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New Forms of Employment in Europe
BULLETIN OF COMPARATIVE LABOUR RELATIONS – 94
New Forms of Employment in Europe
Editors
Roger Blanpain
Frank Hendrickx
Guest Editor
Bernd Waas
Contributors
José João Abrantes
Edoardo Ales
Helga Aune
Barend Barentsen
Catherine Barnard
Kadriye Bakirci
Elín Blöndal
Iván Antonio Rodríguez Cardo
Simon Deakin
Tomas Davulis
Raluca Dimitriu
Krist¯ıne Dupate
Matleena Engblom
Joaquín Garcia Murcia
Ivana Grgurev
Tamás Gyulavári
Petr Hu
˚rka
Senad Jašarevic´
Todor Kalamatiev
Anthony Kerr
Francis Kessler
György Kiss
Polonca Koncˇar
Jens Kristiansen
Jan Marco Leimeister
Irene Mandl
Lorna Mifsud Cachia
Leszek Mitrus
Costas Papadimitriou
Wolfgang Portmann
Jean-Luc Putz
Wilfried RauwsMartin Risak
Aleksandar Ristovski
Mia Rönnmar
Robert Schronk
Vesna Simovic-Zvicer
Krassimira Sredkova
Gaabriel Tavits
Claire Toumieux
Nicos Trimikliniotis
Bernd Waas
Johan Zwemmer
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Notes on Contributors
José João Abrantes is Full Professor of Civil Law and Labour Law at the Faculty of Law
and Pro-Rector of the NOVA University of Lisbon. He is a member of several legal
associations and scientific networks. He is the Portuguese expert at ELLN – The
European Labour Law Network, a European network of legal experts in the field of
labour law assisting the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal
Opportunities of the European Commission (DG-EMPL/F/2).
Edoardo Ales (Rome 1968) is since 2002 Full Professor of European, Comparative and
Italian Labour and Social Security Law. From 1996 to 2000 he was Lecturer at the
University of Rome Tor Vergata. He teaches in Cassino (University of Cassino and
Southern Lazio) in Rome (LUISS – G. Carli) and in Wien (Wirtschaftsuniversität). He
has managed several national and international research projects in his field of interest
and cooperated several times with the European Institutions (Commission and Parlia-
ment) and national labour authorities. He is expert in European Labour and Social
Security (coordination) Law, in European Employment and Social Inclusion Policy, in
Italian, German and Austrian Labour and Social Security Law. Since 2006, he is
member of the Scientific Committee and national expert for Italy of the ELLN. He has
published and edited several books on individual and collective labour law as well as
Health and Safety Law. He is author of several essays on international and national
Labour and Social Security Law journals. He is co-editor of the Rivista del Diritto della
Sicurezza Sociale.
Helga Aune is a lawyer and has been the national leader of the Labour Law
Department at the PwC Law Firm AS, Norway since 2014. Aune completed her PhD
thesis ‘Part-time work. Protection against discrimination on a structural and an
individual level’ at the Faculty of Law, University of Norway in 2009. She was a
Post-Doctoral Fellow at the same Faculty from 2009 to 2014 to conduct research on
legal issues in the education sector as well as on issues relating to employment law.
Aune has published numerous articles on gender equality and non-discrimination
issues. She has been a member of the European Commission Network of Legal Experts
in the field of gender equality since 2003 and a member of the European Commission
v
Network of Legal Experts of the European Labour Law Network (ELLN) since 2007.
Aune was awarded the YS Equality Prize of 2013 for her book on part-time work.
Barend Barentsen is Professor of Labour Law and Labour Relations in the Public
Sector at Leiden University.
Catherine Barnard, MA (Cantab), LLM (EUI), PhD (Cantab), is Professor of European
Union Law and Employment Law at the University of Cambridge, and Senior Tutor and
Fellow of Trinity College. She specialises in EU law and employment law. She is the
author of EU Employment Law (Oxford, OUP, 2012, 4th ed.), The Substantive Law of
the EU: The Four Freedoms, (Oxford, OUP, 2013, 4th ed., 5th ed. pending), and (with
Peers eds.), European Union Law (Oxford, OUP, 2014). She is also editor of various
collections of essays including: The Fundamentals of EU Law Revisited (Oxford, 2007),
The Outer Limits of EU Law (Hart, 2009) (with Odudu). She has advised the govern-
ment over the Balance of Competence Review. She is a Senior Fellow at the ESRC UK
in a Changing Europe project, where she will be working with Dr Amy Ludlow on a
project entitled: ‘“Honeypot Britain?” The lived experience of working as an EU
migrant in the UK’. She will be looking in particular at the question of migrant workers’
access to benefits in the UK.
Kadriye Bakirci is the Head of the Employment and Social Security Law Division at
Hacettepe Law Faculty, Turkey. She completed her LLB, LLM and PhD degrees at
Istanbul Law Faculty. She was a visiting scholar/ fellow at the Institute of Advanced
Legal Studies; the London School of Economics and Political Science; Cambridge,
Stockholm and Columbia Law Faculties. She has extensive experience in the field of
labour law.
Elín Blöndal has a Cand Jur. Degree from the University of Iceland and a Master’s
degree in Public International Law from the University of Leiden. She is now Chief
Legal Counsel at the University of Iceland. She was Professor and Chair of the Research
Centre of Labour Law at Bifröst University, Head of the Labour Office at the Ministry of
Social Affairs and Head of Office at the Parliamentary Ombudsman Office. She has
authored several publications, especially in the field of labour law, gender equality and
social human rights.
Iván Antonio Rodríguez Cardo is Full Professor of Labour Law at the University of
Oviedo. PhD in Labour Law. He is member of several legal associations and scientific
networks. Former Vice-Dean at the Faculty of Law of the University of Oviedo.
Researcher on numerous projects funded by the Government of Spain and the
European Union. He has published numerous papers in Journals of Labour Law and
Social Security Law.
Simon Deakin is Professor of Law at the University of Cambridge, where he teaches
Labour Law, Private Law, and Economics of Law. He is the author (with Frank
Wilkinson) of ‘The Law of the Labour Market: Industrialisation, Employment, and
Legal Evolution’ (OUP, 2005) and (with Gillian S. Morris) of ‘Labour Law’ (Hart, 6th
ed.) He is also editor of the Industrial Law Journal.
Notes on Contributors
vi
Tomas Davulis is Professor of Labour Law and Head of the Department of Labour Law
(the Institute for Labour Law) at Vilnius University, Faculty of Law. He is involved in
various research projects at national and international level on topics related to labour
law, the labour market and social security. Davulis is a member of various international
networks (e.g., the European Labour Law Network, European Network of Legal
Experts on gender equality and non-discrimination) as well as a member of interna-
tional and national scientific organisations (European Law Association, International
Society for Labour Law and Social Security). His expertise in national and international
labour law with a strong emphasis on the transposition of European legislation allows
him to contribute to networks and organisations as a national expert or general
rapporteur. At national level, Davulis has been appointed leader and member of
various groups to assess and ameliorate domestic labour legislation (in particular, the
Labour Code and transposition of EU legislation). In 2014-2015, he headed the
consortium appointed by the Lithuanian government with the preparation of the
so-called Lithuanian social model – research-based legislative initiatives in the fields of
labour law, employment support and social insurance which aims to modernise labour
market regulation and adapt the social security system. As a result, more than forty
pieces of draft legislation are currently being debated in Parliament.
Raluca Dimitriu is Professor of Labour Law, PhD coordinator and Director of the Law
Doctoral School at the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Law Department. She
is also principal researcher at the Legal Research Institute of the Romanian Academy
and trainer for magistrates specialised in labour law at the National Institute for
Magistracy, Bucharest.
Krist¯ıne Dupate is Associated Professor at University of Latvia, Faculty of Law
Department of International and European Law. She is a member (national expert) of
the Network of Legal Experts for the EU Commission in the fields of gender equality,
labour law and the free movement of workers. She has participated in various research
projects in international and EU institutions as a national expert. Krist¯ıne Dupate has
authored numerous publications on gender equality, non-discrimination and labour
law.
Matleena Engblom, LL.Lic, Specialist Counsel, is a Finnish labour law expert working
for Attorneys JB Eversheds Ltd. She deals with different types of labour disputes and
employment offence proceedings. She has worked as a researcher at the University of
Turku, as an attorney, a labour court clerk, a lawyer for the Church, a trade union
lawyer, and head of administration. She has published a book on employment contract
terms and several articles in labour law reviews.
Joaquín Garcia Murcia is Professor of Labour Law and Social Security at the
Complutense University of Madrid. He has co-authored reference books such as ‘Labor
Law’, ‘Practical Treaty of Labour Law’, ‘Practical Treaty of Social Security Law’ and
‘Glossary of Employment and Labour Relations (Spain)’. Murcia has published numer-
ous papers in labour law and social security law journals, has conducted numerous
research projects and has supervised numerous doctoral theses. He was also Legal
Adviser at the Spanish Constitutional Court.
Notes on Contributors
vii
Ivana Grgurev is Associate Professor at the Chair of Labour Law and Social Security
Law, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb. She has published several books and
articles in the field of labour law (discrimination law, collective agreements, manage-
rial contracts, etc.).
Tamás Gyulavári is Professor of Labour Law and Head of the Labour Law Department
at Pázmány Péter Catholic University of Budapest. He is the author and co-author of
several books and articles on European and Hungarian labour law in Hungarian and in
English. Tamás Gyulavári is also the Labour Law Advisor of the Hungarian Supreme
Court.
Petr Hu
˚rka, Doc. JUDr., PhD, is a labour law specialist and Associate Professor at the
Labour Law and Social Security Law Department of the Faculty of Law, Charles
University in Prague. Hurka presides over the Labour Law and Social Security Law
Committee of the Government Legislative Council, represents the Czech Republic in
the European Labour Law Network, and is a member of the Czech Community for
Labour Law and Social Security Law. He acts as a mediator and arbitrator in collective
labour law disputes, as well as a lecturer and consultant.
Senad Jašarevic´ graduated from the Faculty of Law in Novi Sad in 1986 where he
currently is Full Professor specialising in Labour Law and Social Security Law. He is
Vice-President of the Serbian Association for Labour Law and Social Security. He is
author of numerous scientific and professional articles in the fields of labour and social
security law.
Todor Kalamatiev, PhD, is Professor at SS Cyril and Methodius University (Depart-
ment of Labour law, Faculty of Law ‘Iustinianus Primus’, Skopje). He teaches Labour
Law (B.A. level) and Social Security, European Labour Law, International Labour Law
and Flexibility and Security of the Labour Market (M.A. level). He also teaches Labour
Law at PhD level.
Anthony Kerr is Statutory Lecturer in the Sutherland School of Law at University
College Dublin where he is Programme Director of the Professional Diploma in
Employment Law and the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies. He is a member of the
European Labour Law Network, an Executive Committee Member of the International
Society for Labour and Social Security Law and a national reporter for the International
Labour Law Reports.
Francis Kessler is Professor at Sorbonne Law School at University Paris 1 and Sciences
Po (Paris), where he teaches Social Security, Comparative and European Social Law.
He established and supervises the Master 2 ‘Droit de la protection sociale d’entreprise’,
a programme on apprenticeship at Sorbonne University. Francis Kessler is also Senior
Counsel at Gide Loyrette Nouel AARPI in Paris. He is an expert in different EU and
Council of Europe projects and member of the European Labour Law Network (ELLN).
György Kiss is Professor at the National University of Public Service, Dean of the
Faculty of Public Administration; Professor at the University of Pecs, Faculty of Law,
Department of Labour Law; Head of the Association of Labour Law in Hungary; Chair
Notes on Contributors
viii
of the MTA-PTE Research Group of Comparative and European Employment Policy
and Labour Law.
Polonca Koncˇar is Professor of Labour Law, International Labour Law and EC
Employment Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. She is
former President of the European Committee of Social Rights. Koncˇar is a member of
the Executive Committee of the International Society for Labour and Social Security
Law (Vice-President, 2003-2006). She was a national expert in the Free Movement of
Workers Network and is a national expert and member of the Scientific Committee in
the European Labour Law Network.
Jens Kristiansen is Professor of Labour Law at the University of Copenhagen. He has
published several books and articles on labour law and European labour law among
others.
Jan Marco Leimeister is Chair of Information Systems and Director of the Institute of
Information Management (IWI-HSG), University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He is also
Chair of Information Systems and Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Center for
Information System Design (ITeG) at Kassel University, Germany. His teaching and
research areas include Digital Business, IT Innovation Management, Service Science,
Collaboration Engineering, Ubiquitous Computing and Crowdsourcing. Leimeister
serves on the editorial board of various international journals and is regularly a
member of programme committees at international conferences in the field of Infor-
mation Systems. He heads several research groups and his research projects are funded
by the European Union, German ministries, DFG, various foundations and industry.
Irene Mandl is research manager at the European Foundation for the Improvement of
Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). She is active in policy relevant socio-
economic research related to employment and labour market developments as well as
entrepreneurship. Her most recent research topics refer to new forms of employment,
job creation, restructuring, internationalisation and specific forms of entrepreneurship
(such as born global firms or small- and medium-sized enterprises).
Lorna Mifsud Cachia is a practising lawyer for the litigation team of Dingli & Dingli
Law Firm, Malta. She also collaborates with the European Union Law Department of
the University of Malta, where she acts as Visiting Lecturer, Supervisor of dissertations
on European Union law and examiner. She is a member of the Chamber of Advocates
and of the European Labour Law Network. She has tried cases before the Industrial
Tribunal in Malta and the superior courts.
Leszek Mitrus is Professor at the Chair of Labour Law and Social Policy at Jagiellonian
University in Kraków, Poland. He is a member of the European Labour Law Network
and author of around 100 publications on Polish, European and international labour
law and social security law. His publications include books on the free movement of
workers, EU directives on the employment contract and the influence of European
labour law on the Polish legal system. He also co-authored commentaries on the Treaty
on the Functioning of the European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
European Union and the Polish Labour Code.
Notes on Contributors
ix
Costas Papadimitriou is Professor and a lawyer specialised in Labour Law and
European Labour Law. He teaches and conducts research in these fields at the
University of Athens. He was a member of the Department of Studies of the Greek
Parliament (1994-2015). He is also a national expert for different institutions (European
Labour Law Network, Free Movement of Workers Network, Odysseus Network).
Wolfgang Portmann is Professor of Labour and Employment Law and of Private Law
(University of Zurich), Director of the Institute of Law (University of Zurich, 2010-
2014), Chairman of the publishing board of the Swiss Journal for Labour and
Employment Law and Unemployment Insurance (ARV), consultant in a law firm
(Switzerland), Member of the Board of the Swiss Institute for Labour and Employment
Law, of the Europe Institute in Zurich and of the Centre for Liechtenstein Law, and a
member of the European Labour Law Network ELLN (representing Liechtenstein).
Jean-Luc Putz is a Judge at the Luxembourg District Court. He teaches Labour Law at
the University of Luxembourg and has published several articles and reference books
on Luxembourg’s individual and collective labour law.
Wilfried Rauws is full professor at the Free University of Brussels and part-time
professor at the University of Maastricht for labour law and comparative labour law.
Wilfried Rauws is deputy judge in the Court of Appeal of Antwerp and member of the
editorial board of the main Flemish legal journals such as the Rechtskundig Weekblad
(Weekly Journal of Law) and the Tijdschrift voor Privaatrecht (Journal of Private Law).
Martin Risak is Associate Professor at the Department of Labour Law and Law of
Social Security at the University of Vienna (Austria). He is the editor-in-chief of the
(Austrian) Journal of Labour Law and Social Law and the national expert for Austria of
the European Labour Law Network (ELLN).
Aleksandar Ristovski, LLM, is a Teaching and Research Assistant at SS Cyril and
Methodius University (Department of Labour law, Faculty of Law ‘Iustinianus Primus’,
Skopje). He teaches Labour Law (at BA and MA level). He is currently a PhD candidate
at the Faculty of Law ‘Iustinianus Primus’, Skopje, and an MA candidate at the Faculty
of Economics (Department of Economic Development and International Finance).
Mia Rönnmar is Professor of Private Law and Dean at the Faculty of Law at Lund
University. Her main research areas include Swedish, comparative and EU labour law
and industrial relations. She is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Compara-
tive Labour Law and Industrial Relations and a member of the Norma Research
Programme at Lund University, and its Elder Law Research Environment, and the
ReMarkLab Research Programme at Stockholm University. She has also been a Visiting
Researcher at inter alia the London School of Economics, the European University
Institute and Sydney University.
Robert Schronk, Prof. JUDr., CSc., is Professor of Labour Law at Comenius University,
Faculty of Law, Bratislava, Slovakia. He has more than thirty-five years of professional
research experience in labour law. He has been with the Faculty of Law, Comenius
University, Bratislava since 1991, holds lectures and seminars on Labour Law,
Notes on Contributors
x
International and European Labour Law. Research on International and European
Labour Law, Individual Labour Relations, Dismissal Law, Working Time, Legal
Liability in Labour Relations and Collective Labour Law. Schronk is a member of
working groups and scientific boards, the President of the Slovak Society for Labour
Law and Social Security (2006-2010), Member of the Accreditation Commission,
Advisory Body of the Government of the Slovak Republic (2010 – present). He has
authored publications on Slovak and European labour law.
Vesna Simovic-Zvicer is Lecturer at the University of Montenegro in Labour Law,
European Labour Law and Social Protection. She is a Member of the Social Council of
Montenegro. She is President of the Association of Labour Law and Member of the
Board of the Association of Lawyers of Montenegro.
Krassimira Sredkova is Professor of Labour Law and Social Security at Sofia Univer-
sity ‘St. Kliment Ochridski’. She is President of the Bulgarian Association of Labour
Law and Social Security and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Contemporary Law. She is
also a Member of the European Committee for Social Rights and of the International
Association for Legislation. Sredkova has authored 247 publications in the field of
national, international, EU and comparative labour law and social security law.
Gaabriel Tavits, Dr.iur, is University Lecturer and Researcher at the University of
Tartu, Faculty of Law. His main areas of research include Labour Law and Social
Security Law (at European and international level). He has published many articles on
issues relating to labour law and flexible labour relations, as well as on European social
security law.
Claire Toumieux heads the Paris Department of Labour Law of Allen & Overy. She
advises businesses seeking to define, implement and/or improve their human resource
management strategies. She was re-elected for a second two-year term as Vice Chair of
the European Employment Lawyers Association. She received the Women in Law
Awards in 2014 and in Employment Law from Lawyer Monthly and was listed among
the leading employment lawyers in 2014 by Best Lawyers in France.
Nicos Trimikliniotis is Assοciate Professor, School of Social Sciences, University of
Nicosia and the national expert for Cyprus for the European Labour Law Network. He
heads the Cyprus team of the Fundamental Rights Agency of the EU. He is a sociologist
and a practicing Barrister. His research areas include integration, citizenship, educa-
tion, migration, gender, racism, the free movement of workers, EU law, discrimination
and labour law. He has published Mobile Commons,Migrant Digitalities and the Right
to the City, Pivot, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Bernd Waas is Professor of Labour Law and Civil Law at Goethe University of
Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He is the author and co-author of several books on
individual as well as collective labour law and has published more than 100 articles on
German, European and comparative labour and civil law. Bernd Waas is Coordinator
of the European Labour Law Network, which comprises labour law experts from
thirty-one jurisdictions in Europe (ranging from Portugal to Russia).
Notes on Contributors
xi
Johan Zwemmer is Lecturer and Researcher at the Department of Labour Law of the
University of Amsterdam and a Lawyer at Stibbe in Amsterdam. He obtained a
doctorate in law (PhD) in 2012. His dissertation Pluraliteit van werkgeverschap
examined the legal role of the employer in situations in which different parties are
simultaneously or successively involved in the execution of the employment contract
on the employer’s side. This ‘plurality of employers’ may stem from contractual
agreements with the employee, group membership on the part of the employer, the
transfer of business for which the employee works and/or the legal merger or division
of the company, which has significant implications for the application of employment
legislation.
Notes on Contributors
xii
Acknowledgements
This book would not have occurred without the active assistance of my collaborators
at the Chair of Labour and Civil Law. My heartfelt thanks go to student assistants Laura
Schäfer, Johannes Höller, Lukas Straub and Jan Rummel. The same thanks go to Senior
Research Assistants Effrosyni Bakirtzi, LLM (Thessaloniki), LLM (Frankfurt) and Silvia
Wenzel, Ass. iur. From the field of football it is known that one should avoid to
explicitly mention one particular member of a team. Given the enormous workload
related to the final editing of the texts, I have to, however, and do so with pleasure:
Thank you so much, dear Mrs Bakirtzi.
Frankfurt, June 2016
xiii
CHAPTER 2
New Forms of Employment and IT:
Crowdsourcing
Jan Marco Leimeister, Shkodran Zogaj & David Durward
*
§2.01 NEW FORMS OF VALUE CREATION IN THE AGE OF
DIGITISATION
New communication and information technologies have changed and permanently
shaped almost all fields of the provision of services. The internet in particular, as the
cutting edge of technological progress, triggers and supports new developments and, to
some extent, radical changes both on corporate and individual levels. Against the
backdrop of these new technologies, it is also possible to make out a fundamental
transformation in the nature of work. This development can be very clearly observed
in the so-called digital natives, who have been born and have grown up in industria-
lised countries making use of digital technologies and the internet from their very early
childhood. Living and working without digitisation is inconceivable for them, and new
forms of work have replaced old ones in many fields.
1
The rapid advance of digitisation also (or especially) has far-reaching implica-
tions for companies and the manner in which they coordinate and deliver their
processes for the provision of services, especially in the field of knowledge-based work.
The ongoing process of the expansion of networks enables this work to be distributed
regardless of location and time, according to different principles of work organisation.
* Jan Marco Leimeister, Professor of Information Systems and Director of the Institute of Informa-
tion Management (IWI-HSG), University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, as well as Director of the
Interdisciplinary Research Center for Information System Design (ITeG) at Kassel University,
Germany; Shkodran Zogaj, Research associate at the Department of Information Systems at
Kassel University, Germany; David Durward, Research associate at the Department of Informa-
tion Systems at Kassel University, Germany.
1. Unterberg, U., Crowdsourcing, in: Michelis, D. & Schildhauer, T., Social Media Handbuch:
Theorien,Methoden,Modelle, pp. 121-135 (Baden-Baden, 2010).
23
The network enables rapid and targeted access to a large pool of workers. Tasks are
distributed to a large number of individuals – known as ‘the crowd’ – who can carry out
their particular activities on their personal computers in an asynchronous and decen-
tralised manner. This enables information, ideas and solutions to be aggregated from
people all over the world with the minimum of effort and then to be integrated into the
process of the provision of services. This concept is termed crowdsourcing in the
literature and describes, generally speaking, the outsourcing of business tasks to an
independent mass of people via the internet.
2
The members of a crowd act as digital
workers or crowd workers and undertake collective tasks that would typically be
completed by employees in a company. Crowdsourcing, as a new form of value
creation, is enabling impressive outcomes. These range from fast services (e.g.,
translating a complex text in a few hours), via previously unknown services (e.g.,
cartography of planets, development of software and systems or the creation of
knowledge bases such as Wikipedia) to solutions for socially relevant issues (e.g.,
crowdsourcing activities in the organisation and financing of social projects).
The diffusion of crowdsourcing can be seen above all in the IT industry,
especially the internet, software and IT services sectors. A decisive factor in this is the
constantly increasing pressure of competition, which has continuously driven software
companies to seek new opportunities to design production and development processes
more cost-effectively. As a consequence, recent years have seen continuous work on
the industrialisation of software development in particular, with the intention of
realising efficiency gains by means of increased standardisation,automation and
division of labour in the process of the provision of services.
3
The focus here is
essentially on the standardisation of software components, so that the production
activities and/or processes can also be correspondingly standardised and (partially)
automated. However, in order to continue to meet the individual needs of customers,
a module- and component-oriented architecture for software is required at the same
time. The opportunities for distributed software development have also led to practices
such as the outsourcing of value creation activities over the internet, so that we have
been able to observe relevant forms of work such as digital work and crowd work for
more than ten years.
Crowdsourcing enables division of labour within software development to a
greater extent than it has hitherto been possible. The crowdsourcing model, however,
is not merely an innovative concept for distributing and executing business tasks, but
rather an entirely new mode of the form of work associated with (partly radical) changes
for both companies and employees.
4
For example, the company’s communication and
coordination processes change, while working methods, work design and working
conditions all change from the individual worker’s perspective. In light of the above,
we need to address a number of questions: How does crowd work ‘function’ exactly?
Which mechanisms is it based on? How does the service provision process work in
2. Howe, J., The Rise of Crowdsourcing, Wired Magazine, Issue 14, pp. 1-4 (2006).
3. Bitkom, Industrielle Softwareentwicklung - Leitfaden und Orientierungshilfe (Berlin, 2010).
4. Leimeister, J.M. & Zogaj, S., Neue Arbeitsorganisation durch Crowdsourcing: Eine Literaturstudie
(Düsseldorf, Hans Böckler Stiftung, 2013).
Jan Marco Leimeister, Shkodran Zogaj & David Durward§2.01
24
crowd work or crowdsourcing? What does crowd work mean for the crowd workers
involved – i.e. for individuals performing their work in this way? What consequences
does crowd work have for those involved (crowd workers, companies using crowd-
sourcing)?
The present chapter aims to address these questions, based on the current state
of research and knowledge. It would seem essential to tackle these kinds of questions
in the light of the advances being made in the digitisation of work in all sectors. It is true
that the software industry is taking on a pioneering role here – but the past shows that
changes in this sector are generally indicative of relevant or subsequent developments
in other sectors. Before addressing the above questions, it is first necessary to define
the concepts of crowdsourcing and crowd work.
§2.02 WHAT ARE CROWDSOURCING AND CROWD?
Which flavour do you like best? Blueberry or pomegranate? Do you prefer grapefruit or
blood orange? The confectionary group Haribo asked these questions in a 2014
campaign designed to evaluate one of the company’s core products – Gold Bears.
However, the company decided not to task its in-house food experts with this question
but to pose it to the online community in the form of an open invitation. After a large
number of volunteers had registered, 1,000 sample packets were sent out, each one
containing twelve exclusive Gold Bear preproduction models. The testers then had to
reduce these flavours, pre-selected by Haribo, to six winning varieties. The process
ended with the presentation of the Gold Bears FAN Edition, which consisted of six
completely new flavours that then found their way onto the shop shelves. With this
initiative, the Haribo company succeeded in outsourcing its own product development
via the internet while at the same time running a high-profile marketing campaign. This
alternative to traditional methods for the completion of tasks or activities applies the
possibilities of modern information and communications techniques, and is increas-
ingly being used in many fields and sectors of the economy. This trend is usually
associated with advancing technological development. For example, with the aid of a
3D printer, many different products are being manufactured with ever increasing speed
and cost-effectiveness. In addition to shoes or artificial limbs, spare parts for cars have
also been printed in recent years. However, the success of Local Motors in producing
not just individual parts via 3D printing but printing an entire car including bodywork,
substructure and the majority of the interior, is quite new. Furthermore, the Arizona-
based company is not using its internal research and design department but rather
dispersing the whole development process and tendering each step in the form of many
separate competitions via the internet. The ideas and suggestions submitted are
produced and discussed by a community already numbering more than 45,000
members from 130 countries. With an in-house staff of fewer than 100 employees,
Local Motors uses the internet to gain access to a large pool of potential workers. This
is how more than 200 design proposals were submitted in six weeks for the current
winning concept, ‘strati’, for which the designer Michele Anoéein won a prize of
$5,000. These examples show that a profound transformation in both the type and
Chapter 2: New Forms of Employment and IT: Crowdsourcing §2.02
25
organisation of work is in progress. The mechanism behind these innovative business
models is based on the outsourcing of activities via the internet and is becoming
increasingly popular under the term ‘crowdsourcing’.
The term ‘crowdsourcing’ is a neologism derived from the words ‘crowd’ and
‘outsourcing’ and originated with Jeff Howe, who used it for the first time in Wired
Magazine in 2006.
5
This compound word makes clear to what extent crowdsourcing is
different from outsourcing. While traditional outsourcing is understood as contracting
out defined tasks to a third-party company or a particular institution or actor, the
outsourcing in crowdsourcing is the ‘crowd’, in other words an undefined mass of
people.
6
Therefore, crowdsourcing describes the outsourcing of particular tasks by a
company or any other institution to an undefined mass of people by means of an open
invitation, usually made over the internet. In the conventional outsourcing model there
is always a distinction between the role of the commissioner – known as the
crowdsourcer – and that of the undefined contractors, that is, the crowd or, by way of
analogy with the first term, the crowdsourcees or crowd workers. In addition,
crowdsourcing initiatives are executed via a crowdsourcing platform, which can be set
up internally or prepared by a crowdsourcing intermediary. A summary of the different
roles is presented in Figure 2.1.
Figure 2.1 Roles and Mediation in the Crowdsourcing Model
7
5. Howe, J., The Rise of Crowdsourcing, Wired Magazine, Issue 14 (2006).
6. Leimeister, J.M., Crowdsourcing, Zeitschrift für Controlling und Management (ZFCM), Issue
56(6), pp. 388-392 (2012).
7. Source: based on Hoßfeld, T., Hirth, M., et al., Aktuelles Schlagwort: Crowdsourcing, Informatik
Spektrum, Issue 35(3), pp. 204-208 (2012).
Principal (P)
(I)
Outsourcing
(II)
“Internal”
Crowdsourcing
(III)
“External”
Crowdsourcing
W/o Mediation
Mediation Agent(S) (A)
(IV)
“External”
Crowdsourcing
with Mediation
Crowdsourcer
Crowdsourcer
Crowdsourcer
Internal
Crowdsourcer
Platform
Internal
Crowdsourcer
Platform
Crowdsourcer
Intermediary
P Selects
Crowdsourcer
Intermediary
P Selects A via internal
Crowdsourcing platform
P Selects A via internal
Crowdsourcing platform
A is rewarded via
internal Crowdsourcing
platform
P negotiates with A.
P selects A.
A accepts/rejects a
submitted solution
A is rewarded via
internal
Crowdsourcing
platform
Outsourcer Outsourcing
Provider
Crowdworkers
Crowdworkers
Crowdworkers
Jan Marco Leimeister, Shkodran Zogaj & David Durward§2.02
26
A distinction must first be made between ‘internal’ and ‘external’ crowdsourcing.
In the first case, the company’s own staff function as the crowd. When it is imple-
mented, each worker in the company in question can be described as a crowd worker.
A platform set up within the company (intranet/internet-based platform) functions as
the crowdsourcing platform. The crowd (= internal staff) uses it to create and work on
contributions. By contrast, in external crowdsourcing the crowd may consist of any
individuals, not necessarily associated with the company/crowdsourcer. These are
mostly people external to the company – which means that theoretically any person
anywhere in the world can function as a crowdsourcer if he/she has an internet
connection. The crowdsourcing platform can be set up, administered and managed by
the company itself. But there is also the possibility of commissioning crowdsourcing
intermediaries which, in turn, build up their own (active) crowds – consisting of
internet-users from all over the world – and offer crowdsourcing companies the option
of outsourcing their tasks via their established crowdsourcing platform. The two above
practices (external and internal crowdsourcing) are not necessarily mutually exclusive,
because a company that operates internal crowdsourcing can also make use of external
crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is by no means limited to the outsourcing of tasks in
the world external to the company; it can also change internal developmental and
procedural organisation. We define this new type of organisation of work as crowd
work.Crowd work appears as a value creation and coordination model between market
and hierarchy (see Figure 2.2), thus distinguishing itself from existing forms of work.
For example, IBM has set up, within its ‘Liquid’ programme, an initiative that is
intended to transfer 8,000 jobs into an internal crowd and enable effective internal
crowdsourcing of tasks via the Liquid platform in order to give better work opportu-
nities to employees with free capacity.
Figure 2.2 Crowd Work as a Value Creation and Coordination Model between Mar-
ket and Hierarchy
8
§2.03 CROWD WORK AS A NEW FORM OF ORGANISATION OF WORK
Against this background, crowd work can be seen as a new form of organisation of
work that is already worthy of serious study. It enables companies to access a
8. Source: Author’s own representation.
Chapter 2: New Forms of Employment and IT: Crowdsourcing §2.03
27
multitude of (crowd) workers – characterised by a variety of levels of knowledge,
skills, experiences and backgrounds – for providing services. The use of crowd work
can relate to different areas of value creation. The principle of crowdsourcing is already
being used in almost all kinds of corporate departments in order to outsource particular
tasks and activities to the crowd.
In 2010, Volkswagen launched a competition inviting ideas for generating
suggestions for new and innovative infotainment systems. The community submitted
almost 400 ideas, from which it was possible to develop ninety-six apps. The
companies Tchibo and Starbucks also operate their own crowdsourcing platforms,
9
on
which members of the community can submit and further develop ideas for innovation
or development. The pharmacy chain dm invited the crowd to propose ideas including
an advertising slogan and shower gel motto as part of the crowdsourcing campaign
‘Soap Sourcing’. Cross-sectoral and support tasks – such as entering, structuring and
cleaning data records – can be outsourced to the cloud via platforms such as Amazon
Mechanical Turk and Microworkers. In the example of Netflix, a company engaged in
the distribution of films, the crowd is even actively called on to create products and
services. The online provider of films and streaming invited the crowd to develop an
algorithm for predicting film ratings. The Australian telecommunications provider
Telstra uses the crowd to execute its own customer support. One element of this crowd
support is inviting the crowd to create ‘how to’ videos, which are an efficient means of
responding to customer queries. Even the software giant Microsoft uses the crowd’s
potential, for example in testing its own software applications. In addition, there is an
increasing trend for the phenomenon known as crowdfunding, which facilitates
(partial) funding of projects by the crowd. Startnext Network,VR-Networld and
T-Systems have set up a multi-client capable crowdfunding platform commissioned by
Germany’s network of cooperative banks (Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken), which is
intended to help promote local projects. The sports goods manufacturer Nike offers the
crowd its NikeID tool in order not only to obtain ideas and suggestions on new trends,
but also to enquire into the needs of potential customers. The crowd can use it to apply
their full creativity to the personalised design of products. These suggestions can then
be evaluated and even ordered by the crowd itself. The list of practical examples could
be further extended by other instances from diverse industries and for the most varied
areas of work. However, these would essentially only confirm that crowdsourcing is
now used for a highly varied range of activities within service provision processes (see
Figure 2.3). This can be illustrated on the basis of Porter’s value chain, according to
which crowdsourcing is applied in primary value activities including ‘production’,
‘marketing and sales’ and ‘after sales’ as well as for secondary or supporting value
activities ‘research and development’, ‘finance’ and ‘(corporate) infrastructure’. In this
context, crowdsourcing is, for many companies, not merely a temporary alternative but
has already become a longer-term alternative method of task processing which is being
taken very seriously.
9. www.tchibo-ideas.de and http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ (accessed January 2015).
Jan Marco Leimeister, Shkodran Zogaj & David Durward§2.03
28
Figure 2.3 Crowdsourcing for Various Value Activities
In addition to the possible crowdsourcing applications listed along the corporate
value chain, there are already many fields and industries in which particular phases of
the provision of services are realised via crowd work.
§2.04 IN WHICH FIELDS IS CROWD WORK ALREADY BEING USED?
Modern information and communications systems, above all the internet, put the
technological prerequisites in place for company-wide collaboration with multiple
external contributors or the crowd.
10
Crowdsourcing enables companies to access a
multitude of (crowd) workers – characterised by a variety of levels of knowledge,
skills, experience and backgrounds – for providing services. Crowd work is now being
applied in the course of a wide variety of activities within service provision processes
(see Figure 2.4).
In this regard, the role of the crowdsourcing intermediary becomes essential.
Crowdsourcing intermediaries are web platforms that serve as marketplaces in which
crowdsources and crowd workers can interact. The intermediaries support the crowd-
sourcing company in the targeted formulation of the tasks and the solution require-
ments, so that the crowd can process the task set as effectively as possible. Crowd-
sourcing intermediaries also manage the crowd as such and are responsible for almost
all activities within the crowd. In this context, they can also be seen as ‘brokers’ who
bring together knowledge seekers (crowdsourcers) and knowledge providers (crowd
workers) by preparing the infrastructure necessary for crowdsourcing activities.
Intermediaries are seen in the literature as having a leading role because they enable
10. Martin, N., Lessmann, S. & Voß, S., Crowdsourcing: Systematisierung praktischer Ausprägungen
und verwandter Konzepte, Tagungsband der Multi-Konferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik (MKWI’08,
Munich, 2008).
V+R & T-systems: “Crowdfunding”
Netflix:
“Crowd
Production”
dm:
“Crowd
Production”Telstra:
“Crowd Support”
Microsoft:
“Crowdtesting”
Nike: “Crowd Innovation”
Finance
Infrastructure
Inbound
Logistics Production Marketing
& Sales
After
Sales
Research & Development
Margin
Margin
Supporting
Activities
Primary
Activities
Chapter 2: New Forms of Employment and IT: Crowdsourcing §2.04
29
companies to access a large pool of resources.
11
As a node in the network, intermedi-
aries help companies to make up for their internal deficits in skills or resources by
establishing a connection to appropriate partners.
Against this background, software companies, for example, now use crowd-
sourcing intermediaries such as TopCoder (topcoder.com) or CrowdCode (crowd-
co.de) for programming software applications by crowd workers. Software testing is
outsourced to crowds via platforms such as testCloud (testcloud.de), uTest (utest-
.com), testHub (testhub.com) or PassBrains (passbrains.com).
12
The services provided
by these intermediaries include the testing (usability tests, functional tests) of different
software applications (websites, mobile apps, computer games) by experienced testers
or ordinary internet users under real-life conditions. A piece of software is therefore not
tested by the service provider itself, as is the case in conventional test service
companies. Crowd surveys can be carried out for the upstream analysis and definition
of requirements, while crowd ideation platforms can be brought in for the configura-
tion and design of software applications. By contrast, cross-cutting and support tasks –
such as entering, structuring and cleaning data records – are outsourced to the cloud
via platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk (mturk.com) and Elance (elance.com).
Figure 2.4 Crowdwork in IT and Software Development.
13
The example of the IT and software industry shows the potential areas in which
crowd work can be applied along an entire service provision process. The crowd can be
11. Zogaj, S., Bretschneider, U., et al., Managing Crowdsourced Software Testing – A Case Study
Based Insight on the Challenges of a Crowdsourcing Intermediary, Journal of Business Econom-
ics, Issue 84(3), pp. 375-405 (2014).
12. Zogaj, S., Bretschneider, U., et al., Crowdtesting with testCloud –Managing the Challenges of a
Crowdsourcing Intermediary (2013).
13. Source: Author’s own representation.
Budget allocation
Requirements
analysis
Design
Implementation
Test
Documentation
Documentation
by users
Crowdtesting
Coding-
contests
Crowd-
funding
Crowd
survey Open
Innovation
Crowdsourcing-
marketplaces
Support
Communities
Operations and
Maintenance
Jan Marco Leimeister, Shkodran Zogaj & David Durward§2.04
30
used from financing and budget allocation through implementation and up to and
including operation and maintenance of a piece of software. However, the crowdsourc-
ing intermediaries function as central hubs for project coordination and management
of the individual crowdsourcing initiatives.
§2.05 HOW DOES CROWD WORK FUNCTION?
The outsourcing of companies’ internal activities to the crowd is associated with
various challenges in relation to the management of working and collaborative
processes because it means the blurring of an enterprise’s boundaries, with companies
relying not only on their internal staff but also on the external crowd for almost every
activity. To this extent, the question also arises of what a company’s core services are
and which activities can be qualitatively better, faster or more cost-efficiently executed
by the crowd. In this regard, there must also be clarification of ‘how’ tasks can be
outsourced to the crowd or a more general enquiry into ‘how’ implementation can take
place. In this context, it is initially the challenges in relation to the management of
crowdsourcing processes and the management and control of work activities that arise.
14
The working conditions and work arrangements are also of particular importance
within crowd work – that is, the forms of work in the crowd, the established incentive
structures and correspondingly the remuneration of crowd workers.
[A] Management of the Crowdsourcing Process
Companies operating crowdsourcing must initially face the challenge of deciding
which internal service provision activities should (or can) be outsourced to the crowd.
Theory and practice demonstrate that almost any value creation activity can be affected
by crowdsourcing. In order for internal work packages to be successfully completed by
crowd workers, they must be specified, described in detail and mostly divided into
small (work) units (work/task decomposition). The expertise necessary for executing
the partial tasks is proportionally low, so that many individuals, even if not highly
qualified for a particular (larger) task, can collaborate in processing tasks. This
procedure is comparable with the principles of Taylorism. It is a goal of these principles
to increase work productivity by standardising and dividing up complex work pro-
cesses into smaller individual activities (and thus also by greater division of labour).
These smaller and frequently occurring individual activities can then be processed in a
more effective and efficient manner by workers (who are less qualified and can learn
easier and faster) benefiting from learning, network and size effects, thus increasing
the productivity and speed of the overall service provision system. In parallel to the
industrialisation of production processes, a majority of the effort in task processing is
taken up by work planning, management and coordination. Crowdsourcing or process
14. Jain, R., Investigation of Governance Mechanisms for Crowdsourcing Initiatives (AMCIS 2010
Proceedings, 2010); Geiger, D., Seedorf, S., et al., Managing the Crowd: Towards a Taxonomy of
Crowdsourcing Processes (Proceedings of the Seventeenth Americas Conference on Information
Systems, Detroit, Michigan, 2011).
Chapter 2: New Forms of Employment and IT: Crowdsourcing §2.05[A]
31
managers with responsibility for the allocation of the divided tasks, and who manage
and control work processes in a crowdsourcing framework, have other tasks to master
than ‘traditional’ project or process managers.
A central challenge in crowd work is planning, implementing, managing and
controlling the crowdsourcing process with all related activities. It is, therefore,
necessary to discuss in detail all activities and potential courses of action that are
connected to the individual phases. Ideally, the crowdsourcing process can be divided
into five phases (see Figure 2.5): While the first phase is essentially about dividing up
the work packages into partial tasks and determining the solution or task requirements,
the second phase involves selecting crowd workers (all or only a sub-group of the
crowd) to complete each task in the third phase, and determining how they are to do
it. In the fourth phase, the submitted solutions or contributions (to an overall solution)
are evaluated and collated so that the crowd workers can then be remunerated on that
basis.
Figure 2.5 Phases and Actions in the Crowdsourcing Process
15
[B] Management and Monitoring of Crowd Activities
The targeted management and monitoring of crowd activities (known as ‘crowd
governance’) is regarded as one of the essential challenges when carrying out crowd-
sourcing. The reason for this is that an ‘unmonitored’ crowd cannot achieve agreed
goals. For example, it could happen that crowd workers cannot complete certain tasks
within a specified time and the crowdsourcing intermediary then fails to deliver the
solutions to its customer (crowdsourcer). Management and monitoring in crowdsourc-
ing includes all actions and procedures necessary for the effective management of the
crowd. ‘Smaller’ crowdsourcing projects (e.g., simple brainstorming by the crowd)
may require less monitoring effort, while comprehensive control and management
mechanisms must be implemented for more complex crowdsourcing projects. How-
ever, research in this field lacks studies explicitly into management and monitoring
mechanisms. Table 2.1 summarises the essential management and control mecha-
nisms in crowdsourcing.
15. Source: Author’s own representation.
• Granularity:
Decomposition of
tasks
• Specify tasks in detail
• Definition of solution
requirements
• Determine form of
work
• Unrestricted call
(“everybody” can
participate)
• Preselection of
contributors
based on competencies
and/or personal
traits
• Task processing:
Develop and submit
ideas/concepts/
solutions
• Depending on the type
of work:
Tournament-base vs.
Collaboration-based
• Collect submissions
and select appropriate
solutions
• Integrative: Combine
solutions
• Selective: Selection of
(only) the most
appropriate solutions
• Accepted tasks are
rewarded
• Integrative:
Remunerations of all
submitted solutions
• Selective:
Remuneration of only
best solution(s)
Phase 5:
Remunerations
Phase 4:
Aggregation
and Selection
of Solutions
Phase 3:
Execution
of Tasks
Phase 2:
Selection of
Crowdsourcees
Phase 1:
Task Specification
Jan Marco Leimeister, Shkodran Zogaj & David Durward§2.05[B]
32
Table 2.1 Management and Control Mechanisms in Crowdsourcing
16
Task Design
Design of appropriate structures to support the task processing effectively. This
particularly concerns the specification of the tasks and the breaking down of tasks into
subtasks and the corresponding aggregation of the partial solutions into an overall
solution.
Feedback Mechanism
Establishment of measures by which the crowdworker can get feedback from the
crowdsourcer or from the crowdsourcing intermediary. The feedback can refer to the
actual work or work performance, on individual tasks or to general issues in the context
of the crowdsourcing platform.
Incentive Structures
Establishment of structures and measures that address the motives of the crowdworkers
and motivate them accordingly to be active on the crowdsourcing platform. The
incentive structures are aligned with the needs and thus both extrinsic and intrinsic
motives are relevant.
Management Solutions & Quality Assurance
Establishment of mechanisms by which the quality of submitted solutions can be
evaluated. The evaluation of the solutions on previously defined solution requirements,
is a common approach, however, varies from crowdsourcing initiative to crowdsourcing
initiative. In addition to this procedure, three other approaches are presented in the
literature: (1) Evaluation of the solutions submitted by other crowdworkers (e.g., based
on 5-Star ratings); (2) Mixing of actual tasks and test tasks, thereby controlling whether
the crowdworker actually solve the problems; (3) Iterative approaches, in which several
crowdworkers perform the same task. If two (or more) crowdworker come to the same
or similar solution, it may be assumed that the solution is suitable.
Member Management
Establishment of mechanisms by which the quality of the work and the crowdworkers
can be ensured within crowdsourcing platforms. These include training measures and
the provision of discussion forums in the community. In addition, also measures and
structures that helps crowdworkers to contact with the platform operator or the
crowdsource.
§2.06 WORKING IN THE CROWD: FORMS OF WORK, THEMES AND
INCENTIVE STRUCTURES
In crowdsourcing, the crowdsourcer initiates the crowdsourcing process, defines and
specifies the tasks to be processed, decides on the incentive structures and makes use
of the solutions, while the crowd workers select and process the prepared tasks. The
16. Source: Author’s own representation based on Jain, R., Investigation of Governance Mechanisms
for Crowdsourcing Initiatives (AMCIS 2010 Proceedings, 2010); Pedersen, J., Kocsis, D., et al.,
Conceptual Foundations of Crowdsourcing: A Review of IS Research, pp. 579-588 (46th Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences, 2013).
Chapter 2: New Forms of Employment and IT: Crowdsourcing §2.06
33
tasks are processed by crowd workers in the third phase of an ideal-typical crowd-
sourcing process. However, this raises the question of precisely how work is carried out
on crowdsourcing platforms, because work processes in online environments, with
their large numbers of stakeholders, are structurally different from traditional internal
corporate work processes.
In relation to forms of work, a fundamental distinction can be made between two
approaches: tournament-based approach and collaboration-based approach. In the first
case, the crowd workers are engaged in either a time-oriented competition (the first
crowd worker to successfully finish the task is remunerated or rewarded) or a
results-oriented one (only the crowd worker(s) with the best solution are rewarded). In
this context, the crowd workers work independently of each other and generate
corresponding solutions individually. In the collaboration-based approach, by con-
trast, multiple crowd workers work together on a single solution to a particular task.
One crowd worker submits a contribution and other crowd workers who want to
cooperate have the opportunity to amend and also expand the submitted contribution
via the platform. This generally happens by means of comment functions which the
crowd workers can use to discuss the solution with each other. The output is then a
jointly achieved solution (see Figure 2.6).
Figure 2.6 Forms of Work in Crowdsourcing
17
In contrast to the competitive form of work, in which crowd workers work
independently of each other, the collaboration-based approach focuses on cooperation
between the individual crowd workers. This collaborative concept within crowd work
can be seen, for example, in software development. There are already many crowd-
sourcing intermediaries that offer development or testing activities via the crowd. In
17. Leimeister, J.M. & Zogaj, S., Neue Arbeitsorganisation durch Crowdsourcing: Eine Literaturstudie
(Düsseldorf, Hans Böckler Stiftung, 2013).
Forms of Work
in Crowdsourcing Systems
Collaboration-based
Approach • Crowd works together
• Submitting a joint
solution
• e.g.: Dell idea strom,
Sapiens
• Only the best
solution(s) is/are
rewarded
• Reward is determined
in advance
• Requirements for
presentation of
results
• e.g.: TopCoder, Atizo
• Time-oriented
competition: “first-
come-first-serve”
• Remuneration of all
solutions that meet the
(quality) requirements
• Requirements for
presentation of results
• e.g.: oDesk, testCloud
Output-oriented Time-oriented
Tournament-based
Approach • Principle of competition
• Crowdworker work
independently from
each other
Jan Marco Leimeister, Shkodran Zogaj & David Durward§2.06
34
this respect, the crowd is called on to develop individual parts of a particular project –
for example a software application – or the whole product, or to carry out testing
activities. However, efficient work arrangements are necessary in order to generate a
specific collaborative process in these sometimes highly complex work processes.
Work design in German-speaking countries has a strong basis in scholarly
research and is aimed at achieving a particular organisation of work as its outcome.
The organisation of work describes the scope and the conditions in which people work
in direct or indirect collaboration with others in pursuit of a specific goal.
18
The
underlying principles of the collaboration are traditionally rooted within companies’
own methods of organisation of work. However, in a time of increasing digitisation of
work, these fundamental mechanisms of collaboration can now also be found outside
the corporate environment. As a consequence, work design along crowd work lines, as
a new form of digital work, is taking on an essential role. In particular, the division of
labour must be planned, implemented, managed and monitored with the aim of
achieving an efficient and effective crowd collaboration. This crowd collaboration can,
on the one hand, be supported by a set task or work design. This aims at increasing
productivity, which is intended to be achieved by the effective division of labour into
smaller tasks. The standardisation of procedural stages between human and machine
is subject to particular focus here. These human-machine systems are often the result
of prolonged trial-and-error refinements. Nevertheless, in order to exploit the potential
of the crowd, there must be new, powerful solutions that support the design and
implementation of human-based computation systems. The examples of CrowdLang
and CrowdOS are already demonstrating that a programming language or tool can
integrate abstractions such as group decision-making processes and ensure the supply
of human resources and a robust infrastructure.
19
On the other hand, a systematic approach to the development and implementa-
tion of collaborative processes – known as collaboration engineering – can improve
collaboration between people. Collaboration processes are designed in such a way that
practitioners or end-users can implement them in order to complete high-quality,
recurring tasks.
20
The collaboration engineer therefore develops and documents a
collaborative process that can easily and successfully be delivered to an end-user.
21
Although this approach originates from the observation of collaboration within indi-
vidual companies, the concepts, methods and tools of collaboration engineering could
in future also contribute to effective and efficient collaboration in the crowd. Because
18. Leimeister, J.M., Collaboration Engineering: IT-gestützte Zusammenarbeitsprozesse systematisch
entwickeln und durchführen (Springer-Verlag, 2014).
19. Minder, P. & Bernstein, A., Crowdlang: A Programming Language for the Systematic Exploration
of Human Computation Systems,inSocial Informatics (Proceedings of the 4th International
Conference, SocInfo 2012), pp. 124-137 (Springer, 2012).
20. Kolfschoten, G.L., Briggs, R.O., et al., Definitions in Collaboration Engineering, Proceedings of
the 39 Hawaii International Conference on System sciences (Delft University of Technology,
University of Arizona, 2006).
21. Leimeister, J.M., Collaboration Engineering: IT-gestützte Zusammenarbeitsprozesse systematisch
entwickeln und durchführen (Springer-Verlag, 2014).
Chapter 2: New Forms of Employment and IT: Crowdsourcing §2.06
35
the use of modern technology is not in itself enough to guarantee successful collabo-
ration, the value of a technology only becomes clear after it has been applied in a skilful
and targeted way.
22
In crowd work, the collaboration processes should therefore be arranged on the
basis of fundamental templates that enhance the IT-supported collaboration between
crowd workers and ultimately contribute to increasing the performance of the crowd.
Moreover, the heterogeneity of the crowd results in the end in the challenge of
achieving a shared understanding. The different crowd workers have different levels of
knowledge, experience and skills. This can inhibit collaboration. Recent research
results from Bittner and Leimeister
23
are already showing that heterogeneous groups
can be systematically supported in the formation of a shared understanding by means
of the use of collaboration engineering. This is achieved in particular by the integration
of different perspectives from multiple stakeholders within the heterogeneous groups.
Consequently, transitions to crowd work also produce opportunities, before the
task-processing actually begins, to minimise uncertainties and design the actual
IT-supported collaboration process more effectively through targeted creation of a
shared understanding. Furthermore, task design can be significantly improved in
crowdsourcing initiatives. Badly conceived crowdsourcing tasks often lead to a situa-
tion in which no effective co-operation between the crowdsourcer and the crowd, and
between crowd workers, takes place. This is why Kittur et al.
24
suggested the
transformation from independently-acting to cooperating crowd workers by means of
an expansion of traditional Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) to distrib-
uted teamwork. In this context, suitable collaboration methods and target-oriented
tools can be applied using collaboration engineering, in order to extend existing
structures of co-operation to the specifics of crowd work.
In comparison with ‘traditional’ work processes in which work tasks are gener-
ally specified and delegated or assigned by superiors, in crowdsourcing the crowd
workers themselves decide which and also how many of the tasks listed on a
crowdsourcing platform to accept and complete. The question now arises of what
precisely motivates crowd workers to take part in crowdsourcing initiatives.
Different studies demonstrate that intrinsic motives such as social exchange, the
opportunity to expand individual skills and pleasure in (crowd) work play an essential
role. Premium-based and monetary remuneration (extrinsic motives) nevertheless
represents the primary incentive factor for crowd workers. Moreover, a high level of
self-determination is represented positively in the selection and type of activity as a
crowd worker. There is a corresponding range of different remuneration/payment
models. The premiums or fees vary greatly, depending on the form of works and the
22. Kolfschoten, G.L., Briggs, R.O., et al., A Conceptual Foundation of the Thinklet Concept for
Collaboration Engineering, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Issue 64(7), pp.
611-621 (2006).
23. Bittner, E.A.C. & Leimeister, J. M., Creating Shared Understanding in Heterogeneous Work
Groups: Why It Matters and How to Achieve It, Journal of Management Information Systems,
Issue 31(1), pp. 111-144 (2014).
24. Kittur, A., Nickerson, J.V., et al., The Future of Crowd Work, Proceedings of the 2013 conference
on Computer supported cooperative work (ACM, 2013).
Jan Marco Leimeister, Shkodran Zogaj & David Durward§2.06
36
type of tasks. While crowd workers are rewarded with just a few euro cents for some
tasks, there are also several crowdsourcing initiatives in which prize money of up to
EUR 100,000 or dollars are paid out. Some remuneration forms and their features are
presented in table 2.2.
Table 2.2 Examples of Remuneration of Crowd Workers
25
Platform System System of Incentives/Compensation
Amazon Mechanical
Turk
Crowdsourcer sets the
price
Fixed payment per task. Payment is
made only if solution is accepted by
crowdsourcer. The average hourly
wage is approximately $ 1.25. There
are few tasks that require special
skills/knowledge.
Spreadshirt Crowdworker sets the
price
Crowdworker offers companies a
T-shirt design for a self-determined
price for sale and receives at each
t-shirt sold a share of profits.
InnoCentive Competition InnoCentive organises competitions
for companies, in which to search for
solutions in a particular area, e.g., as
product development or science. The
remuneration is based on awards or
financial compensation. The payment
depends on the difficulty and can be
up to $ 100,000.
IBM Liquid Point system Crowd Workers receive for their
participation in the tender so-called
Liquid Points. This documents their
participation in a particular
competition and will improve the
community’s internal reputation. On
the basis of points a corporate
ranking is performed. A higher rank
can improve the chances of selection
in other tenders.
§2.07 WHAT OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS DOES CROWD WORK
CONCEAL?
In recent years, crowdsourcing has become for many companies a serious alternative
option for task processing. Not only software developers but also companies from other
fields (e.g., IBM, BMW, Audi, McDonald’s, Otto, Henkel, Tchibo, Sennheiser, etc.) are
25. Source: Author’s own representation.
Chapter 2: New Forms of Employment and IT: Crowdsourcing §2.07
37
showing a tendency to outsource diverse tasks to crowds – from innovation (e.g., ideas
generation) to marketing (e.g., designing logos, advertising slogans) and general
support tasks (e.g., execution of calculations).
26
Numerous researchers identify great
potential for companies in the opening up of internal business processes to the crowd.
Some refer, in this context, to the enormous knowledge potential of the crowd,
27
while
others speak of ‘reaching a new evolutionary level in terms of (business) value
creation’
28
through use of the potential of the crowd. On the other hand, there are also
various opportunities and chances that, in ‘traditional’ forms of work, can only be
realised to a limited extent.
In contrast to this, in many reports the risks associated with crowd work, both for
crowd workers (internal crowdsourcing) and companies, have been critically dis-
cussed. For example, some papers draw our attention to the emergence of ‘digital
sweatshops’, because the remuneration of crowd workers can sometimes be very low
and is, moreover, insecure.
29
For companies there is – above all – the danger that
internal knowledge leaves the company via crowdsourcing or that difficulties emerge
in relation to the control of the work processes. The essential opportunities and risks,
both for companies operating crowdsourcing programmes and for crowd workers are
presented in Figure 2.7.
26. Leimeister, J.M., Crowdsourcing, Zeitschrift für Controlling und Management (ZFCM), Issue
56(6), pp. 388-392 (2012); Leimeister, J.M. & Zogaj, S., Neue Arbeitsorganisation durch
Crowdsourcing: Eine Literaturstudie (Düsseldorf, Hans Böckler Stiftung, 2013).
27. Howe, J., Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business (New
York, 2008).
28. Hammon, L. & Hippner, H., Crowdsourcing, Wirtschaftsinformatik, Issue 54(3), pp. 165-168
(2012).
29. Zittrain, J., The Internet Creates a New Kind of Sweatshop, http://www.newsweek.com/internet
-creates-new-kind-sweatshop-75751, 2009 (accessed January 2015).
Jan Marco Leimeister, Shkodran Zogaj & David Durward§2.07
38
Figure 2.7 Opportunities and Risks for Crowdsourcers and Crowd Workers
30
The above explanation shows that a number of advantages as well as diverse
disadvantages at different levels have been attributed to the crowdsourcing concept.
Nevertheless, these are mostly more in the way of suppositions than well-founded
insights. The real risks and potentials arising from the implementation of crowdsourc-
ing, the operating principles on which it is based and the implications for people,
organisations and markets resulting from it under any given parameters, cannot be
reliably determined or predicted based on the latest available scientific knowledge. For
this reason, scholars should put on the research agenda the issue of crowd work as a
new form of digital work, along with the effects associated with it on individual,
organisational and structural levels. On the other hand, business practice will have to
address questions emerging in relation to crowd work, in order to be able to continue
to apply this work model effectively and sustainably in different sectors in the future.
30. Source: Author’s own representation.
• Access to large knowlege and expertise
• Acquisition of more innovative approaches
• Faster task execution by decomposition into
(smaller) subtasks
• Potential for cost reduction due to lower
rewards
• Increased flexibility
• Focus on core competencies
• Increase market acceptance through
participation of (potential) customers in
innovation developments
• Need for extremely precise and
elaborate task definition and/ or project
definition
• Difficult to calculate the (total) cost of
crowdsourcing initiatives
• Risk of losing control over crowd activities
• Elaborate measures to create
appropriate incentive structures
• Risk of outflow of internal know-how
• Danger of resistors by internal staff
• Lower rewards (”digital sweatshops”)
• Intensification of competetition among
employees
• Monotonous work processes
• Risk of continuous electronic monitoring
of Crowd Workers
• Lack of legal framework with regard to
the period of employment (full-time or
part-time), worker participation (e.g. via
works council), vacation entitlement
• Relief of internal employees by focusing
on essential tasks
• New employment opportunities by way
of selection of different types of task
• Higher self-determination through self-
selection
• Greater flexibility by being able to
decide when tasks are received
• Improved communication between
crowdworkers via cowdsourcing
platforms
Risks
Chances
Crowdsourcer Crowdworker
Chances
Risks
Chapter 2: New Forms of Employment and IT: Crowdsourcing §2.07
39
§2.08 CROWDSOURCING AS THE ORGANISATION OF WORK OF THE
FUTURE?: NEW PATHS AND CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING
CROWD WORK
Everyday life is increasingly shaped by digital technologies. It will therefore be
essential for all actors involved to face the changes associated with them. Especially if
increasing digitisation changes the market environment and new business sectors
emerge. In this context, crowd work represents a new form of digital work leading to
long-term changes in the organisation of work. This chapter has shown how basic
processes, roles and mechanisms are being re-shaped by the outsourcing of activities to
an undefined mass of people. In the crowd work concept, the workforce is more
available and can be accessed at any time. This fact enables companies to deploy the
necessary human resources completely flexibly depending to the needs. What does this
mean for the corporate strategy of the future and how will it change the perception of
work for the individual crowd worker? Furthermore, can a fundamental transformation
in the traditional employer-employee relationship be observed as a consequence of
crowd work? What is the relationship between crowdsourcers, intermediaries and the
individual crowd worker? On what levels do they interact? What interdependencies can
be identified and how do they affect individuals? In addition, we are observing a
transformation in the nature of the tasks themselves that are outsourced to the crowd.
In particular, work in the crowd changes the perceived meaningfulness of the
individual tasks and task-related factors. In comparison to traditional work, crowd
workers may experience a new type of pleasure or social interaction in their activities.
Against this backdrop, the crowdsourcing phenomenon is leading to technologi-
cal, organisational, legal and social challenges even as it enables innovative business
models and services. In this regard, a new business model known as the crowd-enabled
lean start-up is emerging, in which crowd work functions as a central instrument of the
enterprise. Traditionally in entrepreneurship research, ‘lean start-up’ describes an
approach in which all processes in a newly-established company are kept as minimised
as possible.
31
In the services sector, these lean start-ups consist of very small, agile
teams. They are generally one- or two-person firms that rely on existing third-party
infrastructure for their own operations. In crowd work, such infrastructures would be,
for example, the platforms of the crowdsourcing intermediaries described above. Lean
start-ups that make use of the crowdsourcing principle and especially the established
infrastructures of crowdsourcing intermediaries are therefore termed crowd-enabled
lean start-ups. This new form of start-up offers services to crowdsourcers – that is, the
customers in a crowdsourcing initiative – and supports them throughout the course of
the project. They take on, for instance, administrative tasks such as the identification,
selection, coordination and payment of the crowd workers.
The increasing diffusion of such services, however, is not only leading to
occasional, short-term changes in companies and sectors. It is rather the case that
organisational and working structures can be changed fundamentally over the medium
31. Ries, E., Lean Startup: Schnell,risikolos und erfolgreich Unternehmen gründen (Munich,
Redline-Verlag, 2012).
Jan Marco Leimeister, Shkodran Zogaj & David Durward§2.08
40
and long term. It is, in particular, companies that intend to use crowdsourcing that are
faced with the challenge of effectively implementing crowd work. To do so, it is
essential to integrate the crowd’s outputs into existing internal processes in a success-
ful manner. Moreover, for both external and internal crowdsourcing, quality manage-
ment and the impacts of crowd work on the companies’ staff teams are important
aspects for a successful application of this new form of the organisation of work. The
example of crowd-enabled lean start-ups shows the extent to which new business
models can emerge from crowdsourcing and describe structural changes for the
stakeholders involved. What effects will this have on the future of work? How do
individual crowd workers experience their activities? To what extent can regulation be
introduced in order to promote fair and good crowd work?
It has been possible in this chapter to give an insight into the basic mechanisms
of crowdsourcing and the resulting challenges at different levels. In conclusion, it
remains to note that internal and external crowdsourcing offers opportunities as well as
risks both for employees – that is, crowd workers – and for companies that use
crowdsourcing. It is also important not to overlook crowdsourcing intermediaries,
which play the essential role in external crowdsourcing because they, on the one hand,
interact with the crowdsourcing company and, on the other hand, also acquire and
manage a large workforce – the crowd. Generally, it should also be observed that there
is still far too little knowledge about the interdependencies, effects and design
possibilities. This can be seen as an invitation to the academic research and business
communities as well as policy-makers to put crowd work on their agendas. The goal is
to take advantage of existing opportunities while at the same time minimising potential
risks. It is necessary to ensure the introduction of basic rules to ensure ‘good’ work
within the crowd. Establishing these will in turn require a solid knowledge of the
various variants, principles and functionalities. In the field of collaboration-based
crowd work, collaboration engineering has been presented as a possible approach for
using existing expertise in relation to IT-supported collaboration for enhancing col-
laboration in the crowd. Collaboration engineering’s mechanisms and templates,
which have already been implemented in microcosm in groups within companies,
could also increase efficiency within a large, heterogeneous crowd outside a company.
This example shows that we must ask ourselves these questions, because crowdsourc-
ing will gain more and more significance at different levels in a time of increasing
digitisation of work.
Chapter 2: New Forms of Employment and IT: Crowdsourcing §2.08
41
