Examining Consequences of Self Leadership Strategies A Study on Freelancers in India

Abstract

newlineTo meet the contingent demands of today s volatile market organizations are found availing services from freelancers (Burke and Cowling, 2020). Freelancers are hired for their expertise and specific skill sets (Jha et al., 2018). Though, freelancers work on the different projects within an organization, they are not bounded by the organizational policies, as the nature of their work is contingent and is of shorter duration (Burke and Cowling, 2020). Further, it has been observed that freelancers work independently and with multiple organizations simultaneously (Gupta, 2018). From time to time, scholars have tried to draw attention to the crucial role of freelancers at the workplace (Burke and Cowling, 2020). newlineHowever, in spite of the sudden surge in the hiring of freelancers, limited studies have explored the factors which lead to higher level of work performance from these freelance workers. On the other hand, freelancers are hired only for their expertise and unique skill sets, hence they need to keep honing their skill sets to remain employable. To date scant studies have taken up an initiative to investigate the factors which can keep them employable and persistent to their freelance career. Thus, present study has been taken up to meet these gaps. newlineOrganizational behavior studies have found self-leadership as one of the essential variables that can predict work performance. Self-leadership, a process of influencing and regulating oneself, has been conceptualized as a precursor to employees work performance. The theories behind self-leadership one regulates and manages one s own performance. As freelancers are independent of organizational policies, they need a self-regulating and management strategies to perform and remain persistent in their career. Thus, we proposed that self-leadership strategies will keep freelancers performing and persistent with their freelance career.