Paper Example on Gig Economy: Impact of Short-Term Contracts on Organizational Culture

Introduction

Within the last decade, the economy of the United States has shifted much towards the 'gig economy'-a term that relates to the labor market that is accompanied by the prevalence of freelance work and short-term contracts which is opposed to some permanent jobs (Balaram et al., 2017). Organizations such as the Task Rabbit, Uber, Fiverr, and Thumbtack are some of the examples of the gig economy.

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The culture of the organization includes; symbols, stories, values, and norms, as well as assumptions, among others (Balaram et al., 2017). There are different types of organizational culture, such as the organic culture, which relates to a systematic and hierarchy of authorities that ensure the free flow of information within the organization. Other kinds of cultures include participative and authoritative cultures (Karlsson & Wranne, 2019).

The organization culture is always dynamic due to changing workforce composition, planned change within the organization as well as the effects of the cultures of other organizations (Kuhn, 2016). However, it is always challenging to create and sustain a coherent and healthy organizational culture within the ever-changing 'gig economy' environment, unlike in the stable culture within the conventional economies (Karlsson & Wranne, 2019). In the creation of the organizational culture for the gig economy, it is essential to identify the people who will champion for the realization of the corporate visions and ideas (Churchill & Craig, 2019).

Regardless of the motives that push the gig workers, the popularity of the internet has enabled the gig economy to thrive amid the eminent competition within the economic sector. It is estimated that over 29% of Americans have alternative jobs as their basic jobs (Balaram et al., 2017). As such, about 50million Americans have one or more gig jobs within their work life.

The shift from the current economy to the gig economy has some critical implications in organizational behavior theories and concepts (Kuhn, 2016). In the gig economy, corporate culture and team cohesion will be different from that of the conventional economies; thus, this paper shall delve into examining such differences in the organizational behavior concepts.

Organizational Behavior (OB)

Organizational behavior (OB) relates to a combination of corporate responses to internal and external stimuli. It is the act of understanding, management, and predicting of the human behavior either as a group or individuals within an organization (Balaram et al., 2017). The organizational behavior could either be viewed from an internal and external perspective. It is essential to understand the practices of other people while working in an organization and make others understand our actions as well (Balaram et al., 2017). To maintain a healthy working environment, it is essential to understand the importance of OB and the organizational goals to be achieved.

As such, organizational behavior is essential in explaining the interpersonal relationships among the employees as well as with their seniors (Kuhn, 2016). OB also helps in defining the predictability of human behavior as well as assisting in marketing. Concisely, organizational behavior is vital in recognizing the various patterns of human behavior, thus shedding light on how such trends are likely to affect organizational performance (Churchill & Craig, 2019).

Organizational Behavior Concepts

The organizational behavior concepts could be categorized into two essential elements, i.e., the nature of the organization as well as the nature of the people. The nature of the people within the organization relates to the crucial qualities of a person, such as the character and conditions of an individual (Balaram et al., 2017). The various factors that significantly influence the nature of people include the value of the person, the perception, individual differences as personal motivation-which could either be negative or positive motivation.

Organizational culture relates to the expectations, philosophy, values, and beliefs as well as the experiences that guide the behavior of various organization's stakeholders such as the employees and is exemplified in the inner workings as well as the interaction with the outside world as well as future expectations (Healy et al., 2017). Measurement of the organizational culture involves the assessment of the values, goals, and objectives, as exemplified by the leadership of the organization.

Team cohesion is typically a multifaceted organizational concept that could be broken into four significant aspects, i.e., emotional nature, instrumental basis, dynamic as well as multidimensionality (Karlsson & Wranne, 2019). The emotional nature of the employees, for instance, could build or destroy the team cohesion. Some employees tend to react immediately to emotional triggers, thus likely to make immense mistakes that may disintegrate the team. Instrumental basis of team cohesion relates to how the team members cohere for a given task or a social reason (Karlsson & Wranne, 2019).

Again, the dynamic aspect of team cohesion implies that the goals and objectives of a team may change over time. Multidimensionality nature of team cohesion relates to the relationship between the team and the particular task to be performed by the organization. The task influences various aspects of the group. This paper shall focus on two organizational behavior concepts, i.e., team cohesion and the culture.

Organizational Behavior Concepts and Gig Economy

Organizational Culture

The corporate culture relates to a group of values, norms, beliefs, and assumptions that are often practiced within an organization (Friedman, 2014). As such, culture brings control as well as stability within the organization. The culture of an organization enables the various group members within the organization to solve their differences, tackle risks as well as overcome the barriers (Kuhn, 2016).

The gig culture portrays an economy where there is increased flexibility and independence, accompanied by performing the task that one has always desired to do. As such, for one to succeed within the gig economy, the person must be a self-starter, and a finisher for the gig (Balaram et al., 2017). Therefore, it is often challenging to introduce the culture of the gig within the traditional organizational cultures.

Because the gig economy is part of the broader community of organizations, it is essential to have a healthy and clearly defined organizational culture that would help in finding partners, connections and clients necessary for the growth of the organization (Churchill & Craig, 2019). Due to the ever-changing nature of the gig economy, it essential for the manager to go back to the community and obtain their various inputs on their value to help in defining their culture (Karlsson & Wranne, 2019).

Unlike the traditional economy, the culture of the gig economy is characterized by employees working on the jobs that they are passionate about. Thus they tend to be more productive and result-oriented (Balaram et al., 2017). Again, the gig employee creates and control their schedules and earn money through well-balanced work/life. As such, the gig culture permits the workers to secure various jobs alongside their part-time or full-time employment, which may be difficult within the traditional organizational culture (Kuhn, 2016).

The gig also creates a bridge, especially between the well-known enterprises and the emerging economy, even as the global economy feels disrupted by technological changes as well as other factors (Friedman, 2014). The fundamental shortcoming of the gig culture is lack of schedule since the workers set up their plans and directions for the day.

Team Cohesion

Team cohesion relates to the strength as well as the extent of interpersonal connection that exists within the group (Kuhn, 2016). Such an interpersonal bond enables the team members to readily engage and feel motivated to undertake various roles within the organization (Balaram et al., 2017).

In this context, multidimensionality relates to all the other factors within the organization that ensure that the group members work as a team (Friedman, 2014). The dynamic nature of a team relates to the fact that the objectives and the goals of a group could change over time. As such, an organization that remains united is more likely to be successful in the projects they wish to undertake than a segregated or divided group (Balaram et al., 2017).

The development of team cohesion includes a series of steps, including forming, storming, and norming, and lastly, performing. For instance, the forming stage of team cohesion involves the establishment of clear objectives as well as the implementation of the team building activities to enable the members to know each other (Churchill & Craig, 2019).

Usually, remote working comes with some challenges. For instance, there is often a fear of employees losing a sense of cohesion that is often experienced while working with fellow employees within an office (Kuhn, 2016). As such, the employees are likely to miss out on the 'water-cooler' moments-situations, where the employees bounce ideas off their fellow workers and wait for advice.

Team cohesion is achieved when a team remains united while working to achieve a common objective. Being a cohesive team implies that everyone within the group feels that they have significantly contributed to the cumulative success of the organization (Friedman, 2014). As such, the various individuals on a cohesive team majorly focus on the entire group instead of just a few individuals within the organization (Balaram et al., 2017).

Within the gig economy, it may often be challenging to maintain a cohesive team because of the decentralized structures associated with such a kind of economy (Healy, Nicholson & Pekarek, 2017). The hyper-specialization of the members of the gig economy makes it hard to contract the various employees to see the bigger organizational picture (Friedman, 2014).

However, the multiple talents must be intrinsically motivated towards a common goal. The gig economy often involves many workers who do not work at the same time. The lack of interactions between various teammates makes it hard to build and maintain good teamwork (Healy et al., 2017). The separateness of the team members has negative impacts on morale as well as cohesion among the employees.

Despite the challenges that are likely to be experienced within the gig economy concerning team cohesion, there is an absolute need for a decentralized approach to team cohesion. The managers are expected to achieve such team cohesion within the gig economy through maintaining team engagement (Balaram et al., 2017). As such, the managers should ensure that the employees are doing some meaningful jobs through establishing regular communication channels with various employees.

Again, the managers of the gig economy could improve team cohesion by planning proper orientation for the new team members (Healy et al., 2017). They should always offer briefing documents to the original members of the team, followed by a subsequent orientation exercise to introduce the members to the group (Kuhn, 2016). Team cohesion in the gig economy, such as freelancing, could also be promoted by creating a sense of belonging among the team members (Friedman, 2014). For instance, when the employees are spread out, it is essential to bring all of them together so that they feel included in the team.

The manager may also promote team cohesion within the gig economy by merely ensuring that each member of the team has access to the organization's email address in which they can use to sha...