Moonlighting as a Mechanism for Employee Value Creation: A Conceptual Review and Research Agenda

Moonlighting, defined as the practice of holding one or more paid engagements in addition to a primary job, has traditionally been framed by organizations as a governance risk associated with divided attention, conflicts of interest, and diminished loyalty. This paper reframes moonlighting through a value-creation lens, arguing that when it is transparently managed, secondary employment can function as a mechanism through which employees build human, social, psychological, and financial capital that ultimately benefits both the individual and, under identifiable conditions, the primary organization. Drawing on human capital theory, boundaryless career theory, self-determination theory, and the resource-based view of the firm, the paper develops a conceptual framework that links the antecedents of moonlighting to individual- and organizational-level value outcomes, moderated by disclosure norms, job design, and human resource practices. The paper concludes with managerial implications for designing moonlighting policies that convert a traditionally risk-managed behaviour into a source of competitive advantage, and it proposes a research agenda for empirically testing the framework across sectors and labour markets.