Managing the Talent of Independent Contractors in Australia

McKeown, Tui

doi:10.1057/9780230277526_7

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The standard employment relationship is a kind of social contract between business and labor that provides relative certainty and security (Fudge, 2017; Kalleberg, 2009; McKeown, 2010) managed through HRM policies and practice (Ulrich & Dulebohn, 2015). Despite wide international variation, employment rights based on a contract of employment infer important obligations and rights onto employees that are not available to the IPro workforce (Torrington, Hall, Atkinson, & Taylor, 2017).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…IPros are a specific population within the wider contractor workforce. While sometimes conflated with terms such as freelancers and gig workers, IPro is a more precise term and captures individuals engaged in providing professional, scientific, and technical services, who specialize in particular areas and sell their expertise and knowledge (McKeown, 2010). The activities undertaken generally require a high level of expertise and training and formal (usually tertiary level) qualifications.…”

Section: Contracting and The Changing World Of Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Independent professionals as talent: Evidence from individual views of working as a contractor

McKeown

Pichault

2020

Human Resource Management

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In this article we challenge the assumption that independent professionals (IPros), that is professionals who work as contractors, freelancers, and self‐employed individuals, are not within the remit of talent management (TM) theory and practice. The TM literature is almost exclusively focused on traditional employees and largely ignores the external workforce, even if like IPros, they epitomize high‐value talent. Moreover, much of the TM literature takes an organizational perspective while the individual perspective remains marginal. Advancing the notion of institutional factors in the macro environment suggested by King and Vaiman, we draw on interviews with 52 IPros in two contrasted institutional contexts to provide an agentic view of TM from outside of the standard employment relationship. Our findings reveal the importance of volition, emotional stability, internal locus of control, and self‐efficacy play in IPros effectively managing personal TM strategies. These strategies allow IPros to overcome the empowerment/powerlessness tensions Daubner‐Siva et al. call the “talent paradox.” Importantly, the results do not vary between the two national contexts, suggesting that embracing a “total TM” strategy, attentive to the personal characteristics of talent, regardless of the regulatory issues linked to employment status, will produce superior outcomes for all.

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