A difference in differences analysis on how a change in employment affects motivation amongst temporary employees

Abstract

This master thesis investigates how temporary employees’ motivation changes when a company starts to hire more permanent employees. It is imperative to know how changes in the work situation affects the motivation of the employees, because motivation can be the difference between a successful or a non-successful organisation. I used costumer service surveys as an indicator of performance, and looked at performance as a continuation of motivation. The increase in permanent employees took place in the first week of 2016, which made it possible for me to do a difference in differences analysis before and after the increase in permanent employees. In addition, I also performed an event study. I found no statistically significant change in the motivation of temporary employees when there was an increase in permanent employees. The outcome of this thesis forms a conclusion that states that temporary employees perform correspondingly both before and after an increase in permanent employees.