Determinants Impacting Employee Moonlighting: A Conceptual Push-Pull & SMART ISM Perspective

Moonlighting has been in practice for a long time, but post-pandemic, the inclination of white-collar workers towards moonlighting has tremendously increased. This study aims to explore the factors that affect the moonlighting of employees in the post-COVID work environment. The data for the present study are all secondary data from peer-reviewed journal articles, company reports, news articles, corporate policy statements, HR publications, and publicly available organisational communications in relation to employee moonlighting. Considering Push-Pull Theory and SMART Interpretive Structural Modelling (SMART-ISM), the study identifies and analyses the interrelationships between the key determinants identified through an extensive literature review. Eleven determinants were identified and categorised under three main heads, namely financial, job-related, and opportunity-driven. The Structural Self-Interaction Matrix (SSIM) was built based on the expert opinions and a hierarchical SMART-ISM was constructed. It shows that recession/inflation, wage stagnation and financial frictions are at the baseline, whereas entrepreneurship opportunities and participation in the ‘gig-economy' appear to be outcome-level factors. The study provides a framework which helps to understand the moonlighting behaviour in a structured manner and also provides practical implications to HR managers and policymakers.