Independent professionals and the potential for HRM innovation
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2016-0256 |
| Date | 16 October 2017 |
| Published date | 16 October 2017 |
| Pages | 1414-1433 |
| Author | Tui McKeown,Robyn Cochrane |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Independent professionals and the
potential for HRM innovation
Tui McKeown and Robyn Cochrane
Monash Business School, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine “black box”links between HRM innovations and
organizational performance by investigating the perspective of a workforce often excluded from the HR
realm. Professional Independent Contractors (IPros) play a vital role in achieving workforce flexibility and
innovation. While the use of such arrangements has been examined often using a compliance-oriented lens,
the authors explore the value of adding a commitment aspect.
Design/methodology/approach –In total, 375 IPros working in Australian organizations completed an
online questionnaire distributed by a national business support services provider.
Findings –Results show organizational support significantly predicted work engagement and affective
commitment. Self-efficacy, age and gender were also significant predictors.
Research limitations/implications –The cross-sectional nature ofthis study and reliance on self-reported
data limitthe reliability of the findings.In addition, the findingsmay be specific to the Australianlabor market.
Practical implications –The study present the views of a difficult to reach population and the findings
suggest by adopting an innovative hybrid commitment-compliance HR configuration, practitioners may
positively increase desirable contractor outcomes.
Social implications –Concerns that organizational imperatives for efficiency, quality and high
performance will be compromised by considering the human side of non-employee work arrangements are
not supported. Indeed, as previously outlined, much of the concern with the employee/non-employee
dichotomy is legally based and an artefact of a system of labor law that in many settings has failed to move
with the times.
Originality/value –Few investigations of the impact of high commitment HRM practices have incorporated
the perspective of professional, non-employees. While IPros are recipients of compliance focused contractor
management practices, carefully integrated commitment-based HRM aspects have the potential to deliver
positive outcomes for both individuals and organizations.
Keywords Quantitative, Work engagement, Commitment, HR strategy, Independent professionals
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
This paper addresses the call to examine the notion of the “black box”links between HR
innovations and organizational performance. While an extensive HR literature
investigates the linkages between employee attitudes and behaviors, organizational
interventions and desirable performance-related outcomes, the traditional views of work
they are embedded in are changing (Kowalski et al., 2015; Okhuysen et al., 2015).
Workforces are becoming complex in twenty-first century organizations, blending those
traditionally employed with increasing numbers employed on a contingent, atypical or
non-standard basis and those engaged via intermediated or contracted arrangements.
As Voelz (2010) notes, the complexity of managing this blended workforce requires the
input of human resource (HR) managers to build new working relationships while
protecting legal and ethical priorities.
This context provides the background to an investigation of an often hidden, but
vital segment of the engaged workforce, namely white collar Independent Professionals
Personnel Review
Vol. 46 No. 7, 2017
pp. 1414-1433
Emerald Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-09-2016-0256
Received 30 September 2016
Revised 28 January 2017
8 August 2017
Accepted 9 August 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
© Tui McKeown and Robyn Cochrane. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is
published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute,
translate and create derivative works of this article ( for both commercial and non-commercial purposes),
subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen
at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
1414
PR
46,7
(herein IPros). IPros are distinctive with the engaged workforce because of their
professional occupations, knowledge worker characteristics (high uniqueness, high
strategic value) and commercial rather than employment contract with organizations.
The next section of this paper positions the IPro as an important actor in the global trend
toward an increasingly flexible, agile and innovative workforce (Burke, 2015). The paper
then proceeds to locate the IPro within Lepak and Snell’s (1999, 2002) notion of the HR
architecture. Our research aims to determine the potential for integrating HRM
approaches within contractor management practices to create an innovative hybrid
compliance-commitment HR configuration. We suggest that, together with knowledge of
the role of IPro volition and self-efficacy, this hybrid HR configuration can be utilized to
positively affect the work attitudes, behaviors and subsequently, the performance of this
important organizational resource.
The independent professional (IPro)
Alternatives to traditional notion of employment as a job that is full-time and permanent are
increasingly the norm. Captured by labels such as contingent, atypical or non-standard,
such individuals account for over 20 percent of the American workforce (BLS, 2014)
and almost 30 percent of the Australian labor market (ABS, 2016). As Cappelli and Keller
(2013, p. 575) note “alternatives to the archetypal model of full-time regular employment are
now prevalent and wide ranging […] yet most of our management and social science notions
about economic work are based on the full-time employment model.”
From increasing educational levels to greater labor mobility, the organizational
challenges associated with workforce management are compounded by HRM practices
intended to stimulate high levels of engagement, commitment and subsequent
organizational productivity gains. Often predicated on notions of stability and
predictability, such HRM practices also largely disregard the growing non-employee
workforce (Kowalski et al., 2015; Okhuysen et al., 2015; Way et al., 2010). Historically,
organizations have focused on eliciting compliance rather than commitment from contracted
workers (Deakin, 2007; Leighton and Wynn, 2011) but this is clearly at odds with the
increasing reliance on the non-employee workforce. Of particular relevance to this research
is the contribution of the growing numbers of IPros (Kalleberg, 2009; McKeown, 2016;
Süß and Sayah, 2013) who are characterized as the embodiment of star performers
(Aguinis and O’Boyle, 2014) and where meeting deadlines and expectations are essential to
their professional success (Bögenhold and Klinglmair, 2016; de Jager et al., 2016).
While definitions remain contentious (Leighton and Wynn, 2011; McKeown, 2015), the
consensus internationally is that IPro work attracts highly qualified individuals with
unique human capital (Bidwell and Briscoe, 2009; Casale, 2011; Eurofound, 2010; Jas, 2013;
Smith, 2010; Süß and Sayah, 2013; Wynn, 2016). IPros operate at the elite end of the
non-employee spectrum with the premium attached to specialized skills seeing these
individuals highly sought after by organizations requiring their expertise and abilities
and willing to pay generously (Bryant and McKeown, 2016; Burke, 2015; Grimshaw and
Miozzo, 2009).
However, while the ability to optimize IPro engagement and organizational commitment
throughout the duration of a project would seem appealing, they also present a challenge to
the prevailing organizational orthodoxies of workforce management. As non-employees,
IPros fall through administrative and conceptual gaps created by systems grounded within
legal concepts of traditional employment (Wynn, 2016). Despite their valued and strategic
human capital, IPros are largely ignored by the HRM discourse (Leighton, 2014). While we
aim to put a spotlight on the potential of applying a hybrid commitment-compliance HR
configuration to IPros, it is important to explore the compliance aspect commonly associated
with their legal and commercial context.
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