Catherwood LibraryILR School

Stephen R. Barley and Gideon Kunda

Over the last several decades, employers have increasingly replaced permanent employees with temporary workers and independent contractors to cut labor costs and enhance flexibility. Although commentators have focused largely on low-wage temporary work, the use of skilled contractors has also grown exponentially, especially in high-technology areas. Yet, almost nothing is known about contracting or about the people who do it. Gurus, Hired Guns and Warm Bodies tells the story of how the market for temporary professionals operates from the perspective of the contractors who do the work, the managers who employ them, the permanent employees who work beside them, and the staffing agencies who broker deals. ...based on a year of field work in three staffing agencies, life histories with over seventy contractors and studies of workers in some of America's best known firms. [from dust jacket]