PurposeIn response to the increasing interest in entrepreneurs' well-being in both the entrepreneurship and management research fields, this study builds and tests a research model on the role of ...entrepreneurial passion for inventing in work engagement in the context of modern knowledge work. The research argument is built on the job demands–resources model, the most commonly used frame for measuring employee well-being in work and organization psychology. The research setting in this study compares digital entrepreneurs and freelancers with traditional knowledge workers and part-time platform workers in terms of passion and engagement.Design/methodology/approachUsing a quantitative research design, the authors collected data from 349 highly specialized knowledge workers through anonymous questionnaires. The research hypotheses were tested with linear and logit models.FindingsThe results show that entrepreneurial passion is positively related to increased job demands and work engagement and that job demands can have a positive effect on work engagement in highly complex knowledge work.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by expanding the analysis of entrepreneurial passion outside the entrepreneurship context and into work engagement theory by adding passion for inventing as an important motivational factor in modern knowledge work. Extant literature on the consequences of work digitalization is still scarce, and this study provides insights into successful working on digital platforms.
PurposeThis study investigates the relationship between self-leadership and the work performance of gig workers as moderated by perceived organizational support and mediated by work ...engagement.Design/methodology/approachLinear regression and the Process macro by Hayes were used to examine the hypothesized model, on a data set of 384 gig workers.FindingsThe outcomes indicated a positive relationship between the self-leadership strategies of the freelancers and their work performance. The association of self-leadership and work performance was moderated by perceived organizational support and partially mediated by work engagement.Originality/valueThis study responds to the need for exploration of the moderation and mediating mechanisms through which self-leadership influences how gig workers perform at work.
Abstract
This article challenges positive views of the assumed relationships between skills, productivity and rewards in self-employed digital freelancing. It suggests that the upfront investments ...made by freelancers to build up positive platform ratings are not necessarily recouped in the form of increased autonomy, guaranteed work or more lucrative ‘gigs’. Drawing on 38 autobiographical narrative interviews and 12 audio working diaries with diverse online freelancers in Europe, we show how the low barriers to enter platform work provide opportunities for those with limited work experience and other commitments outside of work. However, the intense competition between an ever-expanding pool of (both skilled and unskilled) task freelancers within ‘digital tournaments’ results in the colonisation of worker’s free time, and the normalisation of unpaid labour. This implies that ‘free time’ for freelancers is largely an illusion. Furthermore, the significant ‘sunk costs’ that freelancers make in terms of time, platform-specific skills, reputation and networks are not fully recovered and cannot be transferred to other platforms.
This article contributes to the debate on the enterprise culture, which is characterised by the celebration of risk-taking and self-realisation, which in turn also implies self-responsibilisation and ...atomisation of the workforce. It does so by investigating organisations created with the aim of finding alternatives for freelancers, who epitomise the processes of individualisation typical of late capitalism. The organisations studied, both companies and cooperatives, aim to enable freelancers to combine autonomy in running their business with access to labour and social rights and inclusion in a collective. Drawing on a multiple case study conducted in France and Italy, the article investigates how organisations can counteract the processes of self-responsibilisation and atomisation of the workforce by enacting principles typical of alternative organisations. This study thus provides a twofold contribution to critical organisational theory and sociological literature on the individualisation of work and feasible alternatives to it. Our findings show, first, that the enterprise culture can be challenged through alternative organising even when freelancers – a category of workers embodying the contemporary processes of individualisation – are at stake. Second, the study of these emerging organisations also contributes to the flourishing debate on alternative organisations by adding an original empirical contribution to ongoing reflections on alternatives to market capitalism.
The use of information and communication technologies in the work process introduced significant innovations, as well as the emergence of new occupations and professions. This digitalisation of work ...affects the increase of efficiency and easier performance of a number of jobs, but also the precarisation of labour and shifting the focus of employers from employment to other, atypical forms of labour relations. At the same time, employed digital workers exercise some of their labour rights in a specific way. In most cases, digital work implies physical separation from the employer, which raises a number of questions: how to organise working hours, how to supervise the work of digital workers, how they can exercise their collective rights, how the employer can arrange a safe working environment outside its premises, and similar. On the other hand, workers who work outside the employment relationship, among which platform self-employed workers and freelancers stand out, are in a significantly more difficult position when it comes to exercising basic labour rights. The emergence of false self-employment, which is expanding along with the growth of the use of ICT in the work process in various occupations, as well as the virtually unresolved status of the" freelancers" working exclusively in short-term employment for multiple employers simultaneously or successively, are some of the most pressing problems in modern labour law. The research is focused on the analysis of all these issues; it does not largely deal with the basic clarification of the concepts and development of certain categories of employment - these issues are treated only superficially - but it rather indicates the upgrade of the initial tendencies of changes in the understanding of labour and employment, with particular emphasis on returning to classical form of labour relation, which has been refined and modernised with new elements resulting from the digitalisation of work.
This study investigates work schedules in online labour markets, operating in 24/7 mode across spatial borders and time zones. Focusing on largely hidden and invisible work of freelancers such as ...searching for jobs and communicating with clients, the study documents how platforms put pressures and constraints on freelancers’ time through the mechanism of task allocation. We use data on 241,582 timestamped messages posted by 29,759 unique users in 4082 contests on a leading Russian‐language freelance platform to reveal how freelancers’ efforts to get a job make them work nonstandard hours, including evenings, nights and weekends. Freelancers have to be responsive and adapt their schedules to clients’ needs. Freelancers who live in time zones which differ from their clients are particularly disadvantaged, working a greater proportion of nonstandard hours. The findings emerging from the study contribute to current debates on the gig economy and a new time‐work discipline.
From Contract to Speculation Rosenkranz, Tim
Work, employment and society,
08/2019, Letnik:
33, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This qualitative case study of travel journalism in the USA explores how freelancers produce on speculation because publications do not contractually guarantee pay or advanced resources for travel. ...Freelance travel journalists therefore experience their work as an investment into an uncertain return in an undefined future. This article shows how such speculation manifests itself as a new productive process and relations of organisational externalisation in lean capitalism. Examining the changing obligations between freelancers and publications without assignment-contracts, this study argues that speculation presents the obfuscation of production. It externalises the risks of production onto the freelancer; reduces organisational control over production; and changes occupational norms and practices.
Economic strains and the emergence of new digital platforms have significantly changed the way foreign news is reported. In particular, freelancing has played a vital role in how legacy news outlets ...produce foreign news. This study used semi-structured interviews (N = 11) with freelance journalists working for Anglophone news media to examine freelancing in the context of foreign news reporting. The findings show that although many freelancers experience employment precarity and face financial hardships, they enjoy a high level of autonomy in terms of scheduling, networking, sourcing, and choosing which locations to cover. These journalists also embrace widely accepted journalistic norms, such as truthfulness, fairness, and journalistic distance, in their reporting. However, they also challenge some Westernized topics and framings, and because most perceive the foreign news coverage in traditional media as superficial, they fulfill their journalistic mission by pursuing human-interest stories and privileging local voices. In doing so, these freelancers represent foreign journalism idealists who strive to bring a human face to foreign news stories and enhance the depth of foreign news coverage.
Although, in recent years, considerable research has been done on the hazardous experiences of Anglo-Saxon war journalists, Dutch war journalists have never been the focus of academic attention. The ...authors thought the experiences of the Dutch might put war journalism in a new light and so they conducted a series of in-depth interviews with 12 Dutch war journalists. In this article, they address two main research questions: what are war journalists’ motives for practising this dangerous occupation and how do they perceive their professional role? The authors compared their findings to previous research on Anglo-Saxon war journalists and on Dutch journalism students and journalists. The most striking conclusion is that, compared to their Anglo-Saxon colleagues, Dutch war journalists are reluctant to present their motivation and work in moral dimensions too eagerly. Instead, all the interviewees frankly acknowledge that they are excited by the experience of war or at least seeking adventure. They equally admit to having chosen the profession partly because of career opportunities. However, this rational attitude of Dutch war journalists does not deter them from moral objectives.
PurposeFreelancers are a growing population of working adults with limited to no organizational support. Yet, their strategies to navigate job search, especially in turbulent times, are unknown. To ...address this gap, the author hypothesized and examined a sequential mediation model whereby freelancer protean career orientation (PCO) influences job search strategies through career competencies (i.e. knowing why, how and with whom to work) and job search self-efficacy (JSSE).Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a sample of 87 Canadian freelancers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsThe results supported the sequential mediation from PCO to job search strategies through two of the career competencies (knowing why and how) and JSSE. The mediating role of knowing whom was not supported.Practical implicationsPolicy makers and learning institutions can provide freelancers with opportunities to develop transferable skills through massive open online courses (MOOCs). Employers of freelancers can design motivating jobs that provide freelancers with on-the-job learning and development opportunities.Social implicationsThe insignificant mediating role of knowing whom (i.e. professional networks) implies that large networks might not be necessarily beneficial in times of crisis. Thus, the role of networks might be more complex than the literature has proposed.Originality/valueThis study brings into focus an overlooked population of workers: freelancers. It investigates a sequential mediation through which freelancer PCO impacts job search strategies. In addition, it compares the effectiveness of career competencies in unfolding the proposed sequential mediation.
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