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International Small Business Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2, 179-203 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0266242606061843

A Grounded Theory of Portfolio Working

Experiencing the Smallest of Small Businesses

Michael Clinton

Kings College London, UK

Peter Totterdell

Stephen Wood

University of Sheffield, UK

Portfolio working has been championed, most noticeably by Handy (1995), as a new way in which we should understand many working lives. It is said to be characterized by obtaining and doing a variety of pieces of work for a number of different clients or employers and is suggested by many to be an increasing practice. To understand how individuals who work in this way experience portfolio working, 26 semi-structured interviews were carried out with a range of portfolio workers and then analysed using a grounded theory technique. The model that was generated suggested that a particular combination of features characterized portfolio working: the self-management of work, the independent generation of work and income, the development of a variety of work and clients, and a working environment situated outside any single organization. The model further demonstrated how these combined features engendered three main psychological processes central to the experience of portfolio working: autonomy, uncertainty and social isolation. The nature of the processes had a subsequent impact upon the individual's work intensity, well-being and work–life balance. Personal and situational characteristics also emerged as playing a notable role in how portfolio working is experienced.

Key Words: autonomy • constructivist grounded theory • portfolio working • social isolation • uncertainty


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