Free Agent Nation

Daniel H. Pink argues that the dominant figure of American working life, the Organization Man, has been displaced by a new one, the free agent, the self-employed micro entrepreneur working independently. The book sets out who these workers are, from the marketing consultant down the street to the home-based parent running a business to the footloose technology contractor, and why they have moved away from conventional employment. Pink's claim is that free agents pursue three values above all, authenticity, autonomy and self-defined success, and that they make meaning in their work by assembling four pieces, freedom, authenticity, accountability and self-defined success, into a new free agent work ethic. In doing so they rewrite the employment contract itself, trading the old bargain of loyalty for security for a new one of talent for opportunity. Pink also argues that the supporting machinery of working life has not caught up, since taxes and health insurance are still built for traditional workers and create obstacles on the path to free agency. He suggests women are a driving force behind free agency and could come to dominate it, and that the arrival of free agents will have downstream effects on schools, property, finance, politics and American notions of success.

Written from the official book page on Daniel Pink's website.

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• Daniel H. Pink