Call for Papers – Challenges in Organisational Management and Career Development in the New World of Work

Call for Papers
Special Issue – Challenges in Organisational Management and Career Development in the New World of Work

About the journal

The Journal of Work-Applied Management (JWAM) promotes management insights generated at the nexus of practice and theory, where change, discovery and innovation are driven by work-based, work-applied, collaborative, and experiential approaches such as case-based, reflective and action-oriented research methodologies. The aim of the journal is to share practical ‘work-applied’ management insights relevant to managers in private, public and community organisations; share ‘work-applied’ management insights relevant to academics seeking to improve work-based, work-applied, collaborative, and experiential approaches and to translate and challenge new developments in the use of case-based, reflective and action-oriented research methodologies.

On behalf of the editorial team, we would like to invite papers examining topics from across the journal's scope for submission. The main aim of the journal is to bring together scholars, researchers, educators, students, professionals and other groups who are interested in work applied management.

Special issue

Guest Editors:

• Dr Yi-Ling Lai, Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, UK ([email protected])
• Dr Scott Foster, Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University, UK ([email protected])
• Professor Taimur Sharif, University of Kurdistan Hewlêr, Iraq ([email protected])
• Dr Fiona Hurd, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand ([email protected])
• Dr Suzette Dyer, University of Waikato, New Zealand ([email protected])

This special issue calls for a better understanding of the future world of work, particularly in the gig-economy and freelancing industry. With the increase of self-employed workforce in the UK, companies and corporates are experiencing a new era of organisational management and HR practice. Overall, the organisations' workforces have become more flexible and fragmented (van den Groenendaal et al., 2023); hence a more contemporary and innovative approach is needed to advance their freelance contractors’ career development and support their permanent internal employees to establish effective working relationships with contractors.

According to the Self-employed Landscape report by the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) in 2021, the freelance workers have contributed £303 billion to the UK economy since 2008. Especially, the highly skilled freelancers (e.g., business consultancy) made nearly 50% of the input (£147 billions). Whereas freelance workers have high level of autonomy (Petriglieri et al., 2018), they often deal with more complex psychological challenges in comparison with work done in organisations, such as job uncertainty and insecurity, work transience, and physical and relational separation from co-workers due to short-term working relationships and multiple contracting entities (Ashford et al., 2018). Hence, recent literature in management and organisational studies have promoted the research areas in freelance workers’ learning and development, professional identity as well as psychological well-being (Ashford et al., 2018).

Given that gig and freelance workers have limited access to organisational resources to develop necessary behaviours to sustain in their distinct working context (Hobfoll et al., 2018); it is more arduous for freelance workers to establish a coherent career pathway and professional development (Caza et al., 2018; Petriglieri et al., 2018). Overall, four viability challenges have been identified for gig and freelance workers experiences of work: organisational challenges (e.g., pay security, multiple contracting entities and complex working relationships), identity challenges (e.g., blur roles and responsibilities), relational challenges (e.g., loneliness and front stage work) and emotional challenges (e.g., emotional labour and exhaustion). Accordingly, it is crucial to understand how gig and freelance workers can attain and maintain the personal resources needed to develop the essential behaviours for surviving in the new economy (Ashford et al., 2018). From the viewpoints in organisational management, the company also needs to be more aware of their culture, contracting processes and employment relationships when there has been a 70% rise in requests for freelance consultants in UK and USA (Gregson, 2022). Whereas HR professionals appreciate the advantages of flexible contracts and reduced full-time headcounts, they have the responsibility to ensure their freelance contractors working smoothly (Duggan et al., 2020).

This special issue calls for cutting edge contributions to theories and practice in gig and freelance workers’ learning, career development and challenges in organisational management.

Possible themes/questions might include (but are not limited to) the following:

Methodologies that we are particularly interested in:

• work-based, work-applied, collaborative, and experiential approaches
• case-based, reflective and action-oriented research methodologies

From the organisational management’s aspects:

• What are the new management challenges and responsibilities when the organisation is increasing their short-term contracts with external freelancers?
• How can the organisation support their freelance contractors regarding working relationships, learning and development, career progression and psychological well-being?
• In what way the organisation can integrate their internal management strategies with external contractors’ career development?
• How the digitalisation tendency of gig and freelance work makes impact on contemporary organisational management strategies?
• How do all of the above impact individual, team and organisational learning?

From the gig and freelance workers’ perspectives:

• In what way gig or freelance workers develop their identity in response to interactions with relational others in their business?
• How can gig or freelancer workers cope with a more dynamic career pathway via self-development?
• In what way the varying and fluctuating career pathway makes impacts on gig or freelancer workers’ learning, professional working relationships and psychological well-being?

Reference:

Ashford, S. J., Caza, B. B., & Reid, E. M. (2018). From surviving to thriving in the gig economy: A research agenda for individuals in the new world of work. Research in Organizational Behavior 38, 23-41.
Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (2021). The self-employed landscape 2021. Retrieved from: https://www.ipse.co.uk/policy/research/the-self-employed-landscape/the-self-employed-landscape-report-2021.html.
Caza, B. B., Vough, H., & Puranik, H. (2018). Identity work in organizations and occupations: Definitions, theories, and pathways forward. Journal of organizational behavior 39(7), 889-910.
Duggan, J., Sherman, U., Carbery, R., & McDonnell, A. (2020). Algorithmic management and app‐work in the gig economy: A research agenda for employment relations and HRM. Human Resource Management Journal, 30(1), 114-132.
Gregson, C. (2022). The future of work is freelance - here’s what HR needs to know. HR Magazine, Retrieved from: https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/comment/the-future-of-work-is-freelance-here-s-what-hr-needs-to-know/.
Hobfoll, S. E., Halbesleben, J., Neveu, J. P., & Westman, M. (2018). Conservation of resources in the organizational context: The reality of resources and their consequences. Annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 5, 103-128.
Petriglieri, G., Petriglieri, J. L., & Wood, J. D. (2018). Fast tracks and inner journeys: Crafting portable selves for contemporary careers. Administrative Science Quarterly, 63(3), 479-525.
Van den Groenendaal, S. M. E., Freese, C., Poell, R. F., & Kooij, D. T. (2023). Inclusive human resource management in freelancers' employment relationships: The role of organizational needs and freelancers' psychological contracts. Human Resource Management Journal, 33(1), 224-240.

Important dates

• Submission open: 1 September 2023
• Submission deadline: 1 May 2024
• Publication: 2025

Submission procedure

You can submit manuscript through the ScholarOne system: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jwam.
Please feel free to discuss your manuscript ideas with any of the Special Issue Editors above, and ensure you follow the author guidelines closely: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/jwam#jlp_author_guidelines.

Submissions may include empirical research studies, evidence-based critiques of practice or theoretical or conceptual approaches. Papers adopting qualitative, quantitative or mixed-method approaches will be considered and papers from diverse global and/or regional contexts and different disciplinary perspectives are encouraged.

Author Guidelines

Details of the length of the submission are located within the author guidelines: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/jwam#jlp_author_guidelines.