Introduction – Solo self-employment is a non-standard work arrangement that can be organized in various ways, such as independent business ownership or gig-by-gig employment through umbrella companies. As this sector expands, understanding the personal resources linked to worker wellbeing is essential. This study utilizes the Conservation of Resources (COR) framework to examine how personal resources regarding psychological capital (hope, self-efficacy, resilience, optimism) and risk tolerance relate to job and life satisfaction. Methods – The study analyzed cross-sectional survey data from 775 Swedish workers, distinguishing between independent business owners (N = 510) and umbrella-contracted gig workers (N = 265). Multi-group structural equation modelling was employed to compare how these personal resources relate to satisfaction outcomes across the two distinct employment forms. Results – Results revealed that the relationships with job and life satisfaction were largely consistent across groups. Future-oriented resources, specifically hope and optimism, had the strongest positive associations with both job and life satisfaction. In contrast, self-efficacy and resilience played minor roles when modeled alongside other resources. Furthermore, although business owners reported higher risk tolerance, this attitude was negatively related to life satisfaction, and no significant non-linear (inverted-U) association was found. Discussion – Despite the operational and legal differences between the studied groups, more similarities than differences were found in how personal resources relate to satisfaction outcomes. This suggests that the psychological mechanisms driving wellbeing remain relatively stable across different forms of solo self-employment, regardless of the specific employment form.

Background and aim: In recent decades, alternative employment and working arrangements have become increasingly common. Organizations often make use of such arrangements to achieve greater flexibility, by hiring or laying off employees, when necessary, yet such arrangements may also suit the needs of working individuals. Given that certain employment arrangements may connote individual experiences work-related insecurity, this study aimed to investigate contractual conditions, specifically employment contract type (permanent versus temporary) and extent of employment (full-time versus part-time) in relation to two types of insecurity: job and financial insecurity. These relationships were investigated in Sweden, in four cases: self-employment, temporary agency work, the retail sector, and academia. These are characterized by variation regarding employment arrangements.

Methods: Questionnaire data was collected from working individuals between 2021 and 2022 (n = 4644). The sample included individuals in self-employment (n = 661), temporary agency work (n = 238), retail (n = 953), and academia (n = 2792). Main effects of contract type and extent of employment were tested using one-way ANOVAs and interactions were tested using two-way ANOVAs.

Results: Job and financial insecurity differed between the four cases. Temporary agency workers reported the highest job insecurity, while those working in retail reported the highest financial insecurity. Focusing on differences within cases, main effects revealed variation with regards to the importance of permanent versus temporary employment and extent of employment (full-time versus part-time) for job and financial insecurity. Significant interactions for job and financial insecurity were only found within academia.

Conclusion: Focusing on self-employment, temporary agency work, retail, and academia, the study findings reveal that contract type and extent of employment seem to play into differential experiences of job and financial insecurity among working individuals. Whereas contract type appears more important for insecurity in some cases, the extent of employment appears more important in others. Overall, the findings point towards the role of context (specifically the sector/type of work one engages in) in shaping how specific contractual conditions may differentially be associated with job and financial insecurity, with implications for working individuals and their organizations, in Sweden and in other Nordic countries.

Purpose: Solo entrepreneurs interact with external stakeholders such as clients, financiers, government agencies and unions, yet how they perceive the fairness of these interactions is not fully understood. This study examines fairness perceptions among solo entrepreneurs towards governmental agencies, financiers, clients and unions and their associations for well-being (career satisfaction, self-rated health) and self-rated job performance.

Design/methodology/approach: A survey study with solo entrepreneurs in Sweden at T1 (N = 485) and a follow-up six months later (N = 192) was conducted. Latent profile analyses were utilized and differences between profiles of fairness perceptions were tested.

Findings: Four distinct fairness profiles were identified: “Unfair”, “Fair”, “Financiers and Government Fair”, and “Average Fair”. These profiles differed significantly in career satisfaction, self-rated health and job performance at both timepoints. Some differences between profiles in demographic and business characteristics were found. Findings highlight the particular importance of fairness perceptions in relation to government agencies and financial entities for solo entrepreneurs’ well-being and performance.

Originality/value: This study underscores the role of perceived fairness in fostering a healthy and productive entrepreneurial environment, offering insights for stakeholders aiming to promote sustainable entrepreneurship.

Recently, “nonstandard” employment and working arrangements have become more prevalent. These include temporary, and part-time work, for instance. Organizations increasingly utilize such arrangements in efforts for greater flexibility, to hire and lay-off employees, and to reassign employees to other work tasks when necessary. Organizations strive for flexibility to remain competitive on the labor market. Yet, at an individual level, such arrangements may link to work-related perceptions and experiences, with broader implications. As employment contract type (permanent versus temporary) and extent of employment (full versus part-time) may have consequences for individuals, it is important to investigate how they interact, particularly to understand who may be most vulnerable.

This study investigated contract type and extent of employment in relation to job and financial insecurity. Four work-related contexts were selected, representing variation regarding contract type and extent of employment: self-employment, temporary agency work, retail, and academia.

Questionnaire data was collected between 2021 and 2022 (n = 4,644), targeting working individuals in Sweden in self-employment (n = 661), temporary agency work (n = 238), retail (n = 953), and academia (n = 2,792). ANOVAs tested main and interaction effects of work-related context, contract type, and extent of employment for job and financial insecurity.Job and financial insecurity differed across work-related contexts. Job insecurity was highest among temporary agency workers whereas financial insecurity was highest in retail. Main effects of contract type and extent of employment varied by context. Interaction effects were only found within academia: temporary, full-time contract individuals reported higher job and financial insecurity than those with temporary, part-time contracts.

Focusing on four work-related contexts, the results show that while contract type appears more important for job than financial insecurity, extent of employment was important for financial insecurity in retail. The findings illustrate how experiences of work-related insecurities may be differentially associated with contractual conditions, and underscore the significance of context for shaping differential work-related experiences, with individual and organizational implications. This contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the implications of employment and working arrangements, in Sweden and elsewhere.

With increasing political polarization accompanied by various economic threats and crises, the interplay of politics and work is crucial to understanding emerging phenomena. With this position paper, we highlight what work and organizational psychology can offer in the work–politics nexus. We classify three broad streams in which we see the need for more research on the work–politics nexus: (a) politics affecting work, (b) work affecting political attitudes and engagement, and (c) political participation at work. Using these areas, we highlight the urgency for organizations and practitioners to pay attention and provide future research directions for work and organizational psychology scholars. This position paper aims to highlight initial work and organizational psychological research in the work–politics nexus and encourages work and organizational psychologists to direct more attention toward the intersection of work and the broader civic sphere.

Perceived employability is a vital resource for individuals in uncertain work conditions, including the solo self-employed who manage their own careers. Although the movement capital model captures antecedents of perceived employability for employees, its relevance for solo self-employed workers remains unexplored. This study examines the four dimensions of the model in two groups: those with their own registered business (RBS) and those working via umbrella companies (employed gig worker (EGW)). A cross-sectional survey study of N = 750 individuals (RBS = 485, EGW = 265) was conducted. Path model analyses showed that while all movement capital dimensions (human capital, social capital, self-awareness, adaptability) were individually associated with perceived employability, only age (as part of human capital) and psychological capital (as part of adaptability) remained significant in the full model. Results were largely consistent across the two groups. The movement capital model demonstrated limited fit for both groups, particularly for registered business owners.

Background: Employability, the perceived ability to realize work opportunities, has been suggested as an important individual resource to navigate uncertainty in non-standard work. It can be viewed as an important resource for mitigating stress arising from uncertainty and, therefore, as a relevant factor in strengthening workers’ health. Still, research investigating how employability can be built up in non-standard work remains scarce. This is particularly true for temporary agency work (TAW), characterised by a triangular relationship between client, agency and worker. Enhancing employability in this context is crucial for agencies, who rely on the marketability of their workers when matching them with potential clients; and for workers, who rely on it as a resource to navigate their careers. According to human capital theory, investment in skills should increase an individual’s perception of employability. Such investment can occur through workplace learning, which may take formal (e.g., training provided by the agency or client) or informal forms (e.g., learning on the job or through other career development activities). In addition to professional competence, even workers’ proactive career behavior may be relevant for employability perceptions. However, the importance of these factors may differ depending on where individuals perceive themselves to be in their career and depending on if they work full-time as TAW or not. In this study, we investigate how different forms of workplace learning and proactive career behavior relate to perceived employability in TAW as well as the interaction effects with perceived career stage and work extent.

Method: Survey data was collected for N= 324 TAW. Measures covered possibilities for competence development (informal learning), participation in competence development (formal learning) and behavioral proactivity related to career development (proactive career behaviors). Employability was assessed using both a quantitative component (perceived ability of finding other work elsewhere) and a qualitative component (perceived ability of finding better work elsewhere). Also, participants reported their perceived career stage (Given your age, do you think that your career is on 'schedule,' ahead or behind schedule?) and work extent (part-time or full-time). Age, gender, and education were included as control variables.

Results: Preliminary multiple linear regression analyses indicate significant effects of proactive career behaviors on both qualitative and quantitative employability. Informal learning is initially significantly associated with quantitative employability, but its effect diminishes once proactive career behaviors are added in the regression. Formal learning showed no significant effect on employability. No interaction effects were found for perceived career phase or work extent, suggesting that proactive career behaviors are equally important regardless of career stage or work extent in TAW.

Conclusion: Proactive career behaviors appear to play an important role for employability perceptions among TAW. Informal and formal learning had limited effects on employability. Engaging in these behaviors can enhance perceptions of being able to find other and better work elsewhere. This has practical implications for agencies, clients and workers, and their decisions on which aspects of workplace learning to focus on or how to facilitate career behaviors for building quantitative and qualitative employability.

Background: Employability, the perceived ability to realize work opportunities, has been suggested as an important individual resource to navigate uncertainty in non-standard work. It can be viewed as an important resource for mitigating stress arising from uncertainty and, therefore, as a relevant factor in strengthening workers’ health. Still, research investigating how employability can be built up in non-standard work remains scarce. This is particularly true for temporary agency work (TAW), characterised by a triangular relationship between client, agency, and worker. Enhancing employability in this context is crucial for agencies, who rely on the marketability of their workers when matching them with potential clients, and for workers, who rely on it as a resource to navigate their careers. According to human capital theory, investment in skills should increase an individual’s perception of employability. Such investment can occur through workplace learning, which may take formal (e.g., training provided by the agency or client) or informal forms (e.g., learning on the job or through other career development activities). In addition to professional competence, even workers’ proactive career behaviour may be relevant for employability perceptions. However, the importance of these factors may differ depending on where individuals perceive themselves to be in their career and depending on whether they work full-time as TAW or not. In this study, we investigate how different forms of workplace learning and proactive career behaviour relate to perceived employability in TAW as well as the interaction effects with perceived career stage and work extent.

Method: Survey data were collected from 324 temporary agency workers. Measures covered possibilities for competence development (informal learning), participation in competence development (formal learning), and behavioural proactivity related to career development (proactive career behaviours). Employability was assessed using both a quantitative component (perceived ability of finding other work elsewhere) and a qualitative component (perceived ability of finding better work elsewhere). Also, participants reported their perceived career stage (Given your age, do you think that your career is on “schedule,” ahead or behind schedule?) and work extent (part-time or full-time). Age, gender, and education were included as control variables.

Results: Preliminary multiple linear regression analyses indicate significant effects of proactive career behaviours on both qualitative and quantitative employability. Informal learning is initially significantly associated with quantitative employability, but its effect diminishes once proactive career behaviours are added in the regression. Formal learning showed no significant effect on employability. No interaction effects were found for perceived career phase or work extent, suggesting that proactive career behaviours are equally important regardless of career stage or work extent in TAW.

Conclusion: Proactive career behaviours appear to play an important role in employability perceptions among TAW. Informal and formal learning had limited effects on employability. Engaging in these behaviours can enhance perceptions of being able to find other and better work elsewhere. This has practical implications for agencies, clients, and workers, and their decisions on which aspects of workplace learning to focus on or how to facilitate career behaviours for building quantitative and qualitative employability.

Gig work has been increasing in past years and is usually portrayed as a precarious and vulnerable non-standard employment form characterized by high insecurity. To better understand insecurity experiences of gig workers, we explore whether and how insecurity perceptions in relation to gig, financial, career and business domains are combined in distinct insecurity profiles. To characterize found profiles, potential antecedents (demographics, gig work motives, gig employment characteristics and labor market factors) to insecurity perceptions are studied. This study focuses on employed gig workersin Sweden, who work client-based and find their own assignments, but also have an umbrella company as their legal employer. Based on 227 employed gig workers, four distinct insecurity profiles were identified. The ‘predictable secure’ (40%), the ‘career secure’ (20%), the ‘client and career insecure’ (24%) and the ‘highly insecure’ (17%). Results indicate that not all gig workers experience insecurity or work in a precarious employment form. Instead, at least for some, gig work can provide employment that is perceived as intrinsically motivating. Others needed gig work for their income and were using gig work not solely as sideline activity. Results also reveal that several aspects of job insecurity are important to consider when differentiating the heterogenous group of gig workers. This study concludes that policies may be needed for vulnerable groups to identify solutions that reduce insecurity in client-based work. Preferably, this can be done in dialogue between employers, unions, gig workers and their clients.