Especially in knowledge-intensive working fields, such as IT services and medicine, a process of intra-organisational transformation is emerging that has received only little attention to date. Contrary to the statement of many economic theories, qualified and highly qualified external employees are increasingly deployed together with permanent employees in the success-related core of organisations. However, both employment groups usually differ in terms of their working conditions. As a result of such group constellations comparisons and changed knowledge transfer processes can occur as well as different perceptions of organisational justice can arise and clash. Thus the integration of external workers into the core of organisations introduces a competitive element into the cooperation relationships that have been in place to date.
Using a mixed-method study design, the research project aims to investigate the (un)intended effects of this transformation process on the inner- and inter-company relationships and on the interaction of both levels. In addition to (1) expert interviews with the strategic organisational level and with representatives of inner- and inter-company-interest groups, (2) participating observations on the organisational level and (3) problem-oriented interviews with employees of different employment status are applied. By means of a (4) quantitative survey, in which perceptual patterns of cooperation between external employees and permanent employees are analysed in a comparative manner, the qualitative results obtained are to be generalised.
