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As part of a wider study into Human Resource Management (HRM) practices in projectoriented companies, we investigated the issue of employee well-being. Project-oriented organizations adopt temporary work processes to deliver products and services to clients. This creates a dynamic work environment, where additional pressures can be imposed on the employee from fluctuating work-loads, uncertain requirements, and multiple role demands. Those pressures can create issues for employee well-being and ethical treatment, which need to be managed. HRM has traditionally had two roles, a management support role, providing the organization with competent people to undertake the work processes, and an employee support role, caring for the well-being of employees. In this paper we report our results on the HRM practices adopted in project-oriented organizations to fulfil the second role. We find that by and large in project-oriented organizations the management support role dominates, and they are not very good at caring for employees. The need for profit and responding to client demands often takes precedence over employee well-being. However, some of the organizations we have interviewed have adopted HRM practices to care for employees, and we report those. Also providing employees with career development opportunities is as important for the individual as it is for the organization, and we report practices for that.

Purpose Although it is transforming the meaning of employment for many people, little is known about the implications of the gig economy for human resource management (HRM) theory and practice. The purpose of this paper is to conceptually explore the notion of HRM in the gig economy, where intermediary platform firms design and implement HRM activities while simultaneously trying to avoid the establishment of employment relationships with gig workers. Design/methodology/approach To conceptualize HRM in the gig economy, the authors offer a novel ecosystem perspective to develop propositions on the role and implementation of HRM activities in the gig economy. Findings The authors show that HRM activities in the gig economy are designed to govern platform ecosystems by aligning the multilateral exchanges of three key gig economy actors: gig workers, requesters and intermediary platform firms, for ensuring value co-creation. The authors argue that the implementation of HRM activities in the gig economy is contingent on the involvement and activities of these gig economy actors. This means that they are not mere recipients of HRM but also actively engaged in, and needed for, the execution of HRM activities. Originality/value The study contributes to research by proposing a theoretical framework for studying the design of HRM activities, and their implementation, in the gig economy. From this framework, the authors derive directions for future research on HRM in the gig economy.

Innovation is an important area of management theory, but there is a paucity of research on innovation in project based firms. Project based firms are simultaneously becoming a more vital and important organisational context, exemplifying many current managerial challenges. In this paper we research innovation in twenty project based firms. We identify three key areas of innovation from the theoretical literature and conduct empirical research, discovering (1) whether project based firms provide an organisational context supportive of innovation, (2) how project based firms address the question of innovation and slack resources, and finally (3) whether project based firms view innovation as universally desirable, or adopt a more cautious approach to developing and driving their innovation strategies. Our findings add to current theorising on innovation in organisations, expanding our knowledge of project based firms and innovation strategies.

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In the midst of the turbulence wrought by the global economy, it has become common to see projects as an essential medium for achieving change. However, project-based learning practices-as a subset of organizational learning practices-have not kept pace with this development. To explore this concern, we have carried out a study on practices adopted by organizations for learning through projects involving nineteen companies from across Europe and from a range of different industries. We use the concepts of variation, selection and retention in organizational learning to analyze our findings and report the challenges faced by project-based organizations in each of the areas highlighted. We conclude that time pressures, centralization and deferral are the key characteristics of learning in project-based firms and that these impede project-based members in learning from and through projects.

231-249Current models of HRM suggest that expectations about HR roles are changing as organisations are striving to make the HR function leaner and more 'strategic'. In our article we explore the changing roles of HRM as they are perceived by different stakeholder groups within the HR profession through the medium of a study examining the diffusion of the concept of 'the thinking performer' launched by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in 2002. We explain how the concept of business partnering dominates respondents' talk about HR policy and practice and raise questions about the impact of this in terms of HRM's relationship with employees, employee well-being and the career paths of HR professionals. We argue that the profession needs to reflect seriously on the consequences of a dominant business/strategic partner framing of HR work, which fails to address the duality that has historically always been inherent in HR practice. We conclude that there is a need for a more balanced HR agenda addressing human and economic concerns in current and future models of HRM.

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