Despite the increased use of seasonal employees by organizations, few studies have been completed on the attitudes and service quality of seasonal office workers. Using Lautsch's classification model, we analyzed the organizational context in which the standard and seasonal workers in this study were employed. Hypotheses were developed based upon the organizational analysis and social exchange theory. Results from archival data obtained from a web‐based organizational survey of 205 clerical and professional workers indicated contrary to expectations, standard and seasonal employees did not significantly differ in terms of perceptions of overall job conditions, perceived organizational support (POS), or job engagement. However, seasonal employees did report significantly fewer opportunities to work on challenging tasks, less comfortable physical working conditions, and less job security than the standard workers. As predicted, standard employees reported significantly higher levels of service quality performance than seasonal employees. Additionally, job engagement mediated the relationship between POS and service quality for both the standard and seasonal employees. Implications for managing seasonal employees are discussed.

While previous studies have increased our knowledge of how employees’ perceptions of development practices influence employee outcomes, the role of potential contingencies in this relationship remains relatively unexplored. In the present study, we set out to contribute to this research by exploring whether congruence or lack of congruence between perceived employee development practices and the perceived motivational climate at work influence employee performance and turnover intention. A field study among 169 employees from a Norwegian financial organization revealed that lack of congruence may be detrimental in terms of work performance and turnover intention. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

This study advances research on high‐commitment work systems (HCWSs) and organizational innovation by examining how the configuration of middle managers' work–family issues (i.e., work–family conflict and work climate for sharing family concerns) shape the relationship between HCWSs and innovation performance. Using a matched sample of senior management team members, middle managers, and frontline employees from 113 Chinese manufacturing firms and two waves of survey, we found that HCWSs are associated with enhanced levels of middle managers' innovative behavior, an association that improves innovation performance. The results also show that high levels of work–family conflict weaken the relationship between HCWSs and innovative behavior, but can be attenuated when a work climate better facilitates the sharing of family concerns. The study contributes to the knowledge of the role of HCWSs and contextual conditions of their effects in enhancing organizational innovation performance, with specific implications for the Chinese context.