Career identity and organizational identification among professionals with on-demand work

Abstract

PurposeDrawing upon the social identity theory, the authors argue that professionals' career identities have a positive indirect effect on identification with on-demand organizations through career networking behavior. In addition, the strength of these beneficial effects was also bound by extraversion and collectivism.Design/methodology/approachThe hypothesized moderated mediation model was tested by multisource and time-lagged data about 242 Chinese accountants engaging in on-demand work.FindingsThe results demonstrated that professionals with a career identity tend to engage in career networking behaviors and identify themselves with a client company. In addition, extraverted professionals were more likely to engage in career networking behaviors, and collectivist professionals were more likely to identify with their on-demand organizations.Practical implicationsThis research provides important guidelines on how managers in on-demand organizations leverage gig workers' career identities to establish deep relationships with them.Originality/valueThe authors expanded the traditional framework of identification in the setting of nontraditional work arrangements by establishing a link between career identity and organizational identification for on-demand professionals.