The boundaryless career: what working for yourself asks of you that a job never did

Why this question matters

The thesis argues that the boundaryless career literature can help explain how people cope and persist in careers that are highly demanding and rely on the individual’s own performance to succeed (Haydon, 2025, p. 44). It also identifies a gap: there is little empirical work connecting boundaryless career theory, outcomes such as psychological capital, resilience and self-efficacy, and the day-to-day strategies people use to cope and persist in the face of adversity (p. 98). Its two studies use advisers running client-dependent practices as a case for understanding how professionals in boundaryless careers cope and persist over time (p. 98).

Where the idea comes from

Arthur and Rousseau (1996) signalled a major change in career forms: from the bounded, organisational career, which saw people in orderly employment arrangements achieved through vertical coordination in mainly large, stable firms and was the dominant form through the mid-1980s, towards the boundaryless career, where career opportunities may go beyond any single employer (Arthur et al., 2005).

Arthur and Rousseau set out six meanings of the boundaryless career. They include careers that move across separate employers; careers that draw validation and marketability from outside the present employer; careers sustained by external networks; careers that break traditional assumptions about hierarchy and advancement; careers in which people reject opportunities for personal or family reasons; and careers in which the person may perceive a boundaryless future regardless of structural constraints (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Sullivan & Arthur, 2006). The common theme is independence from, rather than dependence on, traditional organisational career principles (Arthur, 1994).

Alongside it came the protean career, one that can “change shape” in response to changing external circumstances (Hall, 1996). Success came to include subjective criteria, such as relational commitments to family, friends and communities and the professional’s own development, considered as important as objective criteria (Bailyn, 1993; Marshall, 1995; Mirvis & Hall, 1994; Tams & Arthur, 2010).

Arthur (1994) concluded his research on employee statistics in the US, UK, Japan and Europe with a line the thesis quotes: “The old picture of stable employment and associated organisational careers is fading. A new picture of dynamic employment and boundaryless careers calls for our attention” (Arthur, 1994, p. 297) (Haydon, 2025, p. 47). Reviewing 17 years of research, Tams and Arthur (2010) identify three themes behind the shift. Reliance on stable employment within large organisations had become an increasingly problematic assumption, so people needed more personal responsibility for learning and adaptability (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1996; Hall, 1996). A networked, learning-oriented economy offered careers the chance to contribute to and shape the economy (Arthur, Inkson, & Pringle, 1999; Weick, 1996). And social changes led people to build careers aligned with their own values and commitments outside work (Mirvis & Hall, 1994; Tams & Arthur, 2010) (p. 43).

The perspective covers both physical mobility, meaning actual career transitions across organisational boundaries, and psychological mobility, a person’s perceived capacity to make transitions (Sullivan & Arthur, 2006) (p. 43). A boundaryless career is not only self-employment: an employee can be boundaryless too, for example by using their skills to renegotiate their contract with their current employer without physically moving (Arthur et al., 2005) (p. 45).

What it asks of people who work for themselves

• Responsibility for your own stability. In their study of gig workers, Tams and Arthur (2010) describe people who are self-employed and responsible for their economic stability and career planning.
• Less feedback, thinner networks. Kost et al. (2020) found that the lack of comprehensive feedback limits the development of essential competencies and self-esteem, and that the absence of direct contact with clients and colleagues limits the creation of meaningful social networks and “knowing-whom” competencies.
• Income volatility and client loss. The thesis notes that the literature gives limited attention to occupations that rely heavily on self-employment, client acquisition and emotional labour, and that business coaches exemplify such careers: they are exposed to income volatility and client loss (Haydon, 2025, p. 98).

The thesis frames these demands through two theories of barriers. Conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) holds that people strive to protect and build resources such as time, energy and confidence, and that threats to those resources create stress. Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) holds that people thrive when their needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness are met, and that motivation and well-being suffer when barriers block them (Haydon, 2025, pp. 52–53). For advisers whose income depends on clients, client dropout is one such barrier: the research the thesis reviews links it to financial losses, increased stress and reduced self-worth (Greif, 2008; Rainer & Campbell, 2001; Graßmann & Schermuly, 2016) (p. 23).

What does it take to succeed in one?

The literature reviewed in the thesis names agency and career self-management as two things a person must have to pursue a boundaryless career (Forrier et al., 2009; Miles & Snow, 1996; Tams & Arthur, 2010; Kost et al., 2020) (Haydon, 2025, p. 46). Career agency is built through three ways of knowing: knowing-why (motivation and identity), knowing-how (skills and expertise) and knowing-whom (relationships and reputation) (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1996) (pp. 46, 51). These are interdependent, so building one can trigger the pursuit of the others (Sullivan & Arthur, 2006), and people with more of all three report higher perceived career success and marketability (Eby, Butts, & Lockwood, 2003) (p. 60).

Independence does not mean going it alone. People in boundaryless careers are responsible for their own success, but those who seek interdependence report higher levels of support and better opportunities for career development and success (Arthur, 1994; Arthur et al., 2005; Kost et al., 2020; Grant, 2007) (p. 58). Social networks let people develop knowing-whom competencies and draw on other people’s knowledge and resources to keep their skills up to date in a changing economy (Arthur, 1994; Eby et al., 2003) (p. 58).

What is the debate?

Sullivan and Arthur (2006) criticise research that has studied physical and psychological changes in work separately, because the separation overlooks how the two depend on each other and makes the work less applicable to people who must consider both (Haydon, 2025, p. 47). Others question whether the benefits apply to everyone. The positive aspects mostly apply to highly educated and skilled professionals, while women, minorities or workers with low education levels can experience boundaryless careers as burdensome because of the lack of resources provided by employers (Inkson et al., 2012; Pringle & Mallon, 2003; Zeitz et al., 2009) (p. 48). The perspective has also been criticised for neglecting the support structures that help workers develop the competencies they need (Zeitz et al., 2009) (p. 48).

Critical management scholars go further, arguing that apparent agency may be a way for institutions to shift risks onto individuals, disguised as self-directedness and individual responsibility (Ehrenreich, 2006; Ekinsmyth, 2002) (p. 54). The thesis’s own reading is that a boundaryless career may not suit everyone, because its long-term benefits often come at the expense of short-term security (p. 48).

How career success is defined

Objective success refers to externally observable outcomes such as financial performance, client acquisition and client retention (Ng, Eby, Sorensen & Feldman, 2005). Subjective success concerns the individual’s internal evaluation of fulfilment, satisfaction and psychological well-being (Hall, 2004, as cited in the thesis). For business coaching, the thesis defines achievement as extending beyond financial gain to include autonomy, flexibility and meaningful impact (Haydon, 2025, p. 26). The doctorate measured both: revenue, number of clients and client retention, and life satisfaction and job insecurity.

Career theory recognises that the two sides interact without always aligning (Goffman, 1961). The thesis gives the example, from Arthur et al. (2005), of an artist who may judge success by the gratification they are given for their work, while a salesperson may judge it by the commission earned; even then, objective earnings can shape a person’s own sense of being successful (Van Maanen, 1977) (Haydon, 2025, pp. 57–58).

In the thesis’s own interviews, participants described their objective success as number of clients, revenue, retention and client results, and their subjective success as well-being, personal growth, work-life balance, freedom of choice and the feeling of making an impact on other people’s lives (p. 22). Underneath all of it, the thesis concludes, sits the ability to acquire clients, which is income, and to retain them, which is the security of that income (pp. 22–23).

Why owners look for outside help

Entrepreneurs often engage experienced business coaches to help them achieve milestones and business goals, and to address emotional and practical concerns such as loneliness, the weight of decision-making, and the impact on health and family (Kets De Vries, Korotov, & Floreant-Treacy, 2007). Coaches reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation (Cooper & Quick, 2003, as cited in the thesis), serve as sounding boards (Clutterbuck & Megginson, 1999), provide space for unstructured discussions (Devins & Gold, 2000), offer objective feedback (Drucker, 2005), and act as advisors drawing on their background and business experience (Leonard & Swap, 2005).

They can also serve as connectors to unique networks, including access to capital (Bhide, 2000; Crompton et al., 2012) (Haydon, 2025, p. 69). The entrepreneurship research the thesis reviews adds why this matters to owners: goals, self-efficacy and shared vision have been directly linked to venture growth (Baum & Locke, 2004), and the thesis argues that a coach can help an owner develop effective strategies, refine decision-making, strengthen their leadership approach and bridge gaps in self-efficacy (pp. 90–91).

What this doesn’t show

A literature review summarises what others have found; it doesn’t test it. The thesis itself notes that boundaryless career research has treated knowledge workers and professionals as relatively anonymous actors (Haydon, 2025, p. 98). Its own empirical work was with business coaches in one franchise network.

My read

My view, kept apart from the sources.

Most owners never think of what they did as a career decision. They started a business. But this research describes their life more accurately than most business books: no ladder, little honest feedback, income that depends on people who can leave, and a success they have to define for themselves. The owners I work with who are paid properly did three things: they built the mindset deliberately, they found other owners to tell them the truth, and they decided what the business was for before the business decided for them.

Sources

References as listed in the thesis (Haydon, 2025, pp. 312 onwards). Hall (2004) and Cooper & Quick (2003) are cited in the thesis text but do not appear in its reference list. Eby, Butts, & Lockwood (2003) and Pringle & Mallon (2003) are likewise cited in the thesis text but not in its reference list.

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