**2. Gig working**

Gig working has been defined as "the temporary contract work that connects self-employed workers directly with clients via a digital platform"([8], p 2). As alternative work arrangements are increasing, both in the variety of schemas and in numbers of people opting for them [9], gig work is emerging as a popular alternative to the conventional paradigm of regular employment. A gig economy is a free market system where temporary positions are common, and organizations hire independent workers for short-term commitments, fundamentally through a platform-enabled digital marketplace [10].

In the 2000s, the rapid transformations in information and communication technologies enabled the digitalization of the economy and the Internet and smartphone popularization. As a result, on-demand platforms based on digital technology have created jobs and employment forms differentiated from erstwhile offline transactions by the level of accessibility, convenience, and price competitiveness. In general, "work" is described as a full-time worker with set working hours, including benefits. But the definition of work began to change with changing economic conditions and continued technological advances, and the change in the economy created a new labour force characterized by independent and contractual labour. The workplace is changing, and with it, the concept of the employee, the employer, and organizational relationships are becoming more complex [11].

Workplace flexibility arrangements have been categorized along the dimensions of scheduling work, locational flexibility, and flexibility of employment relationships [9]. The gig is the online mediated work arrangement that provides maximum flexibility on all three dimensions [8], along with individuals to create "mosaic careers" ([3], p 25).

With jobs becoming unstable, individuals opting for gig working may prefer it due to the high work autonomy, potential for work-non work integration, better management of career opportunities resulting in boundary-less, individualized, and whole life careers [3, 6]. On the other hand, risks associated with gig working involve uncertainty of work, sporadic pay, lack of benefits such as welfare and insurance, social isolation, and possibly less developmental opportunities and low psychological well-being, and increased psychological dysfunction [3–6]. There is also a differentiation in workers' skills and qualifications and the types of platforms that populate these workers' segments. Highly skilled workers are better equipped and more employable and can better cope with ambiguity than low-skilled workers [11].

The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted people's working lives and changed working arrangements for regular employment relationships. Flexible working hours and locations, temporary agency work, and newer forms of subcontracted work, such as gig working, have emerged as possibilities [8]. Also, the growth in gig working is attributed to low entry barriers, increased technological advancements, and high levels of flexibility that enable workers to work wherever and whenever they like [5]. The pandemic has presented opportunities for individuals and organizations to explore the potential emerging schemas in work relationships, both short-term and long-term, which enhance flexibility and build resilience [8]. The current labor market is shifting towards precarious work, with the market's composition and characteristics evolving rapidly [6]. Studies have indicated that workers are willing to sacrifice 8–20% of their income to maintain their desired flexibility of working anywhere and anytime [5]. The changing work arrangements have the potential to develop new paradigms that enable career development, address work motivations and behaviors, and help organizations

with multiple desirable outcomes of managing talent, increasing profitability, and encouraging flexibility in managing talent demand variability. Organizations are presented with an opportunity to alter their business models as employees expect more flexibility and an employment structure that advances with technology [12]. Practitioners need to be supported by academic research that helps understand the challenges and constraints of gig working and focuses on building more compatible HRM practices [11].

Basis this emerging context, the needs of the highly skilled workforce which is in short supply, and the business challenges of managing profitable growth, our study focuses on the following research question. How would IT and ITeS organizations build an internal gig ecosystem within their organizations? What external and environmental factors need to be considered to enable this? What would be the motivations and resistance to this new way of working by these organizations' internal workforce?

## **3. Theoretical premises**

Our study is based on the Dynamic Capability Framework to explain the need and rationale for organizations to adopt internal gig working and Self-Determination theory to justify the appeal of this new way of working for the permanent employees.

Competence, autonomy, and relatedness are the fundamental needs per Self – Determination Theory [13]. These needs' satisfaction leads to intrinsic motivation and psychological well-being [10].

Gig work, in its current avatar of temporary work undertaken by external workers, appears to be a prime example of a boundary-less work type, with low thresholds for crossing between platforms, lack of hierarchical reporting relationships, low geographical and time constraints, and high levels of autonomy in task selection [11]. However, the expected complete autonomy over where and when to work is still bounded, with the automation of decision making, new forms of control and surveillance, and regulated work arrangements, ratings, and evaluations [10]. Additionally, work and economic uncertainty and lower organizational identification reduce organizational commitment building and engagement [14, 15]. This dimension of external gig working does not align with the psychological need for relatedness and affiliation. This aspect may be needed for a high-skilled workforce." Established findings on organizational leadership, identity, culture, or commitment may not be readily applicable to an emerging, dispersed, desynchronized, anonymized workforce"([12], p 2). Constraints of the digital intermediating platforms create information asymmetries, which may turn into power asymmetries [10, 14].

The potential downsides of the technology-focused flexible, fluid, and shortlived gig working can be diminished by close work relationships and the advantages of traditional internal HRM practices [12]. While organizations may view gig working as an alternative to recruitment and selection of internal labor markets, they may be better served by developing policies and guidelines to support an internal gig work design. By considering job crafting, structural factors, and personal factors for internal employees while enabling gig-like flexibility, the relevant work characteristics of task autonomy, knowledge characteristics of skill variety and job complexity, social reputation, and self-efficacy can be maintained. Simultaneously, the negative aspects of an external gig working, uncertain career path, fluctuating income, psychological stress caused by social isolation, and lack of organizational identity are mitigated.

*The Emerging New Order: Exploring New Ways to Build an Internal Gig Employment System… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96731*

Theoretical developments in organization strategy and organizational economics recommend leveraging organization-specific factors to help provide a competitive advantage. By capturing entrepreneurial rents that stem from fundamental organizational level efficiency advantages, organizations can develop and exploit dynamic capabilities [7]. This approach focuses on "rents accruing to owners of scarce firm-specific resources"([7], p 513). Applying the dynamic capabilities perspective to service innovation is recommended for service-oriented firms to retain their competitiveness [16]. Service organizations need to develop proficiency in service design and reconfigure fundamental elements of their business model. For IT/ITeS service firms, the highly skilled workforce is a source of competitive advantage. Rapidly coordinating and redeploying these internal resources would be an innovative response allowing organizations to renew competencies congruent with the changing environment.
