Bringing the outside in: Can “external” workers experience insider status?

Abstract The current study examines the possibility that agency workers can experience perceived insider status despite their assumed “outsider” category. One hundred ninety‐one agency workers from Canadian financial firms completed surveys assessing agency worker perceptions regarding the level of support from both their supervisors and the client firms' permanent workers, as well as the agency workers' level of perceived insider status and affective commitment toward the client firm. Agency worker supervisors (within the client firm) assessed the agency workers' level of interpersonal facilitation. Results indicate that: (1) Agency workers can experience perceived insider status, regardless of their objective classification as outsiders; (2) perceived support from supervisors and the client firms' permanent workers contribute to agency worker perceptions of insider status; and (3) perceptions of insider status are associated with higher levels of both affective commitment and interpersonal facilitation, even in workers that are considered marginally tied to the organization. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.