The Rise of the “Gig Economy” and Implications for Understanding Work and Workers

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine M. Kuhn
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Organizational Attraction ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Psychology Literature ◽  
Freelance Work

Bergman and Jean (2016) include freelancers as one of the categories of workers who are understudied in the industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology literature. This neglect is particularly striking given the attention paid by the popular media and by politicians to the rise of the “gig economy,” comprising primarily short-term independent freelance workers (e.g., Cook, 2015; Kessler, 2014; Scheiber, 2014; Warner, 2015). This may be due in part to challenges involved in accessing and researching this population, as discussed by Bergman and Jean, but it may also arise from complexities in defining and conceptualizing freelance work, as well as from misunderstandings about the nature of the work now performed by many people who are considered freelancers. Major topics of interest to I-O psychologists such as organizational attraction, job satisfaction, and turnover may seem at first glance to lack relevance to the study of workers who are officially classified as self-employed. But there is substantial opportunity for I-O psychologists and other behaviorally oriented organizational researchers to contribute to our understanding of the growing number of people who earn all or some of their income by freelancing.

COVID-19 Pandemic and the Rising Gig Economy: An Emerging Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-23
Author(s):  
Bashir Ahmad Joo ◽  
Sana Shawl
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Online Retail ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Retail Business ◽  
Economic Survey ◽  
Freelance Work ◽  
The Impact

The Gig economy refers to short term jobs, contract or freelance work and flexi timing jobs as opposed to traditional full-time labor, which has witnessed a rapid growth in the last decade across the globe. Digital platforms have largely developed a free market system where independent workers connect with the buyers of the services. The Platform or Gig economy has grown at a much faster pace than ever before from the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. Since the COVID-19 lockdown, the labor market has been affected in a drastic way and a trend towards short-term and temporary jobs has become commonplace. The Economic Survey, 2020-21 highlights the growing importance of Gig economy in India amid the pandemic-induced lockdown which has led to an immense growth in the online retail business. The employers began layoffs and instead engaged freelancers or flexi staff to bring down their overhead costs. Many studies have been conducted now on assessing the impact of the ongoing pandemic on the economy and stock markets, however, very few studies focus on the influence the pandemic had on the Gig economy. The present study attempts to fill this gap by evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on the Gig economy by assessing whether the increase in new COVID-19 cases lead to an increase in the number of gig workers in the Indian economy, or in other words, exerts a significant impact on the Indian gig economy or not.

Old Media, New Gigs: The Discursive Construction of the Gig Economy in Australian News Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110346
Author(s):  
Luci Pangrazio ◽  
Cameron Bishop ◽  
Fiona Lee
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Cultural Imaginary ◽  
Short Term Contract ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Work And Life

This article analyses the representation of the gig economy in three Australian newspapers from 2014 to 2019. ‘Gig work’ is defined as short term, contract or freelance employment and is seen by many social institutions as the future of work. Drawing on a corpus of 426 articles, Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory is used to examine the construction of the ‘gig economy’ in the cultural imaginary. Five key elements emerge, including: demographics of workers; working conditions; workers’ rights; resistance and regulation; and change and disruption. Despite multiple competing discourses evident across the newspapers, each constructs the gig economy as an inexorable phase in the evolution of the relationship between capital and the worker. The article critically analyses the construction of the discourse, including the difficulties of regulating gig economy platforms and the narrative of inevitability used to describe changes to work and life brought about by technology.

scholarly journals The Spread of Gig Economy: Trends and Effects

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-29
Author(s):  
Nilanjan Banik ◽  
◽  
Milind Padalkar ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Online Communication ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Technological Infrastructure ◽  
Alternative Employment ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
The World ◽  
Everyday Reality ◽  
Main Effects

The development of online communication platforms has given rise to the phenomenon of the gig economy. A new economic model that embraces a variety of forms of short-term employment is rapidly spreading around the world, becoming an everyday reality and transforming the labor market. The article analyzes the factors influencing the dynamics of this process and its main effects. Testing the main hypothesis showed that the development of technological infrastructure, despite its importance, does not fully explain the unevenness of the penetration of the gig economy and the variations in its impact upon different sectors, professions, and skill levels. Gig economy drivers are subject to further study, but already now we can state the need for targeted measures to adapt the economy to the new model, including retraining or creating alternative employment opportunities for “traditional” workers giving up jobs in favor of gig-employed ones.

scholarly journals Multiple jobs? The prevalence, intensity and determinants of multiple jobholding in Canada

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Glavin
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Employment Decisions ◽  
Work Arrangements ◽  
Financial Difficulties ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Secondary Employment ◽  
Statistics Canada

While traditional labour market estimates indicate little change in the proportion of workers holding multiple jobs in North America, survey instrument deficiencies may be hiding more substantial growth driven by the gig economy. To address this possibility, I test a broader measure of multiple jobholding to examine its prevalence in the Canadian workforce based on two national studies of workers (2011 CAN-WSH and 2019 C-QWEL studies). Almost twenty percent of workers in 2019 report multiple jobholding—a rate that is three times higher than Statistics Canada estimates. While multivariate analyses reveal that the multiple jobholding rate in 2019 was thirty percent higher than in the 2011 CAN-WSH study, multiple jobholders in 2019 were less likely to report longer work hours in secondary employment. Analyses also reveal that having financial difficulties is consistently associated with multiple jobholding in 2011 and 2019. Collectively, these findings suggest that while the spread of short-term work arrangements has facilitated Canadians’ secondary employment decisions, for many workers these decisions may reflect underlying problems in the quality of primary employment in Canada, rather than labour market opportunity. I discuss the potential links between multiple jobholding, the gig economy and employment precariousness.

scholarly journals Application of Business Intelligence in the Post-Industrial Period

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugo Udović
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Work Engagement ◽  
Job Loss ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Job Attitudes ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Utrecht Work Engagement Scale ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Post Industrial

The purpose of the article is a theoretical and empirical analysis of the job insecurity due its influence on the employee job attitudes. Design. The design of the study was longitudinal. The empirical results were collected in 2018–2019. The empirical basis of the research is the separate structural department of the bank. The organization has realized downsizing project during the collection of empirical data. It has made possible to analyze the job satisfaction and work engagement before, during and after the downsizing project. The measures used in the present study are: 1) the “Utrecht Work Engagement Scale”; 2) “Brief Job Satisfaction Measure; 3) “The Job Insecurity Scale”. An empirical analysis of the dynamics of job attitudes in the groups differ in age and gender has found out a short-term motivating effect of the threat of job loss. The motivating effect of the threat of job loss is lost during six months. The most significance motivating effect was wound out in within the group of ordinary employees in the senior category over 45 years. The threat of dismissal also has the greatest impact on the behavior change of that part of the staff that is most susceptible to experiencing job insecurity. The employees who perceived the job insecurity are more satisfied with their work and value it more highly.

scholarly journals Management of Labor Motivation of Research Personnel

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-237
Author(s):  
Vadim Lazutkin
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Research Personnel ◽  
Self Development ◽  
Scientific Personnel ◽  
Motivational Profile ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Selection Of

The specifics of research and academic profession presuppose special approaches to personnel management and motivation. The selection of adequate motivational tools is often done by trial and error. The paper attempts to substantiate short-term and long-term methods of motivating scientific personnel. The experiment featured the case of a Russian biotechnological company, whose personnel underwent S. Ritchie and P. Martin’s Motivational Profile Test. The dominant factors of job satisfaction included self-development opportunities, recognition, ambitious goals, creative tasks, etc. The authors developed some ways for the further development of methods for motivating research personnel.

scholarly journals The gig economy comes to academia: Job satisfaction among adjunct faculty

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1786338
Author(s):  
Gesemia Nelson ◽  
Melissa J. Monson ◽  
Karam Adibifar
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Adjunct Faculty ◽  
Gig Economy

Commitment to Physical Fitness: Commercial Influences on Long-Term Healthy Consumer Behaviors

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 68-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Goodwin ◽  
Ronald Paul Hill
Keyword(s):  
Physical Fitness ◽  
Specific Weight ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Healthy Behaviors ◽  
Initial Decision ◽  
Health Clubs ◽  
The Us ◽  
Psychology Literature ◽  
Depth Interviews

Adoption of healthy behaviors by consumers is an important policy goal in both the US and Canada. Physical fitness has been identified as one such goal, yet few studies have explored the motivation for healthy individuals to become long-term, committed exercisers. In this study, in-depth interviews were conducted with women who were members of health clubs. Committed exercisers appeared to have undergone an experience of self-initiated change described in the clinical-psychology literature. They also reported changes in self-concept and social networks. On the other hand, intermittent exercisers focused only on short-term goals. Implications for social marketing programs include the need to (a) focus on reinforcement of a new identity rather than initial decision-making, and (b) disassociate exercise from specific weight-loss goals.

“This Gig Is Not for Women”: Gender Stereotyping in Online Hiring

2019 ◽  
pp. 089443931989575
Author(s):  
Hernan Galperin
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
Job Applicants ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Sex Typing ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Gender Characteristics ◽  
Worker Activity

This study examines gender segregation in the context of the so-called gig economy. In particular, it explores the role that stereotypes about male and female occupations play in sorting men and women into different jobs in an online freelance marketplace. The findings suggest that gender stereotypes are particularly salient in online hiring because employers typically contract for short-term, relatively low-value jobs based on limited information about job applicants. These conditions trigger the use of cognitive shortcuts about intrinsic gender characteristics linked to different skills and occupations. The results corroborate that female candidates are less likely to be hired for male-typed jobs (e.g., software development) but more likely to be hired for female-typed jobs (e.g., writing and translation) than equally qualified male candidates. Further, the study investigates three mechanisms predicted to attenuate the female penalty in male-typed jobs. The penalty is found to be self-reinforcing, as it perpetuates gender imbalances in worker activity across job categories that strengthen the sex typing of occupations.

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