Collaborating Without (Formal) Organization
This chapter focuses on independent workers and on the organizational specificities of the independent workers' phenomenon. The authors treat independent workers as an emergent and continually shifting organizational phenomenon questioning some of our assumptions about what organizations are and revealing trends that are currently reshaping work. They suggest viewing the independent workers' phenomenon as an open organizational phenomenon in which activities are project-oriented, temporality-oriented, and inclusive. This chapter contributes to an understanding of the independent workers' phenomenon as an organizational one that constantly (re)defines rules, roles, and statuses making the activities possible. It also contributes to a broader reflection on the matter of organization. Considered as an open organizational phenomenon, the independent workers' phenomenon calls the organization-society dualism into question. Finally, revealing the organizational aspects of independent workers' activities allows us to better understand some of the transformations that are nowadays affecting more traditional forms of work.