. Mbo (middelbaar beroepsonderwijs) is focused on vocational training. Within mbo there are four levels. Hbo (hoger beroepsonderwijs) is also strongly related to vocational training but on a higher level and is often named as university of applied sciences in English. WO is the university, focused on science (SBB, n.d.).
Several studies state there is a relationship between completed level of education and the chance of working with a flexible contract (CPB, 2016; Kremer et al., 2017; Muffels, 2013). The lower a person is educated, the higher the chance of having a flexible contract.
Figure 4: Percentage werkenden met bepaald type flexbaan, per opleidingsniveau, 2105 [Percentage of workers with a flexible contract, per educational level, 2015], p.21, by CPB, 2016. Retrieved from
( https://www.cpb.nl/sites/default/files/omnidownload/CPB-Achtergronddocument-17nov2016-De-flexibele-schil-van-de-nederlandse-arbeidsmarkt-een-analyse-op-basis-van-microdata.pdf)
The upper half of the figure shows that, in general, higher educated people face less chance of having a flexible contract. Zzp however, differs. As Atkinson (1984) states that self-employed people are usually hired for their specific knowledge. CPB (2016) concluded that several characteristics of an individual influence the probability of having a flexible contract. Controlled for the variables age, gender, ethnicity and position in the household, level of education is the most important variable. Although all these factors have influence on the probability. IT professionals are relatively high
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educated so based on the findings of CPB (2016), it is not surprising that employees of this group mostly work via a standard contract.
The previous sections were related to the motives for flexibility and types of contracts Atkinson (1984) describes. The core-periphery model and research on Dutch employers’ motives are founded on rational arguments such as economic and financial reasons and work load or knowledge requirements within the organisation. IT professionals as occupational group know its own dynamics. Based on the literature study so far, some expectations about the content of the data can be formulated. These expectations are not stiff hypotheses that need to be confirmed or rejected. Dutch employers’ motives for flexible contracts in general seem to be in line with the theory of Atkinson (1984). The group of IT professionals seem to differ on some points in comparison with other occupational groups. IT employees have more chance of working via a standard contract. The number of flexible, own, employees is relatively low. Because certain knowledge is required to work in IT and practitioners are relatively high educated, organisations seem to want to secure knowledge. Because agency workers are mostly hired for their labour power and not their knowledge, this contract will not appear much in the data. Secondment workers seem to fit better to deal with volatility. The relatively high amount of Zzp’ers seems to be an indication for growing specialisation in IT. Organisations hire Zzp’ers mostly for their specific knowledge. A last important feature of the group of IT professionals is the scarcity of higher educated professionals. This might be a disruption of the core-periphery model as ideal type. Further elaboration on this topic follows in the next paragraph.
Besides that, another contribution of this research is its inclusion of social-cultural circumstances related to contract decision making. For that reason, §2.3 elaborates on the institutional context of organisations and the forthcoming about internal organisational culture. This choice has been made because these factors might influence what type of contract is offered and have not been researched in relation to IT professionals. The following paragraph looks at the potential influence of IT professionals on the conditions of their own working arrangement.
§ 2.2 Influence of the IT professional on type and conditions of contract
As mentioned earlier this chapter, the number of vacancies for IT professionals has been growing rapidly in recent years. Especially for higher educated professionals.
UWV (2017b) reports that there were nearly 54.000 vacancies for IT professionals. The institute even sees the shortages of IT professionals as a potential threat for further growth. Other research by UWV (2017a) states that there is a mismatch between work seeking IT professionals (older, lower
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educated) and demand (higher educated, specialised). Especially developers are hard to find for employers. Stavenuiter et al. (2016) researched employers in six branches in the Netherlands, including IT, about flexible labour. The employers say it is hard to bind higher educated IT professionals. Students are often guaranteed a job before they graduate. This indicates the scarcity. This paragraph relies on the basic economic theory that the price of a product depends on supply and demand. In this case not a product but a person. IT professionals are part of the labour market. As showed, the demanding employers, have to cope with less supply of higher educated and specialised IT professional than demanded. They have to compete to furfill their needs on IT.
Employers can compete on price (wages, rate) but also on other aspects. Derksen et al., (2016) asked what IT professionals find important in choosing an employer. The researchers found that when it comes to tangible components, the height of the salary, a permanent contract and good secondary employee benefits are important. Other aspects are things as career opportunities, flexible working hours and working atmosphere.
Where the ideal type of Atkinson (1984) assumes enough supply of professionals to meet employers’ demands, the shortage of IT professionals might be a disruptor of the core-periphery model. Employers face a shortage in number of workers and in skills. Perhaps IT professionals want to work under other conditions than employers and have more influence on these conditions because of the market circumstances. The next paragraph looks to external circumstances without a (theoretically) rigid logic as that of the market.
§ 2.3 Influence of social-cultural circumstances
De Beer and Kraamwinkel (2012) mentioned that another reason why employers offer flexible arrangements is automatism and the spirit of ‘the more flexibility, the better’. The authors did not elaborate much further to support their statement. This paragraph looks at the institutional context of organisations and isomorphism and tries to find support of the statement of De Beer and Kraamwinkel. DiMaggio and Powell (1983) say that organisations operating in the same field, tend to copy each other. The second part looks at the internal organisational culture.
§ 2.3.1 Isomorphism
DiMaggio and Powell (1983) describe the rise of bureaucratisation in previous decades. Bureaucracies are the result of competition among firms and among nations. Professionalization and state formation required efficiency and objectivity. Especially the bourgeois demanded equal treatment instead of receiving orders from an authoritarian leader. The authors mainly point to Weber (1968, mentioned in DiMaggio and Powell, 1983) in describing how bureaucracies arose. Bureaucracy and organisations are studied by many scholars (Handel, 2003). Scholars and authors
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mostly focused on differences between organisations while DiMaggio and Powell (1983) look at similarities among organisations.
Organisations compete for customers, attention and profit. But, organisations within the same sector or field, develop due to external pressure a common playing field. Within that playing field, organisations can differentiate on my many things such as goals and approaches, but must cope with similar constraints. After a while, also new organisations seek for legitimacy by other actors and integrate the rules and values of the field. DiMaggio and Powell (1983) say this is necessary to survive and call this phenomenon isomorphism. Believing that organisations are influenced by the institutional context in which they operate, is the foundation of institutional theory (Shonk & Bravo, 2010). The main argument of this theoretical school is that organisations’ structure and behaviour are based on the social and cultural context (Barley & Tolbert, 1997). Slack and Hinings (1994) found some empirical support for the theory of isomorphism.
DiMaggio and Powell (1984) distinguish three different forms or causes of isomorphism.
The first one is coercive isomorphism. This means that organisations pressure each other to meet cultural expectations from society. These expectations can be instigated by both formal (government) and informal (society) pressures such as contract law and financial reporting. In the case of flexible contracts, most organisations have to deal with the same labour market regulations but, and that is important in this case, rules can differ per sector due to collective arrangements such as collective bargaining (CAO’s). The coercive variant has much to do with authority of external actors.
The second instigator of isomorphism can be summarised as mimetic processes. This is strongly related to feelings of uncertainty. Strong instigators of mimicking are if organisational technologies are poorly understood, goals are ambiguous or when the environment creates uncertainty. In these cases, organisations look at other organisations and copy behaviour to deal with uncertainty. DiMaggio and Powell (1983) write that the modelled organisations may be unaware of the fact that other organisations copy its practices or behaviour. If an organisation is successful, competitors are tempted to copy certain factors even if the organisations are different and it has not been proven to be beneficial in each case. Developments in IT evolve rapidly and the organisation, operates in a globalised and volatile market. According to the arguments DiMaggio and Powell make, it is not being said that offering flexible contracts is beneficial or not, it is simply not proven to be beneficial in any case. Offering a certain (flexible) contract can be a way of dealing with uncertainty. In that way, certainty is find in practices of competitors.
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The last external pressure in isomorphism has to do with norms due to professionalization. DiMaggio and Powell (1983) interpret professionalization as the struggle of members of the same collective to define the conditions of their work. In other words, to control the production of producers (p. 152). Current organisations have a lot of managers and specialised staff. These people are connected within an occupational club or association for managers. Together they establish norms on how to do their job.
Associations are important in this process but also the same kind of formal education practitioners had. This last mechanism might also be important in decisions regarding contracting IT professionals. If HR or IT managers are connected in some sort of association, it can be the case that they establish a norm that can be described as ‘the more flexibility, the better’. After managers or directors graduate from a business school, they may find agree that labour is solely seen as a cost. Choosing for avoiding risks by offering flexible contracts can be a logic consequence. De Beer and Kraamwinkel (2012) mentioned the automatism of ‘the more flexibility, the better’ as one of the potential reasons why employers opt for flexible contracts. Noteworthy to mention is that Dekker and De Beer (2015) found in a micro study on two sectors in the Netherlands, no supportive evidence of flexibility as automatism. Organisations participating in this study and operating in the same industry, had motives to cope differently with flexible work, compared to competitors.
According to DiMaggio and Powell (1983), organisations operating in the same field, face external pressure that lead to isomorphism. They mostly face the same legislation when it comes to (flexible) labour and working conditions. Societal pressure on flexible working arrangements might also affect organisational behaviour in contracting. Furthermore, IT is highly depending on economic business cycles (CBS,2011) and global developments effect technological possibilities (Di Stasio, 2014). Organisations cannot be certain about future developments and this might have influence on contracting IT professionals. DiMaggio and Powell relate feelings of uncertainty also to future legislation. A concrete example for the Netherlands could be uncertainty concerning future legislation for hiring Zzp’ers (Van den Berg, 2017). The last cause of isomorphism is related to professionalization. People construct the same attitude or values towards business strategies and approaches.
§2.3.2 Organisational culture
This part does not elaborate on how internal culture, norms and values are constructed within organisations. Different organisational cultures can be classified in different typologies. Using the
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typologies would also be outside the scope of this research. This section theoretically explores the influence of organisational culture on concrete decisions as what type of contract is offered.
Defining the concept of culture is difficult (Ablas & Wijsman, 2013). Hofstede (2012) writes about collective mental programming and according to him culture is related to values, norms and behaviour. Deal and Kennedy (1983) simply define culture as ‘the way we do things here’. Schwartz and Davis (1981, p.32) define culture as: ‘a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by organization’s members. These beliefs and expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behavior of individuals and groups in the organization’. According to Schwartz and Davis, culture represents what was successful in the past. Over the years, organisations find out what works and learn from earlier experiences. After some time, a set of beliefs, values and norms has been established. Objections can be made against each definition. At least (organisational) culture deals with a more or less widely accepted idea about what should be done and in what way.
Irrespectively of what type of culture an organisation has, managers want to continue it (Ablas & Wijsman, 2013). In recruitment and selection, applicants will be judged on their ability to confirm to existing values and norms. In this case, culture is strictly related to the individual. Culture however, also directs organisations’ attitude towards policy and procedures.
Schwartz and Davis (1981) researched the relationship between organisational culture and business strategy. Organisations competing in the market, can successfully differ in strategy. If organisation X focusses on innovation, the organisation needs continual development of knowledge. This effect the way employees are seen and treated compared to organisation Y which focusses on mass production and stability. Schwartz and Davis (1981) found that the better the fit between strategy and culture, the higher the chance of success. At the level of contracting, the relationship between strategy and culture might affect what type of contract is offered.
§2.4 Conceptual model
Some comments of justification are needed. Consulted studies sometimes looked at characteristics such as gender, ethnicity and role in the family (breadwinner, student child etc.) and the relationship with flexibility (Kremer et al., 2017). Because most of the IT professionals are male, it is not suitable to research the gender aspect in an explorative research. The same counts for ethnicity because nearly 80% of the IT professionals is Dutch native (UWV, 2017b). To explore the dynamics of contracting IT professionals, the educational background and relationship with type of contract is included. An important feature of today’s IT labour market is scarcity. That is why this has been
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included. The last paragraph, about motives, is included because previous studies and reports did not have qualitative research on this aspect. What they did was a quantitative representation of rational motives. The social and cultural motives are underrepresented in previous research. Choices resulted in the following conceptual model (figure 5 on the next page) of this research.
Rational motives from previously conducted research will be tested on their applicability on IT professionals. Because educational matters on type of contract, this is included in rational motives. Testing for the occupational group of IT professionals specifically has not been done before. The conditions on the labour market for IT professionals are a separate part because the ideal type of Atkinson (1984) did not include this as well as social-cultural circumstances.
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3 Method
This chapter describes how the research was conducted and explains why certain choices were made. The main aim of this chapter is to justify choices and to enable the reader to verify if the information has been obtained in a proper, suitable and ethical manner and if the data-analysis approach was appropriate. Besides the information about the research process provided in this chapter, the transcripts of the interviews are included in the appendix. This enables readers to do this research or the analysis themselves and is important regarding reliability.
§ 3.1 Perspective of this research
This research tried to find, with the results and indications of earlier conducted studies, if general statements made about contracting also apply for IT professionals. Besides that, this study looked at underexposed features that might be important in deciding what type of contract is offered. The aim was to conduct an inductive research to explore the dynamics of contracting IT professionals. To do so, several different organisations have been interviewed. Bryman (2012) writes that this conducted research can be classified as interpretative. This type of research opposes natural sciences which rely on objectivity, standards and procedures. There is no such thing as a scientific model to test general statements in contracting because people decide within a certain institutional and organisational context what type of contract is offered to an IT professional.
This research focused on how participating organisations and its interviewed employees, interpret and deal with a part of the social world. In this case, contracting IT professionals. Because of the interpretative attitude towards knowledge and how to obtain it, there is not a one-way strategy to obtain knowledge nor one way to analyse it. Although there are certain rules and procedures to ensure quality, validity and reliability of research in social sciences, interpretative research is closely linked to interpretations of the researcher (Bryman, 2012). This freedom of interpretation causes responsibility to the researcher to be open about the research process.
The aim of this research was not to formulate a grounded theory. Bryman (2012) writes that in this case, a theory is the result of a systematically analysis of empirical data. To do so, more data would have been needed.
§ 3.2 Data and sources
This paragraph elaborates on which data were needed. An elaboration on the exact method follows in a forthcoming paragraph. Furthermore, this part describes the sources where data have been obtained.
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§ 3.2.1 Type of data
To answer the research questions, particular data were needed. Because this research is explorative and focused partially on social-cultural circumstances, some limitations on data collection popped up. Previous conducted studies about reasons behind certain choices in contracting IT professionals were not available and that is why reasons statistical analyses were not possible. Furthermore, statistics are less suitable to investigate the potential influence of social-cultural circumstances, even if this research would have constructed its own survey. Bryman (2012) writes that quantitative approaches aim to find relationships between data and theory and derive originally from the natural sciences. Statistics would not have been the most suitable manner to answer the research questions. This research needed data that could be interpreted. Contracting professionals can be treated in numerous ways and why certain choices are made depends highly on the organisational context. Its culture, its core business, the situation on the labour market and relationships with other organisations. Appropriate data for this research have to pay respect to the context of the organisation and need to enable the researcher to interpret within various contexts.
§ 3.2.2 Semi-structured interviews
This research used interviewing as method to collect data. Interviewing enables the researcher to ask specific questions, ask for clarification and to have eye for the context. Migchelbrink (2013) writes that interviews are used to research views, events, situations, motives, perceptions, attitudes and experiences of interviewees. All interesting features in how organisations deal with contracting IT professionals.
Interviews can be held in several ways. This research opted for semi-structured interviews. Theoretically-based expectations and research questions were formulated before conducting the interviews. There was already a direction about the topics and therefore an open interview was not suitable. An open interview was for another reason not appropriate. This research compares on several variables and to compare, information on the same topics is needed. Semi-structured interviews enables the researcher to obtain information from several organisations on the same topics.
Other qualitative data collection techniques were not suitable for this research. Observation for example would not have given insight in motives and one can imagine it would have been difficult to get access to job interviews or remuneration negotiations. Migchelbrink (2013) writes that observations can be used to collect data events, behaviour, movements and physical objects. Furthermore, solely conducting desk-research would have been insufficient as explained earlier.
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Interviews can be held in various ways. This study chose semi-structured interviews instead of other possibilities. Migchelbrink (2013) writes about several options in interviewing. Fully structured or open interviews were not the most appropriate methods. A completely structured interview is closely linked to a survey and does not provide enough freedom to anticipate on interesting statements in relation to the organisational context. Open interviews, without a list of questions or topics, would have been insufficient if making comparisons is the aim. Finally, this research opted for individual interviews instead of group interviews. A group interview would not have been suitable because organisations wanted to be anonymous and such an interview makes it difficult to obtain details and to ask further.
§ 3.3 Sources of data
Organisations needed to be approached in order to collect data. Because this is an explorative research, some variation among organisations was desirable. This means both profit and non-profit organisations are included. This differentiation is still rather broad but realistic within the given period of time. It has been attempted to make extrapolation as probable as possible.
Within a limited period of time, twelve participating organisations was seen as realistic. Ideally, this would have resulted in an equal distribution of six profit organisations and six non-profit. Initially, this research tried to sample interviewees via generic purposive. Bryman (2012) writes that in this type of sampling, criteria are formulated to which a participant needs to conform to. As written, this research differentiates in types of organisations and this criterion has been met. Twelve interviews were held with thirteen organisations. One interview was about two organisations at the same time because of collaboration between them. At the end, six profit organisations and seven non-profit participated.
Interviewing twelve organisations at least was prescribed and seen as reliable enough to conduct an extrapolative research. To meet this criterion, people in the own network of the researcher were approached. Nine organisations arose out of this network and four organisations were willing to participate after a ‘cold call’. Because of dependency on the network, the researcher could not always choose the interviewees. This is why IT managers of a division or department were interviewed and not IT Directors responsible for the whole organisation.
The previous paragraph briefly mentioned interviewees but was more focused on organisations. The following paragraph focuses on interviewees and explains important features of the interview process.
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§ 3.4 Interviewees and process
The interviewees were working at the HR department, in the recruiting staff or had a management position in IT. HR and recruitment employees were concerned with the whole organisation, while IT managers were mostly responsible for one division or department. Table 2 on the next page sums up when and who has been interviewed. All interviews happened in a formal setting at the workplace of the interviewee, one on one, with a recorder. However, one interview was held by phone and another organisation was represented by two employees during the interview. The average time spent on an interview was 0:56:43. The longest interview had a duration of 1:13:04. During the process to make an appointment, most of the interviewees were already asked if there was any objection against using a recorder. In none of the cases this was a problem.
All the interviews have been held in the Dutch language except one. The exception has been held in English because the interviewee did not speak Dutch. Although this research is written in English, the interviewees and the research are Dutch natives. This made it plausible and suitable to conduct the interviews in Dutch. The transcripts are also in Dutch in order to represent the rough data without translation biases. The data-analysis chapter provides some quotes from the interviews, these are presented in Dutch for the same reasons.
During the interviews, the list of questions needed to be asked was always at the researchers disposal. The necessity of the list has been outlined. Noteworthy to mention is that during the acquaintance, prior to the actual interview and recording, some interviewees already provided some information. This influenced sometimes the direction of the interview. Besides that, due to answers of the interviewee, some topics on the list were discussed in another order. At the end of each interview, the researcher checked the list whether all questions have been asked. Mostly this was the case although some topics have been dealt with briefly. Sometimes a specific question was not relevant, sometimes the interviewee had limited time. The most important accusation one can make against the researcher about specific questions, is the question if the pros and cons of each contract were considered every time. These questions have not been in asked every interview.
Organisation Interviewee function Date Duration Extra
Collection agency HR Manager and Corporate Recruiter 18-4-2017 1:07:18 Two interviewees
Broadcaster IT Manager 19-4-2017 1:12:03 Break
Retailer Corporate Recruiter 20-2-2017 0:30:10 By phone
Employment
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Assurance HR Business Partner 25-4-2017 0:56:58
Retailer HR Employee 25-4-2017 0:44:50
Municipality IT Team Lead 3-5-2017 0:50:41
Telemarketer IT Manager 3-5-2017 1:06:42
University & University of Applied
Sciences IT Manager 8-5-2017 0:48:23 Two organisations
University of Applied
Sciences Director IT 9-5-2017 1:07:39
Employee Insurance
Agency IT Manager 11-5-2017 0:39:52
Software developer Corporate Recruiter 11-5-2017 1:13:04
Table 2: Background information on the interviews.
Bryman (2012) writes that reliability in research has to deal with the issue of biases and to what extent results were due to coincidence. Much can be said about this feature of research. This whole chapter enables readers to decide whether or not the results of this research are reliable.
The description of the process and making transcripts and the topic list available, fits in the procedure named as audit trial (Baarda, de Goede & Theunissen, 2005). Other approaches to decide about reliability of a research could be re-testing, testing with another instrument or full replication. None of these options were possible or suitable.
§ 3.5 Data analysis
At this point the reader knows how the data were obtained and under what circumstances. This paragraph describes how the data were analysed.
First, all interviews have been read open-minded in the first phase of the analysis. This means that interesting statements and issues in each interview were marked. Although it is difficult to read data without having research questions and hypotheses in mind, a serious attempt has been made to do so. According to Bryman (2012), this approach diminishes the chance of overseeing key features. The second step was to label all the marked parts. A label could be ‘differences between mbo and hbo educated professionals and type of contract’ or ‘motive to hire a Zzp’er’. Each interview has been treated individually at this stage. This means labels vary much and fitted specifically to an interview. The third step was to look for similarities between labels among all the interviews. All
