Project guests? Temporal modes of employment and strategic HRM in project-based organizations

HRM and employment practices have mainly been studied in organizations performing relatively routine work, even if the work is only of a temporary nature and/or outsourced to external service providers. Although project-based work and employment have become commonplace, how modes of employment are formed and managed in more temporary, complex and dynamic organizational forms like project-based organizations (PBOs) is less well understood and addressed in HR architecture theory. This research examines how different temporal modes of employment have developed due to the structural characteristics of projects and the HR strategies of PBOs. Following a practice-based perspective, this research examines four PBOs in the Iranian and Scottish oil and gas industry drawing on primary data collected through semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation along with secondary data. The findings reveal a spectrum of modes of employment and related HRM practices in contemporary PBOs, which require high commitment to a project and/or the PBO, thus moving beyond the traditional dichotomy of temporary or permanent employment. We use the metaphor of project ‘guests’ to reflect the varying degrees of temporariness to project employment. While guests do not stay permanently, the duration of their stay may differ considerably. The findings enable contributions to the extension of HR architecture theory to PBOs and generate practice implications for a growing number of other dynamically configuring organizations.