Outside Insiders: Understanding the Role of Contracting in the Careers of Managerial Workers

Abstract

We explore the role that contracting plays within the careers of managerial workers. Contracting distances workers from organizational coordination and politics, aspects of organizational life that are often central to the managerial role. Nonetheless, managerial workers make up a substantial proportion of the contracting workforce. Qualitative interviews with managerial contractors indicate that the tension between the natures of contracting and managerial work means that managerial contractors carry out substantially more bounded work than regular employees, and that this boundedness can shape the role that contracting plays in their careers. Examining the employment histories of MBA alumni of a U.S. business school, we show that workers with fewer subordinates and greater personal demands are more likely to enter contracting. We also find that contractors report better work–life balance but receive lower pay both while contracting and in subsequent regular employment. Whereas prior research has highlighted the financial benefits and temporal demands of contracting for highly skilled workers, our findings introduce important boundary conditions to our understanding of high-skill contracting: the nature of the occupation is critical.

Working on my own: Measuring the challenges of gig work

“…The qualitative studies that ground our inventory range from older explorations of the careers of musicians and artists (Becker, 1982; Faulkner, 1983), to more recent studies of IT contractors (Kunda et al, 2002; Lane, 2011), fitness professionals (Hughes et al, 2019), stand-up comedians (Butler and Stoyanova Russell, 2018), managerial contractors (Anderson and Bidwell, 2019), creative workers (Alacovska, 2017; Bennett and Hennekam, 2018), independent workers (Petriglieri et al, 2019) and microworkers (Panteli et al, 2020; Wong et al, 2020). These studies consistently suggest that gig workers face specific challenges that are rooted in the structural experience of working outside a formal organization.…”

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

“…This moves us to a body of research of direct relevance to the TM issue, that of the individual contractor perspective and their diverse characteristics, motivations, and preferences. Over a decade ago, Ashford et al (2007, p. 69) identified those who consciously “take their careers into their own hands, construct their identities as professional and entrepreneurial, and view organizations in an increasingly negative light.” It is an observation made even more explicit in recent research findings that many contractors seek to be independent, to leverage their talent in ways that allow them be their own boss and subject to their defined market place of consumers and clients (Fishman, 2017; Pichault & McKeown, 2019; Ravenelle, 2017), or to satisfy their personal values and nonwork commitments (Anderson & Bidwell, 2019; McKeown, 2019). There are also other explanations.…”

Multi‐project work and project performance: Friends or foes?

“…In the light of the rapidly evolving landscape of project work, research has turned its attention to the role of flexible human resource practices. Several recent studies have linked performance outcomes to giving employees autonomy in knowledge‐intensive projects (Gambardella, Khashabi, & Panico, 2020), allowing employees to engage in side hustles or smart working (Choudhury, Foroughi, & Larson, 2021; Sessions, Nahrgang, Vaulont, Williams, & Bartels, 2021), and enabling flexible contracting arrangements and projects compositions (Akşin, Deo, Jónasson, & Ramdas, 2021; Anderson & Bidwell, 2019; Jain & Mitchell, 2022). However, less is known about the consequences of another flexible human resource practice—multi‐project work (MPW)—a work arrangement in which employees work on multiple projects simultaneously.…”