Liminality Competence: An Interpretative Study of Mobile Project Workers in Advanced Engineering
Elisabeth Borg, Jonas Söderlund · Academy of Management Proceedings · 2012
This study focuses on individuals who are highly affected by the ‘flexibilization’ of work, namely mobile project workers. These workers are temporarily hired to take part in high-tech projects together with employees in the client’s organizations and other technical consultants. Since they are affected by both structural and manpower-related flexibilization, their situation can be denoted as one of liminality; characterized by temporality, ambiguity and unclear loyalties. This interpretative study, based on diary entries and interviews, takes on a holistic view on how mobile project workers perceive their work and identifies specific competencies they develop to deal with work liminality. The study suggests there are three primary liminality conceptions that mobile project workers hold and that the conceptions exhibit varying degrees of liminality competence. The paper ends with suggestions for future research in the area of liminality competence.