Gig work challenges and work alienation: Hindering factors for living a calling?

This two-wave time-lagged study investigates the effect of gig work challenges on gig workers sense of living their calling. Prior research has shown that besides socioeconomic factors the immediate work environment plays a role for the sense of living a calling. However, so far, no empirical study on the effect of work demands on living a calling has been conducted. The gig work context is characterized by a specific set of demands and it is important to attain a better understanding about the implication of these demands on the sense of living one’s calling and why and under which conditions those relations emerge. We apply a Job Demands Resources Framework to test whether gig work related demands (i.e., gig work challenges) are negatively related to the sense of living one’s calling through work alienation. Besides that, we hypothesize that, as personal resources, proactive meaning making and self-employed identity aspiration buffer the relationship between gig work challenges and work alienation and therefore positively contribute to gig worker s’ sense of living one’s calling through gig work. A pre-study revealed preliminary correlational results. The participants for main time-lagged study are gig workers from Switzerland, Germany and Austria from various gig-work platforms. Data collection of the main study will be finalized in early summer 2022.