We are organizing a presenter symposium for AOM 2026 in Philadelphia, specifically focusing on alternative workers and looking at these through the lens of workforce and HR ecosystems (Altman et al., 2021; Snell et al., 2021). We are open to a range of approaches, AOM Divisions, and papers at various stages of development.
Our goal is to deepen understanding of how organizations, individuals, and systems create, capture, and sustain value when work occurs beyond traditional employment relationships. We invite contributions that explore how workforce ecosystems reconfigure HR systems, organizing logics, and career experiences. For Alternative Workers, we draw on Cappelli and Keller (2013) to include all who are outside the norm of direct employment, i.e., co-employment, and forms of contracting such as independent contracting, subcontracting, and vendor on-premises.
Some potential areas/questions that we are open to are below:
1. How do organizations recognize and evaluate contributions from ecosystem actors who fall outside employment structures?
2. How do value flows within workforce ecosystems differ from those in traditional employment arrangements?
3. What processes, metrics, or practices enable the orchestration of alternative workers in HR/workforce ecosystems?
4. How do individuals experience HR/workforce ecosystems? Meaning, identity, and commitment for alternative work.
5. How do careers evolve and generate value across ecosystems and non-standard work contexts?
We are also interested in papers addressing key topics from ecosystem and alternative work, including orchestration, interdependence, governance, meaning, identity, and commitment. These can be from the perspectives of alternative workers and/or those managing or collaborating with them.
This symposium builds on our successful AOM sessions in Boston (2023) on freelance workers and Chicago (2024) on HR and workforce ecosystems, and we look forward to continuing the conversation in Philadelphia.
If you are interested in joining this symposium then please let us know with a proposed title, up to a 250-word abstract, by 26th November. We will let you know of inclusion by the 1st December with full (up to 5-page) pieces due by 15th December.
If you have any questions or are interested in joining us, please contact a.kulichyova@qub.ac.uk and d.e.cross@soton.ac.uk
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David Cross
Associate Professor
University of Southampton
SOUTHAMPTON
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