Gig work in organizations: Demystifying the perspectives of Human Resource Management professionals

The gig economy has expanded beyond platform-based work and is also transforming standard organizations that are accustomed to stable employment arrangements and long-term-oriented HRM practices. The shift towards gig workers and blended teams disrupts standard HR practices due to the short-term, transactional nature of gig work. This research investigates the implications of gig work on HRM practices in standard organizations. Specifically, we 1) examine the trends and perspectives of HR professionals on the use of gig work in standard organizations, 2) investigate whether HR professionals apply standard HRM practices for gig workers, and 3) conduct a longitudinal analysis of HRM perspectives applicable to gig workers before and post-COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve these research objectives, we employ natural language processing techniques to analyze more than 500 YouTube videos of HR professionals offering their opinions about gig work. The findings suggest that despite the widely conceived notion that gig workers are ‘self-managed’, various HRM practices are utilized in the context of gig work.

Recommended citation: Singh V, Tursunbayeva A, Keplinger K, Di Lauro S (2024) Gig work in organizations: Demystifying the perspectives of Human Resource Management professionals. Proceedings of Conference of the itAIS 2024 (Piacenza, Italy)..