Online Freelancers and Boundaryless Careers
Written by Dr. Mike Dunn, Assistant Professor at Skidmore College, Management and Business Department
What Are Boundaryless Careers?
The boundaryless career concept encompasses individual career mobility in both physical and psychological dimensions. Traditionally, it highlights intraorganizational and interorganizational transitions. Four primary assumptions underpin this perspective:
- Career actors possess both psychological and physical mobility.
- These actors prioritize career self-management, asserting their independence from employers.
- A trend towards boundaryless careers is evident, emphasizing greater mobility.
- Generally, individuals benefit from pursuing boundaryless careers.
The paradigmatic shift from organization-centric to individual-centric career responsibilities is notable.
The concept of the boundaryless career and its implications is a nuanced topic. Traditionally, career boundaries have been seen as inherent and inevitable, with career mobility being limited to special cases. This perception has evolved due to the changing dynamics of the modern workforce. Boundaryless careers are those where workers move freely across different employers or units, rely on networks outside their organization for career development, and can reject conventional opportunities for various reasons. Such careers transcend traditional employer and role boundaries.
Two essential elements for someone to engage in a boundaryless career are agency and career self-management. The boundaryless career perspective assumes that such careers are beneficial due to the new designs of networked organizations. For boundaryless careers, individuals must develop three competencies:
- Knowing how: skills and expertise in specific areas.
- Knowing whom: building career-relevant networks.
- Knowing why: understanding one’s motivation and professional identity.
Boundaryless Careers in the Digital Age
The digital age has seen a surge in platform-based work environments. The platform-based workers, unlike their traditional counterparts, bear the responsibility of their economic sustenance and career progression. The dynamics between the workers, clients, and platforms create a unique labor relationship that diffuses formal responsibilities. While platforms allow workers formal flexibility, the concept of worker-controlled versus manager-controlled flexibility comes into play. In essence, the power dynamics inherent in gig work scheduling and the remote nature of work have consequences on relationship-building, work performance, and job satisfaction.
Furthermore, platforms offer limited support for developing the competencies mentioned above, making it challenging for them. Platforms act as “shadow employers”, controlling workers through ranking systems and gamified practices but offering little support. While offline freelancers face challenges in skill development, they have an edge over online freelancers. They can build long-term relationships and professional networks, aiding in the development of “knowing-whom” and “knowing-why” competencies.
Career Boundaries in the Platform Economy
The platform economy, with its promise of flexibility and autonomy, has been touted as a haven for boundaryless careers. And here in lies the rub — platform work is not entirely boundary-free. Online freelancers face specific career constraints, shaped by platform structures and work designs. These boundaries, both intraorganizational and interorganizational, influence their mobility, competency development, and overall agency in the gig sphere.
Intraorganizational boundaries relate to challenges within a single platform. Such boundaries can:
- Constrain Horizontal Transitions: Online freelancers find it challenging to move beyond the platform to work directly with clients.
- Limit Vertical Transitions: The platform economy, with its flat design, offers limited opportunities for vertical career progression. The narrative of an online freelancer transitioning to a corporate role at Upwork’s headquarters is more an exception than a rule.
These boundaries can be both subjective, relating to personal perceptions and feelings of growth, and objective, rooted in tangible platform-client agreements. Ironically, features that seem to promote boundaryless operations, such as task flexibility and flat work designs, end up hindering horizontal and vertical transitions. Platforms often control and limit workers’ interactions with clients. Furthermore, the feedback system, if present, remains task-centric, inhibiting holistic personal growth. This absence of comprehensive feedback and limited networking opportunities with peers and clients stifles the development of career competencies, such as knowing-how, knowing-why, and knowing-whom skills.
Interorganizational boundaries pertain to the barriers between the platform work and traditional employment. On the surface, online freelancers, unanchored to any organization, should effortlessly migrate in and out of the digital domain. Yet, due to constraints in competency development, this transition often becomes challenging. These personal boundaries hinder competency development, making online freelancers feel trapped within the platform’s confines.
In summary, despite appearing on the surface to offer the right conditions for boundaryless careers, the interplay of platform structures, personal competencies, market forces, and individual agency plays a pivotal role in determining how “boundaryless” a gig worker’s career truly is.
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