The ‘gig economy’ has a new trend coming, according to Stanford University researchers featured in this piece. They call it ‘flash organisations’, which they define as ‘ephemeral setups to execute a single, complex project in ways traditionally associated with corporations, nonprofit groups or governments’.

What’s interesting about the projects they analysed is that the concept seems to bring back middle management: where traditional freelancers typically perform worker-bee tasks, ‘pop-up’ companies tend to combine both workers and managers.

The piece highlights interesting findings on the social behaviour side too: “One thing that was really surprising and exciting about what we saw was how quickly flash organisations developed solidarity and collective behaviour.”

The article also pays attention to the downsides: while fostering flexibility, the model could easily compound insecurity as temporary firms are not likely to provide things like health or retirement benefits.

It will be interesting to see how and in what areas ‘flash organisations' might grow next.