The internal career orientation of permanent and contracting information technology staff.

The primary aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between types of employment (permanent or contracting) for two variables: flow and career success orientation in an information technology environment. The study was performed in a sub-division of a large telecommunications company that focuses on software development and implementation. Two questionnaires measuring flow and career success orientation, were administered to groups of 150 permanent and 150 contracting staff respectively. Factor analyses indicated that the career success orientation questionnaire measured two dimensions labeled as ‘work focus’ and ‘self focus’, and the flow questionnaire measured ‘enjoyment’ and ‘control of consciousness’. Contracting and permanent employees were compared with regard to the four dimensions and it was found that contract workers experienced their work more optimally than the permanent workers did, because they obtained higher scores on the ‘control of consciousness scale’