Reasons for working part‐time : Subgroup differences in job attitudes and turnover intentions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explores the factors that might lead an individual to pursue part‐time (PT) employment. Design/methodology/approach – The paper hypothesized that employees have very different motivations for PT working, and that these motivations will affect their work experiences. The paper builds on recent research focusing on attitudinal differences between “voluntary PT” and “involuntary PT” employees by developing and evaluating a measure of reasons for accepting PT work. Current full‐time (FT) and PT employees from several samples ( n =1,069) completed a survey including our reasons scale, plus measures of facet job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. Findings – Cluster analyses of reasons indicated four groups of PT employees – voluntary, involuntary, caretakers, and students. These sub‐groups differed from each other, and from FT workers, on most outcome measures. Students and involuntary PT workers generally reported lower job attitudes and greater intentions to turnover than did caretakers, voluntary PT workers, and FT workers. Research limitations/implications – Future research should attempt to sample a larger number of PT workers, and begin investigating understudied outcomes (e.g. task and contextual performance, actual withdrawal behavior). Originality/value – It is shown that PT workers are heterogeneous in both their reasons and their attitudes. The paper stresses the value of examining specific factors which result in an individual choosing to work PT in an effort to better understand his or her experiences on that job. A short measure is presented which may be used to further examine the implications of various reasons behind PT job choice.