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The organisation and experience of work in the gig economy
Abstract
The gig economy has captured public and policy interest and is growing as an area of academic inquiry, prompting debate about the future of work, labour regulation, and the impact of technology and job quality. This special issue provides a timely intervention into that debate with this article providing an introductory overview, positioning the articles within a comprehensive literature review of existing scholarship on the gig economy. These articles add to our understanding of the organisation and experience of work in the digitally enabled gig economy in a variety of national settings. They explore aspects such as job quality, forms of collectivity, identity development, and algorithmic management and control. This article also delineates avenues for further research regarding conditions for gig workers, the impact of gig work and information, technology and gig work.
... In some cases, this generates exclusion when the target is not achieved (Kalil, 2019). Moreover, the terms and conditions of use of the application may be modified at any time by the platform, without prior notice (Kaine;Josserand, 2019). ...
... In some cases, this generates exclusion when the target is not achieved (Kalil, 2019). Moreover, the terms and conditions of use of the application may be modified at any time by the platform, without prior notice (Kaine;Josserand, 2019). ...
... Rather than viewing the others as co-workers (Tran; Sokas, 2017), they view them as rivals and potential threats (Keith;Harms;Long, 2020). It is a demobilization of the workforce: short and poorly paid single tasks, competitively offered to fragmented workers, advertised as providing flexibility and freedom (Kaine;Josserand, 2019). ...
The social distancing brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic sped up a process that was already underway: the emergence of the platform economy. One of the applications present in this process was for the delivery of food by motorbike couriers, causing a radical transformation of working conditions that requires investigation. The objective of this study was to discuss those conditions and the risks that they pose to the health of workers. A group of 14 food delivery couriers were interviewed and their statements were recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis, resulting in two main findings: precarious employment conditions and health vulnerabilities. The platform promises independence and autonomy regarding work, but at the same time creates insecurity, failing to ensure work protection or financial stability, as it does not guarantee working conditions. On the other hand, such precarious work generates health risks. This situation requires a discussion on the legal protection of the labor rights and health protection of these workers.
... Um exemplo são as promoções, pelas quais os entregadores ganham gratificações por alcançar metas estabelecidas pelo algoritmo, em alguns casos, isso gera exclusão quando o objetivo não é alcançado (Kalil, 2019). Além disso, os termos e condições de uso do aplicativo podem ser modificados a qualquer momento pela plataforma, sem aviso prévio (Kaine;Josserand, 2019). ...
... Um exemplo são as promoções, pelas quais os entregadores ganham gratificações por alcançar metas estabelecidas pelo algoritmo, em alguns casos, isso gera exclusão quando o objetivo não é alcançado (Kalil, 2019). Além disso, os termos e condições de uso do aplicativo podem ser modificados a qualquer momento pela plataforma, sem aviso prévio (Kaine;Josserand, 2019). ...
... A distinção entre entregadores de escore alto e de escore baixo provoca uma separação entre eles, colocando-os em competição direta uns com os outros, ao invés de se tratarem como colegas de trabalho (Tran;Sokas, 2017), passam a se ver como rivais e ameaças em potencial (Keith;Harms;Long, 2020). Trata-se de uma desmobilização da força de trabalho: tarefas unitárias pequenas e mal remuneradas, ofertadas de forma competitiva a trabalhadores fragmentados, anunciadas como fornecedoras de flexibilidade e liberdade (Kaine;Josserand, 2019). ...
Resumo O isolamento social provocado pela pandemia do covid-19 acelerou um processo que já estava em curso: a plataformização da economia. Uma das aplicações presentes nesse processo foi a distribuição de comida por motoboys, ocasionando uma transformação radical das condições de trabalho, que necessita ser investigada. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi discutir essas condições e os riscos que representam para a saúde do trabalhador. 14 entregadores de alimentos foram entrevistados, suas falas foram gravadas e transcritas para análise temática, obtendo dois principais resultados: a precarização das condições de trabalho e a vulneração da saúde. A plataforma promete independência e autonomia quanto ao trabalho, mas, ao mesmo tempo, cria insegurança, não garantindo nenhuma proteção trabalhista nem subsistência financeira estável, por não assegurar os meios para o trabalho. Por outro lado, essa precarização do trabalho produz riscos para a saúde. Essa situação demanda uma discussão sobre o amparo legal dos direitos e a proteção da saúde desses trabalhadores.
... The power and control relationship that algorithms exert on the workforce is called algorithmic management. According to Kaine and Josserand (2019), the phenomenon of algorithmic management is a hot topic of both practitioners' and researchers' debate at this moment, which highlights the need for further work on the issue. Nonetheless, this scientific field is still developing and its boundaries are not quite definite. ...
... Since, these are new and emergent concepts, it is not very clear what they mean exactly. Kaine and Josserand (2019) defined algorithmic management as a hot topic between practitioners and researchers. Despite the increase in the academic interest, the field has faced a few challenges (ambiguous terminology and definitions). ...
... SLR can also be defined as an unstructured ontological discovery that provides detailed conceptual insights, by shifting the level of analysis from authors and their citations to the actual words used by authors to provide a systematic, unbiased, and content-driven review of the literature (Kaine & Josserand, 2019). A systematic review can generate observation, evaluation, extension or development of theory, through linking the available evidence to theory and theory to evidence (Siddaway, et al., 2018). ...
This study aims to understand algorithmic management in digital work platforms. To this end, a systematic literature review was conducted in the main databases of the Administration field. Initially, 912 studies were surveyed that went through inclusion and exclusion criteria, resulting in a corpus of 39 articles. The results produced demonstrated the existing research perspectives, definitions and conceptualizations, their similarities and discrepancies, assisting the development of future research and leading researchers in the area. The contribution of this study consists in making the conceptualization process of algorithmic management more understandable and systematic, guiding towards a uniform direction instead of scattered perspectives.
... Estos mecanismos, que pueden parecer triviales, son significativos, pues actualizan permanentemente la acción de "elegir", haciendo emerger esa atribución decisoria como un elemento fundamental con el que se comprende el trabajador de app. La investigación ha constatado reiteradamente la importancia de esta capacidad de "elegir" y autoorganizar los tiempos en la experiencia cotidiana de trabajadores de plataformas (Asenjo & Coddou, 2021;Kaine & Josserand, 2019). ...
... Cabe destacar que además de la adhesión parcial a la legitimidad de la clasificación de los trabajadores según su desempeño, ejemplificada en la cita 3, crecientemente (y en vinculación con la reducción de las tarifas por servicio) se despliegan críticas al carácter coercitivo del sistema de calificación, especialmente entre quienes utilizan las plataformas como actividad principal, llegando a ser este elemento (junto a la disminución del pago por servicio) uno de los motivos de las protestas de repartidores de plataforma en Chile (Morales Muñoz & Dinegro Martinez, 2022). Esto es coherente con la desigual experiencia de trabajo según los niveles de dependencia económica hacia las plataformas reportada en otros estudios (Kaine & Josserand, 2019;Schor et al., 2020). De acuerdo con ello, quienes dependen de las plataformas para satisfacer sus necesidades básicas tienen una peor experiencia laboral que quienes las utilizan como complemento de otros ingresos principales (Schor et al., 2020). ...
... En coherencia con amplia evidencia empírica disponible (Fielbaum & Tirachini, 2020;Kaine & Josserand, 2019;OIT, 2021) los trabajadores entrevistados valoran positivamente la flexibilidad y la autonomía del trabajo en apps, adhiriendo parcialmente a las nociones emprendedoras o empresarizadas de sí. Esta valoración y adhesión se produce en el contexto específico de la precariedad del mercado laboral en que se insertan, tal como se muestra a continuación. ...
Working on digital platforms is being widely discussed due its role in work reorganization. In this context, the axis of autonomy formally attributed to workers is particularly relevant. In this study we address the production of autonomy in working on platforms as a strategy for the governance of subjectivities, in the context of the structural precariousness of Latin America labor market. Framed in a qualitative study and a digital ethnography design, we present an analysis of applications intended for workers on two apps: Uber (ride-hailing) and Pedidos Ya (delivery) in Chile. The results show that the apps, promote the understanding of themselves as free and self-regulated workers through two complementary strategies: the exaltation of the subject's freedom and will, and the overlapping of the platform's controls. The forms of partial ascription to these notions are intrinsically related to the conditions of precariousness that characterize formal employment in the experience of individuals. We discuss implications for the agenda of study on the uberization of work.
... Similar to Jarrahi et al. (2021), we examine the topic through the framing of algorithms as a social construct. In other words, we do not view algorithms as mere technology, but rather as diverse sociotechnical systems created in the complex interaction between the algorithm and different organizational actors. ...
... In other words, we do not view algorithms as mere technology, but rather as diverse sociotechnical systems created in the complex interaction between the algorithm and different organizational actors. The manifestation and consequences of a particular algorithmic system are shaped by the people developing, commissioning, using, or being managed by the system, as well as its place in the wider organizational environment (Jarrahi et al. 2021). ...
... Conversely, the use of algorithmic management systems in more traditional work contexts had received less consideration before 2021, as emphasized by Jarrahi et al. (2021). However, since then, scholars have widened their scope beyond platform companies, including more diverse contexts in the empirical record. ...
The use of algorithmic management systems is rapidly changing organizational models and practices, as millions of workers in multiple sectors worldwide are managed by computer software. Despite receiving increasing academic interest, little summarizing literature exist on the ways algorithmic systems are used in management. This article aims to fill this gap by systematically reviewing and qualitatively analyzing 172 articles on the topic. Our research contributes to the existent algorithmic management literature in three ways. First, we provide a descriptive overview of algorithmic management as a field of research. Second, we identify and synthesize the discussion on the key concepts of the topic, namely how algorithmic management: (1) simultaneously restrains and enables workers’ autonomy—yet income dependency and other factors force inflexible work practices; (2) creates a complex, digital version of Taylorism; and (3) creates new and changes existing organizational power structures. Third, as our main theoretical contribution, we create the framework of Algorithmic Management Grid that demonstrates the ways in which organizations use algorithmic systems in management. The Algorithmic Management Grid illustrates how, in both novel and traditional organizational models, algorithmic management may be used with emphasis either on controlling or enabling workers. Based on the reviewed literature, we claim that so far, companies have mostly utilized algorithmic systems in a controlling manner, neglecting the technology’s enabling potential in organizing.
... The gig economy (also: platform economy, on-demand economy) describes a job market based on task-based jobs that are mediated through digital platforms. The goal of using these digital platforms is to save costs by hiring employees as independent contractors who perform their gigs independently (Kaine & Josserand, 2019). The platforms serve as a kind of online marketplace and list open tasks like eBay lists goods. ...
... 1 Digitally mediated gigs -performed in real life: These gigs, also referred to as on-demand work, involve a transition into the real world. Workers are assigned jobs via the respective platform, which they then execute (Kaine & Josserand, 2019). Typical examples are Uber (point-to-point transportation), Delivery Hero (food delivery services), and TaskRabbit (labor activities). ...
... These platforms serve as a marketplace where individuals can offer or accept small jobs. These jobs can then be completed regardless of location, typically directly from home on one's own computer (Kaine & Josserand, 2019). Wellknown examples include Amazon Mechanical Turk (for microtasks such as filling out surveys), Fiverr (for services such as graphic design or translations), or Kaggle (for data science and machine learning). ...
The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated or intensified changes in many areas of society. This creates new opportunities, but also dangers for corporate communications. But which topics are really important? A team of researchers from the University of Leipzig and the University of Duisburg-Essen conducted a comprehensive trend study and identified the most important trends in the areas of management, society and technology. For 2022, these are the following trends: Language Awareness, Closed Communications, Gigification, Synthetic Media & Cybersecurity. Further information on the trends can be found in the Communications Trend Radar Report 2022.
... This article proposes and unpacks the concept of algorithmic HRM control through the lived experiences of app-workers (Duggan et al., 2020;Kaine & Josserand, 2019). In so doing, we contribute to and extend the burgeoning literature on the HRM-related features of gig work (e.g., Duggan et al., 2021;Keegan & Meijerink, 2022;McDonnell et al., 2021;Parent-Rocheleau & Parker, 2022;Waldkirch et al., 2021;Williams et al., 2021). ...
... Additionally, this study reveals that suppliers can indirectly regulate the earning potential of workers, as workers are reliant on speedy preparation and short waiting times in restaurants to receive payment and move on to the next available task. Thus, our study contributes knowledge on the multiparty influence and enactment of algorithmic HRM control by revealing that while the platform organization may be "invisible" in managing workers, the algorithm instead makes use of other non-organizational parties' face-to-face interactions with workers to create a more encompassing, comprehensive system of HRM control (Kaine & Josserand, 2019;Keegan & Meijerink, 2022). Our findings lend empirical support to the argument put forward by Wiechers et al. (2019) that, in multiparty work contexts, the relationship with one party may be significantly impacted by another party, and that it is more challenging for the individual worker to navigate successfully through the labor arrangement when compared to traditional employment. ...
Work in the gig economy is championed by platform organizations as affording individuals the flexibility to decide when, where, and how much they wish to work. The reality is more complex. In app-based gig work, we propose the concept of “algorithmic HRM control,” which acts as an omnipresent and distinctive control system that differs from traditional forms of control in two significant ways: first, the reliance upon, and pervasiveness of, algorithmic technologies in its enactment; and second, the substantial direct and indirect influence of non-organizational parties in controlling workers.
Through a qualitative research design, this article delineates the scope of algorithmic HRM control in allocating and coordinating tasks, managing performance and rewards, and aligning the actions of workers with organizational objectives. Our analysis also unpacks the rigidity and complexities of the control system, as experienced by workers, and the influential role of non-organizational parties in exerting unique, distinct forms of control. In so doing, we build upon emerging research on the duality of algorithmic HRM by revealing the inherent flaws or challenges from the perspective of the most central party—the gig worker. While output-oriented control is pervasive, process and normative control elements are also found to exist in some scenarios, creating significant concerns for workers.
... Research related to online transportation has been carried out in Australia related to control by companies (Veen et al., 2020) and in Brazil related to algorithm management and working conditions (Amorim & Moda, 2020). Research on online transportation in Indonesia is related to the development of the gig economy (de Ruyter & Rachmawati, 2020;Kaine & Josserand, 2019;Tan, 2021). With the increasing number of drivers in online transportation, companies need a system to control and discipline their partners. ...
... The core concept of the gig economy is performance and management related to the concepts of people, control, systems, technology, and data. Algorithmic management becomes closely related to the gig economy (Kaine & Josserand, 2019). Algorithmic management is based on constant data collection that occurs through a rating system and data collection of individual workers (Jarrahi et al., 2021). ...
p>This study aims to reveal conditions that have been neglected so far regarding the development of communication technology in online transportation. With a large number of partners, the company provides features to service users to provide an assessment of online motorcycle taxi drivers. Companies are no longer present to discipline their workers with strict regulations, but by using a panopticon monitoring system that is delegated to service users. This study uses a qualitative approach by conducting surveys and interviews with online motorcycle taxi drivers and users. The results of the participant interviews were then analyzed and supported by documentation studies originating from books, journals, and some data obtained from online media, or also known as data triangulation. The results of the study show that the panopticon system implemented by the company provides certainty of supervision so that it forms the discipline of those who are supervised by forming homogeneous behavior. The power relations that occur between companies and their partners place online motorcycle taxi drivers in a vulnerable position to symbolic violence through supervision. </p
... This relatively new form of work pervades many spheres of our lives in line with trends of increasing consumer desire for convenience (Mehmood & Najmi, 2017;Pasquale, 2016). The gig economy, also known as the online platform, on-demand or digital platform economy, is in many respects the most distinctive and extreme side of the increasingly digitalised and fragmented nature of work (Kaine & Josserand, 2019). At the heart of the gig economy is the easy and cheap exchange of considerable swathes of data and technological innovations. ...
... Counter to this perspective, is the argument that this type of work places too great a risk on individuals in terms of financial and social insecurities (Friedman, 2014;. In so doing, it ultimately creates an extremely individualised and detached working life (Kaine & Josserand, 2019). The lack of widespread social protection across countries for gig workers has been a magnified concern in some countries in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic (Apouey et al., 2020). ...
... Fourth, if scholars identified various innovation adoption factors (Damanpour, Schneider, 2006), sources of irresponsibility associated to these factors have not been analysed. Fifth, the literature analyses risks faced by OFD riders (Zheng et al., 2023;Kaine, Josserand, 2019), but does not relate them to innovation adoption phases and factors. Sixth, responsibility and innovation have seldom been discussed in the case of digital platforms and OFD apps (Zhu et al., 2023). ...
Online Food Delivery (OFD) has evolved with the fast diffusion of digital platforms. But these innovations have thrived at the expense of riders delivering food orders. Riders' risks increase because of irresponsible behaviours in the OFD ecosystem. We seek to identify sources of irresponsibility in OFD ecosystems, which adopted OFD innovations (mobile apps). We argue that these sources are distributed across actors and span across innovation adoption phases. We construct a grid to identify these sources at each adoption phase, and apply it using data collected in France during the Covid pandemic, when riders' risks soared. Our first result enables us to fill an important gap in the literature, by providing a grid to analyse sources of irresponsibility in an OFD ecosystem. Our second result identifies these sources in the French OFD ecosystem, and enables us to provide an improved grid and to formulate managerial recommendations.
... Together with the above, after the COVID-19 crisis, the global context of the world of work is accelerating its transformation. It is rapidly approaching more disruptive scenarios (Makridis and Han 2021;Mitchell et al. 2021;Ng et al. 2021) characterised by the technological advances of recent years such as robotisation (Acemoglu and Restrepo 2020), digital transformation processes (Amankwah-Amoah et al. 2021;Manyika et al. 2017), artificial intelligence (Harborth and Kumpers 2021;Santoni de Sio et al. 2021;Todoli-Signes 2019) and the definitive appearance of the platform economy (Kaine and Josserand 2019;Marenco and Seidl 2021). ...
This research presents a bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature on collective bargaining between 2012 and 2021. The main objective of this research is to analyze how scientific research on collective bargaining has evolved during this period and to identify current trends and future lines of research on the institution of governance of labor relations. For this purpose, 1676 documents collected in the Web of Science Core Collection and 1971 in Scopus have been analyzed. This analysis has made it possible to determine which have been the scientific papers with the greatest impact, the most relevant researchers, and the most used keywords. As a contribution, note the classification made in relation to which are the most relevant scientific journals, the most cited papers, or the most influential researchers in the field of collective bargaining. As conclusions and future lines of research identified, this research points out the need to delve into studies related to the promotion of dialogue between human resources management and the legal representation of workers about working conditions that positively affect workplace well-being, as well as investigations related to the power and legitimacy of negotiation by social and economic agents.
... In a workplace accident, employees, particularly those in the role of driver, personally bear the financial responsibility or seek out financing to cover the costs associated with repairing the employer's vehicles to pay later from their pocket. Hence, employers and platform owners benefit from workers' labor, while workers confront limited opportunities (Kaine & Josserand, 2019). Christie & Ward (2019) assert that gig workers, particularly drivers, commonly encounter fatigue, anxiety, and occasionally face pressure to violate traffic regulations to fulfil job requirements. ...
This article examines job satisfaction, job security, and career advancement experienced by individuals working as Uber drivers within the gig economy. This study employed a structured questionnaire to collect responses from 200 Uber drivers in Lagos. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS, concentrating on simple regression analysis. According to the study's findings, the gig economy provides job satisfaction, which can be attributed primarily to flexibility, autonomy, and diversified work opportunities. However, no correlation was found between job security and career advancement in the gig economy, as evidenced by inadequate compensation, unpredictable work hours, excessive responsibilities, insufficient rest, and significant exhaustion. In light of the myriad findings obtained in this investigation, our research ascertained that the utilization of digital platforms is imperative for the operational efficacy of the gig economy.
... Parking spaces, waiting areas, and road safety facilities were found to need to be improved (Ikbal, 2021). Food delivery riders faced external challenges, including inclement weather and the Covid-19 pandemic (Ayapana et al., 2022), as well as the covid 19 virus and social behaviour (Caday et al., 2021), the top categories of workforce deprivation (Kaine & Josserand, 2019). ...
This qualitative study explores the gig economy's challenges, effects, and motivations. Understanding the crucial issues could result in improved human resource management and better health and wellbeing for workers. A qualitative approach was used to explore the main jobs performed by gig workers in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. This study included both full-time and part-time walkers and cyclists. A semi-structured interview was used to identify the challenges and effects of gig delivery food riders. The main challenge is an unstable income, which may negatively impact their finances. Upon delivery, the commission is paid. This situation has no job security because the company does not employ them. They have no benefits or protections, such as health insurance or paid time off. Due to the job's physical demands, they also work long hours and experience fatigue. Customer demand and how many riders are on duty may affect job assignments daily. Depending on customer demand and rider availability, job assignments vary. In order to meet customer demands, riders may be required to work long shifts or odd hours. As a result of a lack of job security and benefits, riders and their families may experience financial instability.
... Again, many platform-based workers fail to meet the minimum wages. Due to the nature of gig work, these workers do not have access to social security, paid leaves, job regularity, bargaining power and the ability to form a union, exposing them to vulnerabilities in the long run (Kaine and Josserand, 2019;Tan et al., 2021). ...
Purpose
This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis on the topic of digital labour. The study also identifies the future research directions for the topic.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 118 research papers were identified and reviewed from 11 established research databases and A*, A and B category journals from the ABDC journal list. The papers covered a timespan between 2006 and 2023. Bibliometric analysis was conducted to identify key research hotspots.
Findings
The emergent themes and associated sub-themes related to digital labour were identified from the literature. The paper found three significant themes that include digital labour platform, gig economy and productivity. This study also acts as a platform to initiate further research in this field for academicians, scholars, industry practitioners and policymakers. The future research scope in the topic is also presented.
Originality/value
The present study is unique in its nature as it approaches the topic of digital labour from all relevant perspectives.
... Labour relations are just as important in developing nations as they are in developed nations. However, much of the literature on labour/industrial relations has been domiciled in Western economies, while it is gradually emerging in the Global South, particularly Africa (Ayentimi & Burgess, 2019;Kaine & Josserand, 2019). Over the last four decades, social dialogue has become more important as a tool for managing labour relations in Africa (Madimutsa, 2022). ...
Employee relations (ER) have been evolving in Ghana. ER in Ghana was initially characterised by colonial history and entrenched in the formal economy. Nevertheless, an informal sector has been dominant in Ghana’s economic structure, which supports increasing levels of self-employment (peasant proprietorship) and family workers. Over the last three decades, the liberalisation of the economy and the dependence on multinational enterprises (MNEs) to develop key sectors of the Ghanaian economy brought with it employment relations systems shaped by MNEs’ human resource (HR) policies that both engaged with and opposed trade unions. The chapter highlights how the different contextual characteristics interact and contribute to a fragmented ER environment in Ghana. The historical background and the interface of the formal economy alongside the informal economy, small business sector, labour commodification and MNEs have immediate consequences for the current fragmentation of ER. The implications and strategies for trade union revitalisation in Ghana are discussed.KeywordsEmployment relationsTrade unionsInformal sectorHRMGhana
... In the gig economy, working conditions are characterised by the strong control that companies (such as Just Eat, Uber Eats, Glovo) have on riders using platforms that monitor them (Veen et al., 2020). Several scholars have criticised the labour conditions and employment standards in the gig economy (Stewart and Stanford 2017;Kaine and Josserand 2019). These aspects have been neglected in the current literature. ...
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic and consumers’ perception of riders’ conditions influence the adoption of online food delivery. This research tries to extend the current literature on online food delivery (OFD) by adding two new perspectives not yet extensively investigated, namely COVID-19 pandemic and perceived riders’ conditions. We extend the technology acceptance model (TAM) with COVID-19 and perceived riders’ condition to empirically evaluate consumers’ behaviours in the OFD context. This paper adopts a quantitative and exploratory approach. Specifically, the study leverages the PLS approach to SEM using SmartPLS for model evaluation. The final sample of this study consists of 492 consumers in Italy. Our research shows that both COVID-19 and perceived riders’ condition negatively influence the adoption of online food delivery.
... As MC becomes more standardized, tasks can be decomposed, such that more small companies and individuals/freelancers can per-form them. However, research on this aspect of the gig economy is still emerging (Kaine and Josserand 2019), and more analysis is needed about the impact on MC as a profession and an industry. ...
Management consulting (MC), as a knowledge-based industry, is regarded as fertile ground for digital transformation (DT). However, the changes that DT has introduced to MC are rather limited, notwithstanding the many cases of successful DT in the field. This paper is a systemic review of 18 cases presented in the literature concerning the digital transformation (DT) of management consulting companies (MCCs). It builds prescriptive knowledge for researchers and practitioners concerning the different approaches used to employ DT in the management consulting (MC) field. It uses a context–intervention–mechanism–outcome (CIMO) framework analysis with a pool of articles involving cases of DT in management consulting. The main findings of the paper, the mechanisms, are based on correlations between the context, the solution adopted, and the business outcomes identified. Our analysis of the cases, based on the CIMO framework, reveals three mechanisms that explain how DT transforms MC: it supports the platformization of traditional MC; it creates an opportunity for MC through crowdsourcing, in which the consultant acts as a crowd manager; and it changes the consultant-client matching process. Our study presents different layers of DT in the management consulting industry based on the complexity of the solutions identified. The findings are relevant for both MC practitioners concerned with business strategy and MC researchers.
... Globalisation brought the world closer to every nation but also made nation-states adjust to its flows of trade and production and migration of the labour force. Neoliberal approaches in the global economic world resulted in the rise of transnational corporations, on the one hand, and the advances in technologies prompted the appearance of the gig economy, on the other hand (Kaine & Josserand, 2019;Meirosu, 2020;Zwick & Spicer, 2018). Knowledge, skills and qualifications have gained new meanings and values on the market and in the social sector, thus, new expectations to education systems appeared. ...
This is the eighth volume in the research book series Emerging Issues in Research on Vocational Education & Training. The series is published by the research group VETYL (Vocational Education & Training/Yrkeskunnande och Lärande), at the Department of Education, Stockholm University, Sweden.
The research book series started primarily as dissemination venue of selected papers, after a peer review process first presented at the international conferences organized yearly since 2012 by our research group VETYL. The conference has become a forum for sharing state of the art research in the field of VET and serving as a forum for networking and cooperation. The Stockholm International Conference of Research in VET is one of the major scientific events organised in Europe as part of the European Network for Vocational Education and Training (VETNET).
This volume contains chapters that were first present as papers at the research conference held 11-13, May 2022.
... Globalisation brought the world closer to every nation but also made nation-states adjust to its flows of trade and production and migration of the labour force. Neoliberal approaches in the global economic world resulted in the rise of transnational corporations, on the one hand, and the advances in technologies prompted the appearance of the gig economy, on the other hand (Kaine & Josserand, 2019;Meirosu, 2020;Zwick & Spicer, 2018). Knowledge, skills and qualifications have gained new meanings and values on the market and in the social sector, thus, new expectations to education systems appeared. ...
VET policies that assign increasing importance to workplace learning, including as a route into higher education, emphasise technological advances, such as international discourses referencing a fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Such approaches have become increasingly central to UK social and economic policies over the last 12 years, centred on the reform of apprenticeships and ‘technical education’ in England. Yet these policies have also appealed to a discourse of ‘craft’ to validate vocational routes, recalling the earlier status of skilled work during the handicraft period. These apparently incongruous references to moral and material dimensions of skilled work, largely neglected by technological policy discourses, call our attention to cultural and societal contexts of these policies. This paper explores these contexts drawing on methods used to construct material cultures from the chaîne opératoire of historical artefacts. This chaîne leads us back to a dualisation of labour markets and social policies that is increasingly reshaping VET across developed countries.
Submission to the Select Committee on the Gig Economy of the Legislative Council of South Australia
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the implications of algorithmic management on careers and employment relationships in the Nigerian gig economy. Specifically, drawing on labour process theory (LPT), this study provides an understanding of the production relations beyond the “traditional standard” to “nonstandard” forms of employment in a gig economy mediated by digital platforms or digital forms of work, especially on ride-hailing platforms (Uber and Bolt).
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted the interpretive qualitative approach and a semi-structured interview of 49 participants, including 46 platform drivers and 3 platform managers from Uber and Bolt.
Findings
This study addresses the theoretical underpinnings of the LPT as it relates to algorithmic management and control in the digital platform economy. The study revealed that, despite the ultra-precarious working conditions and persistent uncertainty in employment relations under algorithmic management, the underlying key factors that motivate workers to engage in digital platform work include higher job flexibility and autonomy, as well as having a source of income. This study captured the human-digital interface and labour processes related to digital platform work in Nigeria. Findings of this study also revealed that algorithmic management enables a transactional exchange between platform providers and drivers, while relational exchanges occur between drivers and customers/passengers. Finally, this study highlighted the perceived impact of algorithmic management on the attitude and performance of workers.
Originality/value
The research presents an interesting case study to investigate the influence of algorithmic management and labour processes on employment relationships in the largest emerging economy in Africa.
We observe gig workers’ retrospective sense-making of their career development, from creating an account on online labor platforms to managing gigs successfully. Our data reveals that gig workers advance through three career stages in their initial career learning cycle. We identify each stage as characterized by stage-specific emotions and that they react with specific behaviors to gig work challenges. Gig work challenges that occur in the platform environment are namely the newbie challenge, the positioning and relational challenge, and the balancing challenge, which workers need to overcome in order to transition to the next stage. In line with contemporary career and protean career theory on career learning cycles, gig workers need to build a set of specialized skills and meta-competencies to be successfully navigate their careers. As an outcome of the here-described career learning cycle, gig workers develop an entrepreneurial identity aspiration, as they are empowered and can use the platform as a playground or stepping stone for entrepreneurial activities. Our paper, thus, develops an understanding of gig workers’ initial career learning cycle by examining the factors that enable gig workers to kick off a career and allow them to thrive and advance on the platforms professionally.
In the constantly evolving career landscape, knowledge about human resource management practices could prove very beneficial for undergraduate college students who want to construct protean careers. With its broad content coverage, the introductory HR course is best suited to teach students about key HR functions and practices instrumental to their career outcomes. The current introductory HR course at the undergraduate level may fall short of this promise as it primarily caters to aspiring HR professionals. We propose to re-imagine the undergraduate introductory HR course from the perspective of students as future employees instead and illustrate the role of HR functions in career progression and how students could use HR knowledge to advance their careers that align with their values. We offer a detailed framework with updated learning goals and sample experiential activities for each major HR topic. We believe that the new approach will make the course more relevant to all students, which could improve learning outcomes and help students construct and manage their protean careers.
Though the growth of the gig economy has coincided with increased economic precarity in the new economy, we know less about the extent to which gig work (compared with other self-employment arrangements and non-gig work) may fuel economic insecurity among American households. We fill this gap in the literature by drawing on a sample of 4,756 workers from a unique national survey capturing economic hardships among non-standard workers like app- and platform-based gig and other self-employed workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from generalized boosted regression modeling, utilizing machine learning to account for potential endogeneity, demonstrated that gig workers experienced significantly greater economic hardship than non-gig and other self-employed workers during the pandemic. For example, gig workers were more likely to experience food insecurity, miss bill payments, and suffer income loss compared with non-gig and other self-employed workers during the pandemic. While household liquid assets endowment prior to the pandemic reduced the effect of gig work on experiencing economic hardships, having dependent children in the household increased this effect. Thus, contrary to democratizing entrepreneurship opportunities, these findings suggest that the expansion of the gig economy may exacerbate labor market inequality, where wealth-endowed families are protected against adverse economic consequences of the gig economy. We discuss the implications of these findings for inequality-reducing labor market policies, including policies that account for the interconnectedness of family and the labor market.
Migrants, along with youth, stand at the forefront of gig economy in many countries. Gig work intersects with other domains of migrants’ post-migration life, including career development. To substantiate “plural systems of knowledges” (Sultana, 2021, p.5) required for understanding such intersecting boundaries, qualitative research that prioritises migrants’ local knowledges is essential. This research systemically explores the career development of New Zealand immigrants working as rideshare drivers in Australia and considers the impact of gig work on their career development through the lens of the Systems Theory Framework (STF) of career development. Using a qualitative exploratory multiple case study design, interviews were conducted with four rideshare drivers. Findings highlight the role of systemic influences in the intersections of migration with gig work and career development. The role of the STF of career development in facilitating a systemic exploration through both stages of data collection and data analysis is highlighted.
Little is known about how the use of ride-hail apps (e.g. Uber, Lyft) affects drivers’ propensity to engage in risky behaviours. Drawing on labour process theory, this study examines how algorithmic control of ride-hail drivers encourages risky driving (i.e. violating road safety rules, carrying weapons). Furthermore, the theory of work precarity is used to explain why multiple jobholders (MJHers), who work for ride-hail companies, drive taxis and hold other jobs, may be more likely to take risks while driving due to income insecurity and erratic work hours. The hypotheses are tested in a sample ( N = 191) of ride-hail drivers, taxi drivers and MJHers. The results suggest that MJHers are more likely to engage in risky driving in comparison to ride-hail and taxi drivers. Theoretical, practical and policy implications are discussed.
At a time when the gig economy and gig work are getting increasingly popular and offering infinite possibilities and solutions to age-old staffing and skilling problems, this article aims to explore the challenges and opportunities posed by this new model of engagement from the lens of information technology industry and the need for a paradigm shift in HR practices in such organisations to attract and engage gig workers. The article extensively relies on a review of the extant literature on the topic, including papers published in reputed journals, reports, news articles, podcasts, TEDx talks and perspectives of HR practitioners gathered through one-to-one interviews. The findings corroborate the need for a completely different approach to managing gig workers, including reimagining workplace structures and organisational systems, designing inclusive policies and adopting progressive HR practices to create an employer brand that resonates with gig workers.
Purpose
Online labour markets (OLMs) have recently become a widespread phenomenon of digital work. While the implications of OLMs on worker well-being are hotly debated, little empirical research examines the impact of such work on individuals. The highly competitive and fast-paced nature of OLMs compels workers to multitask and to perform intense technology-enabled work, which can potentially enhance technostress. This paper examines the antecedents and well-being consequences of technostress arising from work in OLMs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw from person–environment fit theory and job characteristics theory and test a research model of the antecedents and consequences of worker technostress in OLMs. Data were gathered from 366 workers in a popular OLM through a large-scale online survey. Structural equation modelling was used to evaluate the research model.
Findings
The findings extend existing research by validating the relationships between specific OLM characteristics and strain. Contrary to previous literature, the results indicate a link between technology complexity and work overload in OLMs. Furthermore, in OLMs, feedback is positively associated with work overload and job insecurity, while strain directly influences workers' negative affective well-being and discontinuous intention.
Originality/value
This study contributes to technostress literature by developing and testing a research model relevant to a new form of work conducted through OLMs. The authors expand the current research on technostress by integrating job characteristics as new antecedents to technostress and demonstrating its impact on different types of subjective well-being and discontinuous intention. In addition, while examining the impact of technostressors on outcomes, the authors consider their impact at the individual level (disaggregated approach) to capture the subtlety involved in understanding technostressors' unique relationships with outcomes.
The gig economy has become a viable field for alternate job arrangements. Therefore, we aim to explore the gig contracting influencing factors in Information Technology. We propose a conceptual framework using Structured Equation Modelling to ascertain the relationship between Human Resource Management and gig work contracting mediated through a sustainable digital economy. Based on a specifically designed survey, employers’ most significant hurdles were the competitiveness level, the extended hours when one was logged in, and late-night delivery. The incentives were not strong influencing factors for Gig contracting. However, the flexibility reduced much of the workload pressures.
There have been major changes in the structure and composition of the Australian workforce and in the industrial relations system. Work has become fragmented, and there has been a decline in full-time ongoing employment. Short-term, part-time, and insecure employment arrangements have increased. The industrial relations system has moved towards individual bargaining and placed restrictions over trade union activities. At the same time the trade union workforce density has declined. For employees to exercise voice they are faced with legislative restrictions placed on collective action and many work in non-unionised industries and workplaces. To exercise voice in this context requires new voice mechanisms and processes, and the utilisation of social media to promote employee grievances and concerns. The discussion will draw on secondary information, public reports, and social media to highlight the diversity of and the relationship between the different voice mechanisms and to evaluate the role that social media is playing in providing workers with voice in publicising and securing action to settle grievances that extend beyond the organisational workplace. This chapter discusses the evolution and changing voice mechanism in Australia, and how social media has been used to publicise workplace issues, to support employee voice, and to support coalitions of employee and non-government organisation (NGO) activism in supporting employee conditions.KeywordsEmployee voiceSocial mediaTrade unionVoice mechanismDispute resolutionIndustrial actionAustralia
This chapter aims to understand the realities of social dialogue and trade unions in Morocco. Research contends that for social dialogue to enhance productivity, it requires constant dissemination of information between employers and employees on such matters as corporate plans and strategies, business trends and labour policies. Therefore, by reviewing the political, legal, social, and economic background of Morocco, the chapter examines the realities of social dialogue in Morocco and the role of trade unions in social dialogue. It concludes that social dialogue is important for driving effective labour relations in Morocco. Moreover, the chapter contends that for social dialogue to work, the state cannot be passive in ensuring that labour laws reflect contemporary international practices even when localised to fit in with the country’s distinct demographics.KeywordsSocial dialogueTrade unionsMoroccoEmployersEmployees
The phenomenon of globalization, which gained momentum after the 1980s, became widespread in all parts of the society and research of working life has become a normal situation. The phenomenon of globalization has been included in the socio-economic structure of the society through internet networks. It is considered necessary for individuals to turn into an online business structure that emerges through digital platforms in order to continue their lives, to maintain welfare and peace. Thus, an increase in the trends of research on the structure of working life in terms of social sustainability in the changing world order has been observed. The aim of the study is to obtain a holistic perspective in the multidimensional areas of the Gig economy, which is the counterpart of the online working platform. For this purpose, all data (820/732) obtained from the Web of Science database specific to the gig economy were included in the research. Multiple data were analyzed using the CiteSpace application. Trends in the Gig economy within the framework of social network theory, analysis in the context of the country, author analysis, cluster analysis and representative document analysis are presented. In this context, it is important to be able to make scientometric analyzes within the scope of the literature on the gig economy in order to obtain systematic findings for future research on the current labor market. With the research, literature trends, country analyzes and relationship networks, author productivity and the interpretative equivalent of keywords in the literature are revealed. According to the analysis findings; For the gig economy phenomenon, researches have been carried out in different fields in the socio-economic structure, and it can be stated that the studies may increase cumulatively in the future in terms of its social importance and prevalence.
The social security system will surely show gig workers a lot of warm respect while highlighting their challenges. People have chosen to work as independent contractors or freelancers on projects for numerous businesses. This study aims to identify the social security policies implemented for gig workers. The study's objectives include learning more about gig workers and their place in the Indian economy and exploring the difficulties they encounter. A computerized literature review was used. According to the research, gig workers have been found to have promising futures and contribute more to the economy. Whenever the social security Programme covers them, gig workers must constantly increase their expertise through upskilling and reskilling to be competitive. The study is limited to the gig economy without considering other significant sectors of the Indian economy. It sheds light on the initiatives taken by social security to improve a lot of gig workers. According to the study's findings, market structure and labour market data are needed for policymakers to create an effective strategy for promoting the gig economy as a new source of growth.
As of late, “STAY AT HOME” is the main slogan; household needs are constantly changing for many reasons, such as the change in the human life cycle, the shift to smart cities, and adopting new modern technologies to reduce the risks. However, while moving to a smart solution, many forgotten social dimensions are being interpreted into the design of many services, including housing. Accordingly, this study aims to explore housing flexibility through a review of relevant literature and how housing design will change to accommodate new needs through quarantine and spread of Corona virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) to formulate new design codes for stakeholders and real-estate developers to consider in the future. It examines the impact of quarantine on personal household priorities, house design, and how they innovate in their interior design to suit their new needs by conducting a wide online social survey. The research uses an online survey to evaluate the importance of the new arrangement of household requirements using quantitative analysis tools and techniques. The findings display housing guidelines to apply housing design flexibility to cope with any external or internal changes that may happen in the next period and affect household needs in smart cities and others.KeywordsHousing flexibilityBasic needsCOVID-19QuarantineHofficeOnline survey
The current economic situation in many countries, aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has forced local organizations to downsize the number of employees, reduce working hours or rely on temporary workers to perform the job by means of gig workers. While these conditions could be considered as a threat, some workforce vulnerable groups, like women, grasped this opportunity to develop entrepreneurial behavior and start-up their businesses. This paper aims to investigate the factors that under the explained circumstances encourage women to be entrepreneurs, proposing a theoretical model of relationships between gig economy practices and opportunistic and necessity women’s entrepreneurship start-ups.KeywordsWomen’s entrepreneurshipGig economyGig workersCrisisStart-ups
Purpose This research aims to describe the gig worker challenge and opportunity including job quality in India remembering that gig work is spreading rapidly among nations and has been the source of earning for most of the destitute population. Design/methodology/approach This research uses qualitative method with descriptive approach. Author used semi-structured interview to 10 (ten) informants by using purposive sampling with snowballing technique. The informants are the GIG worker who work around Indian metro cities. Findings The way their economic, psychological and social aspects are grilled with least positive chances of betterment has been our concern. The three aggregate dimensions mainly focussing towards, economic, psychological and social well-being of employees. Research limitations/implications This research may use for government to improve the job quality of GIG worker. If nations could not come up with formal and permanent employment opportunities, the job quality of gig economy can at least be enhanced. Originality/value This study describes comprehensively by using interview to reveal challenge and opportunity in gig worker job quality in India.
Resumo O arranjo de trabalho cuja contratação é mediada por plataformas digitais (digitrab) tem crescido exponencialmente nos últimos anos, tanto sob a forma de trabalho de multidão ( crowdworking ) quanto sob a forma de trabalho sob demanda via aplicativo ( work on demand via app ). No entanto, ainda há pouca sistematização no que se refere ao conhecimento sobre os elementos que caracterizam esse arranjo. Mediante uma revisão de escopo da literatura que compreendeu o período de 2005 a 2021, este estudo buscou identificar as características do desenho do trabalho digitrab, organizando-o a partir de duas categorias específicas: as demandas que requisita e os recursos disponíveis ao trabalhador. Para tanto, utilizou como base teórica o modelo de demandas e recursos no trabalho (JD-R). Após aplicados os critérios de inclusão e exclusão, os 43 artigos analisados permitiram identificar que há um desequilíbrio importante entre as demandas e os recursos presentes no digitrab, indicando, ainda, que há muitos recursos ausentes que dificultam que os trabalhadores lidem adequadamente com as exigências da organização e da tarefa. Dentre as demandas mais proeminentes, destacam-se a imprecisão na categorização laboral, a vigilância via gerenciamento algorítmico e o autogerenciamento de riscos, enquanto a flexibilidade figura como o recurso presente mais citado, e a proteção social como o recurso ausente mais relevante. Tomadas em conjunto, as características do desenho do digitrab podem contribuir para o processo de desgaste do trabalhador, além de interferirem no seu processo motivacional, gerando tanto desempenho abaixo do ideal quanto prejuízos à saúde e ao bem-estar do trabalhador.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant changes to management education regarding the interaction and use of digital technology as part of the learning experience. This article focuses on how and why these changes occurred and what this means for teaching methods for the post COVID-19 pandemic era. To do this a literature review on COVID-19 management education and future research was conducted. This enabled key alterations in management education because of the COVID-19 crisis including more emphasis on games and simulations, work/life balance and remote learning to be discussed. This includes a stress on emerging technologies such as the metaverse that are shaping a new era for management educators. Implications for management educators suggest that new theory specifically taking into account a crisis and resilience perspective based on the COVID-19 pandemic are needed. This means emphasising the use of new digital technologies that offer a more interactive experience.
This chapter deliberates on designing green enterprises at the grassroots by engaging entrepreneurs and social leaders. Developing social enterprises by analyzing PNS factors, crowdsourcing, comprehensive ideation, and conceptualization of sustainable business themes have been discussed in this chapter. The discussion on strategies of organizational design by developing multi-functional teams to take collective decisions and induce transformational leadership to support change management are central to this chapter. In addition, this chapter discusses the strategic perspectives of green entrepreneurship in the changing technology and business environment. Circular entrepreneurship is conceptualized as exploring entrepreneurial activities within the sustainability domain and exploit opportunities in the context of circular economy.
The rapid development of digital platform businesses has facilitated the expansion of gig work in China and elsewhere in recent years. Now that IT-powered platforms have been used in part to free the capital from taking employer responsibilities, the capital’s toolkit for labor control has been significantly limited. Drawing on qualitative field research supplemented by quantitative data on Uber in China, this article provides a novel empirical account of the labor control of digital platforms, and more importantly, their effects on different types of workers. The authors have identified three crucial strategies that Uber has devised to control its drivers’ labor process: an incentive pay system, a customer evaluation system, and flexible work arrangements. These strategies will, however, demonstrate significant effects on drivers’ working hours and income only when we consider the different motivations of Uber drivers. Specifically, the working efforts of those who drive for Uber as their only source of income are responsive to incentive pay schemes and a platform’s evaluation system, but are not as responsive to work flexibility. The exact opposite is the case for drivers who have other jobs and sources of income.
Communities and platforms pervade all aspects of the collaborative economy. Yet they exist in apparent tension. The collaborative economy is grounded in communities. These are typically characterized by isonomic relations in which the singularity of members finds its distinctiveness in being woven into mutual, collective endeavour. Yet the collaborative economy also entails digital platforms organized through largely heteronomic relations in which employees and users are configured as isolate, useful, interchangeable, and flexible ‘units’. As such, communities and platforms are traditionally framed as separate from, and in contradiction to one another. There is, it seems a paradox at the heart of the collaborative economy. Yet, inspired by the work of Merleau-Ponty, we argue the expression, embodiment, and eventfulness characterizing the collaborative economy show communities and platforms being constituted by one another. We conclude that the paradox, far from being a condition of opposition and dialectical tension requiring managed resolution, is a generative organizational process.
Background
The “gig” economy connects consumers with contractors (or workers) through online platform businesses to perform tasks (or “gigs”). This innovation in technology provides businesses and consumers access to low-cost, on-demand labour, but gig workers’ experiences are more complex. They have access to very flexible, potentially autonomous work, but also deal with challenges caused by the nature of the work, its precariousness, and their relationships with the platform businesses. Workers in the Global North and South may also experience these challenges very differently. Based on our report “Towards an Understanding of Canadian Workers in the Global Gig Economy”, we present a commentary on the implications of a globalized online platform labour market on the health of gig workers in Canada and globally.
Main body
Based on our scoping review of peer and grey literature, we categorized gig worker vulnerabilities in three ways: 1) occupational vulnerabilities, 2) precarity, and 3) platform-based vulnerabilities. Occupational vulnerabilities are connected to the work being performed (e.g. driving a car or computer work) and are not specific to platform labour. Precarity refers to the short-term, contingent nature of the work, characteristics that may be shared with other forms of work. Some examples of precariousness are lack of health insurance, collective bargaining, or career training and promotion. Finally, platform-based vulnerabilities are particular to the way platform labour is structured. These vulnerabilities include worker misclassification, information asymmetries, and the culture of surveillance. We suggest that, together, these vulnerabilities challenge gig workers’ right to health.
Conclusions
We propose that the experience of gig workers around the world must be understood in the context of neoliberalism, which has increased both the globalization and precaritization of work. While gig workers share some vulnerabilities, which have important negative consequences on their health, with other workers, the platform-specific vulnerabilities of workers require further inquiry. In particular, the specific health and overall experience of gig workers in different regions of the world – with different labour policies and sociopolitical contexts for work – must be disentangled as workers in the Global North and South experience this work very differently.
How work gets done has changed fundamentally in recent decades, with a growing number of people working independently, outside of organizations in a style of work quite different from that assumed by many organizational behavior theories. To remain relevant, our research on individual work behaviors and the capabilities that enable them must also adapt to this new world of work, the so-called “gig economy.” We first describe the predictable challenges that individuals confront when working in this manner, including remaining viable, staying organized, maintaining identity, sustaining relationships, and coping emotionally. We then articulate a research agenda that pushes our field to focus on the specific capabilities and behaviors that enable people to manage these challenges effectively so as to survive or thrive in this new world of work. Foregrounding individual agency, we articulate the work and relational behaviors necessary for such thriving, and the cognitive and emotional capabilities that undergird them.
It is widely reported that there is a data deficit regarding working conditions in the gig economy. It is known, however, that workers are disadvantaged because they are not classed as employees with the result that they lack work-related entitlements and may not be protected by the social welfare safety net. Nor is this compatible with the social market economy enshrined in the European Union treaties. Two obstacles are that labour law and social policy are mainly a national competence and that platforms are reluctant to share data with regulators. In this paper I take the specific case of offline labour platforms intermediated by app and smart phone such as driving and delivering and look for new pathways between access to data and the shaping of public policy in member states with potentially legal certainty.
Platform learning harnesses the operating capabilities and logics of digital platforms such as Uber and Amazon to imagine synergies between on-demand labor and on-demand learning, transforming living into learning, and learning into labor. This paper seeks to make three original contributions to critical analysis of platform learning. First, as an analytical foundation, it brings together two distinct strands of scholarship on the evolving relationship between learning and late capitalism, and the digitalization of education policy and governance, synthesizing them in relation to questions concerning labor and work in the emergent on-demand economy. Second, it draws on these ideas to engage the learning and work projections of two strategic forecasting organizations, Institute for the Future and Knowledge Works, as case studies of platform learning. Third, the last section of the paper builds on the sociotechnical projections of these organizations as the basis for a critique of the political economy of platform learning, highlighting four areas requiring further inquiry: (1) value extraction; (2) exploitation of labor; (3) efficacy and inequality; (4) imagination.
The advent of the sharing/gig economy has created new forms of employment embedded in new labor practices. Advocates of the sharing economy frame it in salutary terms, lauding its sustainability, decentralization, and employment-generation capabilities. The workers of the gig economy are seen as independent contractors under law rather than employees, and the owners of the gig economy platforms celebrate this categorization as a form of entrepreneurship. In this paper, we use insights from the entrepreneurship literature to examine this claim critically. Taking Uber as an exemplar, we look at the arguments behind the company’s contention that its drivers are actually “partners” who are engaged in entrepreneurship, and demonstrate why these claims are problematic. We utilize a stakeholders’ theory framework that initiates a dialogue between ethics and entrepreneurship in order to focus on the mechanisms that help ensure ethical practices in the sharing economy and to examine the efficacy of these mechanisms. We also discuss the role of the entrepreneurship literature in promoting entrepreneurial behaviors that lead to income inequality. We conclude by arguing that the sharing economy reflects the intensification of an ongoing neoliberal trend that misuses the concept of entrepreneurship in order to justify certain forms of employment practices, and make a case for regulatory oversight.
The major objectives of this paper are threefold. First, the paper captures and explains the recent growth trends of independent workers, working as freelancers for corporations, and offering on-demand services for various types of clients mediated by App-enabled platform companies. Second, the paper discusses different terminologies used to describe independent workers and highlights the emergence of a new category of independent on-demand workers, the employment status of whom is a subject of current empirical and academic debate. Finally, the paper discusses the emergence of an increasing number of collective actions recently taken by on-demand workers against platform companies over worsened level of wages, undesirable terms and conditions of work, and inadequate workers’ protection, and examines their implications for the discipline of employee relations.
Digital data have become a form of “objectivation”, which affect how we construct social knowledge and organize social space (Couldry & Hepp, 2017). The workplace is one sphere that is increasingly datafied. This study explores how Uber drivers, a form of digitally-enabled service workers, contribute to the normalization of the social production of space through their interpretative practices of digital data in an online forum. Drawing on Uber’s corporate discourse and an Uber driver online forum, we analyze two facets of the Uber app and drivers’ mediated experiences: (1) the quantification and discipline of drivers’ performance through Uber’s rating system and (2) the coordination of spatial movement through location-related metrics. We argue that the underlying workings of the Uber app premediate expectations of service encounters and spatial movement. Uber drivers meanwhile develop practices which respond to and circumvent their own data contributions to the system. Drivers’ practices, we argue, are largely in compliance with the calculative logics set by Uber. The article addresses implications of Uber drivers’ practices for the reproduction of social space and power-relations in digitally-enabled service work and the gig economy.
Despite growing interest in the gig economy among academics, policy makers and media commentators, the area is replete with different terminology, definitional constructs and contested claims about the ensuing transformation of work organisation. The aim of this positional piece is to provide a timely review and classification of crowdwork. A typology is developed to map the complexity of this emerging terrain, illuminating range and scope by critically synthesising empirical findings and issues from multidisciplinary literatures. Rather than side-tracking into debates as to what exactly constitutes crowdwork, the purpose of the typology is to highlight commonalities rather than distinctions, enabling connections across areas. The framework serves as a heuristic device for considering the broader implications for work and employment in terms of control and coordination, regulation and classification, and collective agency and representation.
In August 2016, drivers delivering meals in London after being booked via the platforms ‘deliveroo’ and ‘UberEATS’ made headlines by challenging working practices in the gig-economy through collective industrial action. Dissatisfaction resulted from extremely low levels of pay as well as a new payment calculation system being introduced without consultation. This indicates that the ‘gig-economy’, though arguably contributing to ‘smart cities’, may not always constitute the smartest solution for those serving within it. However, it also highlights that collective industrial action is far from structurally impossible for workers in the ‘gig-economy’, even though management of labour relies on anonymous and automated micro-management through internet platforms and apps. Indeed, collective organisation may seem the smartest solution for upgrading the gig-economy for its workers. This article develops an original contribution to the interface of smart technology in the gig-economy, collective labour rights, and EU competition law. We identify that EU competition law as interpreted by the Court of Justice would hinder collective organisation of those serving the gig-economy and develop a comprehensive re interpretation which allows adaptation of EU competition law to smart employment markets.
‘Gig’ or platform-based work represents one of the most recent, highly-publicized labour market trends. Attributed to the increased demand for flexibility on the part of employers (Eurofound, 2015a), better labour market efficiency (IOE, 2016) and, in some cases the desire for greater flexibility on the part of workers (De Stefano, 2016), gig and platform-based work is one type of non-standard work facilitated through technology and digital markets, on-demand. Despite its relatively small size (Farrell and Grieg, 2016) the gig economy has the potential to rapidly change the way work is organized and performed, to alter the content and quality of jobs, and to reshape industries. This paper examines challenges to freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining for workers in the gig economy, and explores the broad range of strategies that gig-economy workers are using to build collective agency, and to promote effective regulation of gig work.
This paper examines the effect of employer social responsibility on a stakeholder and a source of human capital that is becoming increasingly important to firms: the contingent or "gig," worker. Using two randomized field experiments in online platform labor marketplaces, I show that a socially responsible message increased prosocially-oriented, but not non-prosocially-oriented, gig workers' willingness to complete extra work. On average, the socially responsible message mediated prosocially-oriented workers' lower willingness to do extra work. A "feel good" mechanism appeared to be driving the response to the socially responsible message. These findings provide insight into gig workers' nonpecuniary motivation, and demonstrate heterogeneity in this type of workers' willingness to do extra work, as well as for socially responsible employers.
In this article we draw on personal narratives to study the identity work conducted by ride-share drivers to make sense of their occupational identity that is made problematic by the ambiguity of their legal classification and the precarious nature of their material conditions. Our contribution is twofold. First, we reveal the specificity of the identity work conducted by gig workers in comparison to other groups of workers such as employees and independent workers. We uncover the narratives that gig workers use to construct a coherent discourse that accommodates the trade-offs that their occupation involves. Second, we provide an understanding of the experience of gig workers. We adopt the term ‘sub-entrepreneur’ to refer to a type of independent contractor who experiences less freedom than those with true entrepreneurial scope and autonomy in their work. This definition assists in our reflection on our findings in relation to the future of gig workers, gig work and gig platforms.
Live streaming, a recently emerged service in the sharing economy era, is already very popular in China and is growing in the US market. Besides streamers (those who make the content) and the platform itself, unions of streamers are important stakeholders in live streaming platforms because they act as the streamers' agents. Because the union's salary mechanism will significantly influence the behavior of streamers, in this paper, we investigate the interaction between the streamers and unions from the perspective of salary mechanism.
Specifically, we introduce a salary mechanism denoted by (θ,R,T) for the union and then set up a game model between the union and streamers. While the proceeds of streamers depend on their efforts, the union's salary mechanism also significantly influences the efforts of streamers in the union. Streamers determine whether to join the union or not, as well as their efforts under the two alternatives. The union's goal is to optimize its salary mechanism, as well as to determine its effort level in the streamer's virtual room.
Our results show that: (i) whether a streamer will join the union depends on both the union's salary mechanism and the streamer's ability; (ii) the salary mechanism (θ,R,T) can be used to implement either the elite talent strategy or the huge-crowd strategy; and (iii) the union's optimal salary mechanism is significantly influenced by the platform's share rates to the union and streamers. In this paper, the properties of the union's optimal salary mechanism are analyzed. This paper contributes to the literature by being the first to incorporate a salary mechanism into studies of the live streaming economy.
Algorithmic management is rapidly emerging as a strategic management tool in the digital economy; however, little is known of the outcomes of algorithmic management for users of the sharing economy platforms. With a focus on one of the most rapidly growing peer-to-peer platforms, this research investigates how Airbnb hosts have responded to and adapted to the algorithmic management strategies employed by Airbnb. Findings suggest that asymmetry of algorithmic information can increase Airbnb’s power to influence and control Airbnb hosts’ practices. Further, such information asymmetry can significantly hinder Airbnb hosts’ sense of control. This study contributes to the emerging academic dialogue on the algorithmic management in tourism and hospitality and advances the academic research on the human resources aspect of the sharing economy.
Live streaming, a recently emerged service in the sharing economy era, is already very popular in China and is growing in the US market. Besides streamers (those who make the content) and the platform itself, unions of streamers are important stakeholders in live streaming platforms because they act as the streamers' agents. Because the union's salary mechanism will significantly influence the behavior of streamers, in this paper, we investigate the interaction between the streamers and unions from the perspective of salary mechanism.
Specifically, we introduce a salary mechanism denoted by (θ,R,T) for the union and then set up a game model between the union and streamers. While the proceeds of streamers depend on their efforts, the union's salary mechanism also significantly influences the efforts of streamers in the union. Streamers determine whether to join the union or not, as well as their efforts under the two alternatives. The union's goal is to optimize its salary mechanism, as well as to determine its effort level in the streamer's virtual room.
Our results show that: (i) whether a streamer will join the union depends on both the union's salary mechanism and the streamer's ability; (ii) the salary mechanism (θ,R,T) can be used to implement either the elite talent strategy or the huge-crowd strategy; and (iii) the union's optimal salary mechanism is significantly influenced by the platform's share rates to the union and streamers. In this paper, the properties of the union's optimal salary mechanism are analyzed. This paper contributes to the literature by being the first to incorporate a salary mechanism into studies of the live streaming economy.
With the popularization of ride-sharing services, drivers working as freelancers on ride-sharing platforms can design their schedules flexibly. They make daily decisions regarding whether to participate in work, and if so, how many hours to work. Factors such as hourly income rate affect both the participation decision and working-hour decision, and evaluation of the impacts of hourly income rate on labor supply becomes important. In this paper, we propose an econometric framework with closed-form measures to estimate both the participation elasticity (i.e., extensive margin elasticity) and working-hour elasticity (i.e., intensive margin elasticity) of labor supply. We model the sample self-selection bias of labor force participation and endogeneity of income rate and show that failure to control for sample self-selection and endogeneity leads to biased estimates. Taking advantage of a natural experiment with exogenous shocks on a ride-sharing platform, we identify the driver incentive called “income multiplier” as exogenous shock and an instrumental variable. We empirically analyze the impacts of hourly income rates on labor supply along both extensive and intensive margins. We find that both the participation elasticity and working-hour elasticity of labor supply are positive and significant in the dataset of this ride-sharing platform. Interestingly, in the presence of driver heterogeneity, we also find that in general participation elasticity decreases along both the extensive and intensive margins, and working-hour elasticity decreases along the intensive margin.
Background
Very little research has been conducted into the road safety risks of people who drive in the gig economy (e.g. Uber, Deliveroo). The aim of this study was to explore the experience of risk and its management amongst drivers and their managers engaged in the gig economy.
Methods
In depth interviews and an online survey were carried out among gig economy drivers and their managers. Questions focused on the context in which they work, the extent to which they are aware of, create or experience risks, what they perceived as the roles and responsibilities for safety and how they or their employer managed safety.
Results
In-depth interviews were carried out with 48 participants and an online survey was completed by 231 respondents. Gig work led some couriers to experience impairment caused by fatigue and pressure to violate speed limits and to use their phones whilst driving. Many admitted to having a collision and experiencing near misses daily. In the online survey 42% said they had been involved in a collision where there vehicle had been damaged and 10% said that someone had been injured, usually themselves. Most respondents (75%) said there had been occasions while working when they have had to take action to avoid a collision.
Conclusions
The emergence of the gig driver could give rise to a perfect storm of risk factors affecting the health and safety not just of the people who work in the economy but for other road users. Pressure from Government should make these service providers more aware of their employment obligations and provide safeguards for people who generate income for them. Recommendations are made to improve the safety of gig workers.
To better comprehend how the news media frames modern overtourism, content analysis was conducted on 202 news articles. Results suggest that root causes of overtourism are largely overlooked and the focus is on reporting tourist numbers and impacts on local. The growth agenda continues to be promoted in the backdrop of overtourism news, while responsibilities to mitigate negative impacts are attributed to cities, communities and tourists. There is a need to explore responsibilities of diverse tourism actors in addressing overtourism, along with discussions on alternatives to the pro-growth paradigm and the industrial work-home-travel model that fuel modern mass tourism.
Although Uber's arrival in China has resulted in disruptive competition for incumbent taxi companies, it offers an attractive alternative in China's supply-demand-imbalanced urban passenger transport system. China's regulatory regime for Uber has evolved in three stages: from the regulatory vacuum prior to 2015 to its official legalization in 2015–2016, and the enactment of numerous local regulations in 2016, with specific and more demanding requirements for Uber. This policy is a part of the Chinese approach to the gradual liberalization of the urban passenger transport market. Policymakers should consider ‘fair competition’ as the guiding principle to balance the interests of sharing firms and incumbent service providers, as well as between different sharing firms. The core value of this principle lies in the benefits it provides for consumers and the way it engenders a pro-competitive market environment. The labor protection arrangements for sharing firms’ laborers should be more flexible and diversified. In order to recognize whether an Uber-Driver is an employee or independent contractor, a new standard taking into account a range of factors should be established through collective negotiations between the participants of the sharing economy, and dialogues between members of the judiciary, academics, and the policymakers. Further, consumer protection law and personal data protection provisions should apply when sharing firms misuse their distinctive algorithmic management model to compete unfairly to the detriment of consumers and other users. Ex ante regulatory measures designed to protect the personal data of users should be introduced for deployment in the context of the sharing economy. When enforcing these rules, a balance should be struck ensuring free data flow that is essential to sharing firms’ innovation and competition, and the need to ensure the level of data security required to underpin a well-functioning sharing society.
Informalization and casualization have been twin meta-trends in African development over the last several decades. However these processes are also now being articulated with, and altered by, processes of virtual accumulation and informationalization, giving rise to what some have called Uberization. What does the rise of the ‘sharing’ economy mean for employment practices and labor relations and conditions in Africa? This paper examines the implications of this phenomenon through a case study of ‘ride sharing’ operations in Cape Town. It finds hollowing out of the formal sector and the creation of a new (in)formal sector, where drivers are engaged through use of a mobile phone applications, but are still liable for taxes to the state. This has led to the emergence of a new form of ‘virtual capital’ which extracts ‘value’ from assets it doesn’t own, and labor it doesn’t manage.
App-based transport has grown rapidly in Indonesia, and now provides work for over a million private commercial drivers. A large proportion of online drivers have joined self-organised community organisations that operate on a mutual aid logic, characterised by horizontal networks and strong social commitment. This mutual aid-based approach, which builds on a long tradition of associational behaviour in Indonesia’s large informal sector, has facilitated high levels of membership and member participation in small, geographically based driver communities. It is less well suited, however, to staging large-scale protests, negotiating with the app-based transport companies or engaging with government. Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork, this article argues that mutual aid-based organising has indeed proved an effective way to reach out to this group of non-traditional workers, but is not in itself enough to effect structural change. Ultimately, everyday forms of collectivism must be complemented by large-scale mobilisation, legal challenges and industrial action if drivers are to challenge the power of their pseudo-employers. To date, however, successful integration between driver communities and larger scale organisations has proven difficult in the face of external hostility and internal divisions.
By taking an historical perspective, and by drawing on our own empirical work from the UK in the 1980s and more recently, we argue three main things. First, we need to understand the particular conditions of ‘the gig economy’ as a concentrated form of a more general de-standardisation of employment that has brought multiple forms of insecure work. Second, although there is clamour and excitement about ‘the gig economy’ in fact it shares strong parallels with earlier forms of insecure enterprise. Third, while not uniform nor as yet fully empirically demonstrated, young adults’ encounters with the ‘gig economy’ and other aspects of the contemporary labour market (such as the ‘low-pay, no-pay’ cycle, self-employment, ‘zero-hours contracts’) appear to be typified by a lack of choice and control, and experiences of disempowerment, low pay, degraded work conditions, alienation, anxiety and insecurity. This stands at odds with more celebratory proclamations about ‘the gig economy’.
There is a new cast of self-proclaimed experts offering “how-to-succeed” resources aimed at coaching and inspiring gig workers. The emergence of such resources raises questions about the performance of expertise regarding the workings of algorithmic labor platforms. This article examines how Uber driver/bloggers—workers who are driving for Uber, while also creating Uber-related video content—perform expertise in driving for Uber on YouTube. I conducted in-depth interviews with 11 driver/bloggers and a qualitative analysis of the textual and video content published by driver/bloggers. Through the data, I show how driver/bloggers’ empowerment narratives became intertwined with their individualistic aspirations to develop dual careers as Uber drivers and YouTubers. Driver/bloggers employed three self-presentation strategies to perform expertise, including the construction of uniqueness and “know-how,” realness, and relatability with audiences. The study concludes with implications for our collective understandings of gig workers, expertise, and online curation across a wider platform ecology.
This article investigates the (dis)embeddedness of digital labour within the remote gig economy. We use interview and survey data to highlight how platform workers in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are normatively disembedded from social protections through a process of commodification. Normative disembeddedness leaves workers exposed to the vagaries of the external labour market due to an absence of labour regulations and rights. It also endangers social reproduction by limiting access to healthcare and requiring workers to engage in significant unpaid ‘work-for-labour’. However, we show that these workers are also simultaneously embedded within interpersonal networks of trust, which enable the work to be completed despite the low-trust nature of the gig economy. In bringing together the concepts of normative and network embeddedness, we reconnect the two sides of Polanyi’s thinking and demonstrate the value of an integrated understanding of Polanyi’s approach to embeddedness for understanding contemporary economic transformations.
This qualitative case study adopts a labour process analysis to unpack the distinctive features of capital’s control regimes in the food-delivery segment of the Australian platform-economy and assess labour agency in response to these. Drawing upon worker experiences with the Deliveroo and UberEATS platforms, it is shown how the labour process controls are multi-facetted and more than algorithmic management, with three distinct features standing out: the panoptic disposition of the technological infrastructure, the use of information asymmetries to constrain worker choice and the obfuscated nature of their performance management systems. Combined with the workers’ precarious labour market positions and the Australian political-economic context, only limited, mainly individual, expressions of agency were found.
This article explored motivations for allocating effort between “gig” and primary jobs using a sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk workers. We found that main job hour constraints, a commonly cited rationale for traditional moonlighting, were a motivation for men but not for women. Other factors affecting effort were also gender specific: Men were driven to spend more time on gig jobs to increase their incomes, while women were motivated by insecurity in their main job. Women, though not men, who were more depressed based on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale earned less in their gig economy job. Finally, higher risk aversion reduced income from gig work for men, but not women. We concluded that motivations for effort allocated between the primary and gig jobs differ from those identified in past literature as important for traditional moonlighting decisions.
Crowdwork, a new form of digitally mediated employment and part of the so-called gig economy, has the capacity to change the nature of work organization and to provide strategic value to workers, job providers, and intermediary platform owners. However, because crowdwork is temporary, large-scale, distributed, and mediated, its governance remains a challenge that often casts a shadow over its strategic value. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the making of value-adding crowdwork arrangements. Specifically, the paper explores crowdwork platform governance mechanisms and the relationships between these mechanisms and organizational value creation. Building on a comprehensive review of the extant literature on governance and crowdwork, we construct an overarching conceptual model that integrates control system and coordination system as two complementary mechanisms that drive crowdwork platform governance effectiveness and the consequent job provider benefits. Furthermore, the model accentuates the role of the degree of centralization and the degree of routinization as critical moderators in crowdwork platform governance. Overall, the paper highlights the potential of crowdwork to contribute not only to inclusion, fair wages and flexible work arrangements for workers but also to organizations’ value and competitive edge.
This qualitative industry case study evaluates job quality in the Australian platform-based food-delivery sector, one part of the growing gig economy where workers, as independent contractors, engage in digitally-enabled and controlled work that is remunerated on a piece rate basis. Using a multi-dimensional framework, we draw on worker accounts of economic security, autonomy and enjoyment to assess job quality. This study posits that to achieve a more refined picture of job quality, both objective and workers' subjective understandings of work need to be understood in the context of their respective 'fit' in terms of individual circumstances, labour market alternatives and the broader socio-political context. This multi-level analysis problematises individual accounts that risk overemphasising the positive elements of platform-based work. Moreover, rather than sitting neatly in a Post-or Neo-Fordist extension of job quality, the findings reveal that the gig economy is a new juncture in capitalist production, the consequences of which need to be taken seriously by regulators, scholars, workers and other relevant stakeholders.
What is the strategic value of flexible labor contracts to workers? To answer this question, we examine workers’ labor supply decisions when choosing among alternative work arrangements ranging from permanent and pensionable to fixed-term, shift work, zero-hour, and on-call to gigs. We then introduce the concept of real options as a framework in which to analyze contract valuation from the workers’ perspective. For a non-standard employment contract to have real option value, the contract must both lead to future choices and enable advantageous access to future opportunities. Using case studies from a diverse set of industries and guided by the real options framework, we examine when contract flexibility contains valuable real option characteristics for the utility maximizing worker, or the profit maximizing firm, or, surprisingly, both.
The history of domestic servants in Australia offers a provocative challenge to the prophets of the digital gig economy. Like home-based service workers today, 19th-and 20th-century domestic servants worked without the protection of minimum wages or hours, unions or independent arbitration and endured perpetually porous boundaries between their work and non-working time, low status and pay. This article argues that digital platforms are instruments of a fundamental shift in the governance of home-based service work, from a system of ‘dyadic’ to one of ‘structural’ domination. Intermediaries played virtually no role in the operation of the former system, but they play a fundamental role in the latter, as aggregators of data about workers’ responsiveness and speed that enable market-based disciplinary mechanisms to operate without reference to public law and across a much larger spatial context than was previously possible. Short-termism and the fungibility of workers are pre-eminent features of the gig economy model, processes which are inherently corrosive to quality caring relationships that demand an atmosphere of trust and non-instrumentality. The historical analysis that is advanced gives rise to a number of implications for the regulation of digital platforms, union responses and industry planning in the future. © 2018, Australian Labour and Employment Relations Association (ALERA), SAGE Publications Ltd, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC.
Both tax law and employment law incentivize engagers of labour to structure their workforce as a crowd of self-employed micro-entrepreneurs. Recent technological change and the rise of the gig economy have made it easier for agents to respond to these incentives, contributing to an increase in self-employment. In this article, we review the evidence on the rise of the gig economy in the UK and lay out a set of key principles to guide the reform of tax and employment law to better enable policy to meet its underlying objectives.
What are the distinctive traits that characterize work(ing) through (and for) a digital platform? In the burgeoning debate on the ‘gig economy’, a critical examination that comprehensively addresses this issue beyond specific examples or case studies is currently missing. This article uses labour process theory – an important Marxist approach in the study of relations of production in industrial capitalism – to address this gap. Supported by empirical illustrations from existing research, the article discusses the notions of ‘point of production’, emotional labour and control in the gig economy to argue that labour process theory offers a unique set of tools to expand our understanding of the way in which labour power comes to be transformed into a commodity in a context where the encounter between supply and demand of work is mediated by a digital platform, and where feedback, ranking and rating systems serve purposes of managerialization and monitoring of workers.
This article presents findings regarding collective organisation among online freelancers in middle‐income countries. Drawing on research in Southeast Asia and Sub‐Saharan Africa, we find that the specific nature of the online freelancing labour process gives rise to a distinctive form of organisation, in which social media groups play a central role in structuring communication and unions are absent. Previous research is limited to either conventional freelancers or ‘microworkers’ who do relatively low‐skilled tasks via online labour platforms. This study uses 107 interviews and a survey of 658 freelancers who obtain work via a variety of online platforms to highlight that Internet‐based communities play a vital role in their work experiences. Internet‐based communities enable workers to support each other and share information. This, in turn, increases their security and protection. However, these communities are fragmented by nationality, occupation and platform.
The search of mission critical software requirements for organization of medium or large sizes should be accompanied by a process that ensures that the scope will fully cover the needs of all areas of the organization. This can be achieved through the establishment of a work methodology that allows technical resources. These technical resources include analysts and stakeholders who will make unified decisions regarding the implementation of software requirements that fully address the total needs of the organization. These decisions also include aspects such as the technical assessment of requirement feasibility, identification of user expectations and analysis of the impact and risk at the time of implementation, which will enable stakeholders to make assertive decisions, oriented towards benefits for the organization.
On-demand labor platforms offer many in-person services, from ride-hailing to childcare. However, scholars have focused on ride-hailing, leading to a model of “Uberization” that entails the informalization of work. We argue that online carework platforms that match nannies and babysitters to families show the limits of this narrative. Based on a discourse analysis of carework platforms and interviews with workers using them, we illustrate that these platforms seek to formalize employment relationships through technologies that increase visibility. We argue that carework platforms are “cultural entrepreneurs” that create and maintain cultural distinctions between populations of workers, and institutionalize those distinctions into platform features. Ultimately, the visibility created by platforms does not realize the formalization of employment relationships, but does serve the interests of platform companies and clients and exacerbate existing inequalities for workers. As one of the first analyses of carework platforms, this study also points to gendered bias in the scholarly literature about the on-demand economy.
Multiple changes are influencing work, workplaces and workers in the US including shifts in the main types of work and the rise of the 'gig' economy. Work and workplace changes have coincided with a decline in unions and associated advocacy for improved safety and health conditions. Risk assessment has been the primary method to inform occupational and environmental health policy and management for many types of hazards. Although often focused on one hazard at a time, risk assessment frameworks and methods have advanced toward cumulative risk assessment recognizing that exposure to a single chemical or non-chemical stressor rarely occurs in isolation. We explore how applying cumulative risk approaches may change the roles of workers and employers as they pursue improved health and safety and elucidate some of the challenges and opportunities that might arise. Application of cumulative risk assessment should result in better understanding of complex exposures and health risks with the potential to inform more effective controls and improved safety and health risk management overall. Roles and responsibilities of both employers and workers are anticipated to change with potential for a greater burden of responsibility on workers to address risk factors both inside and outside the workplace that affect health at work. A range of policies, guidance and training have helped develop cumulative risk assessment for the environmental health field and similar approaches are available to foster the practice in occupational safety and health.
Although scholars are beginning to examine the experience of crowdsourced work, the extant literature and popular accounts paint an undersocialized picture of the labor process. This study explores how crowdsourced work remains socially embedded in the structure of an occupational community that exists exclusively online and in relation to a focal firm. The findings draw on interviews and observation of creative freelancers who designed, developed, and distributed digital goods in a crowdsourced work arrangement with an entertainment publisher. The online meeting places of an occupational community supported workers in their responses to three challenges of contingency: limited communication with the firm, sporadic and unpredictable compensation for their work, and unclear career trajectory. Within the community, freelancers found direction and meaning for their work, built collective strategies to smooth compensation, and illuminated a pathway from amateur to expert. As an occupational institution, the community also structured collaborations that transferred knowledge of industry standard practice and coordinated work in the absence of bureaucratic organization.
Building on an inductive, qualitative study of independent workers—people not affiliated with an organization or established profession—this paper develops a theory about the management of precarious and personalized work identities. We find that in the absence of organizational or professional membership, workers experience stark emotional tensions encompassing both the anxiety and fulfillment of working in precarious and personal conditions. Lacking the holding environment provided by an organization, the workers we studied endeavored to create one for themselves through cultivating connections to routines, places, people, and a broader purpose. These personal holding environments helped them manage the broad range of emotions stirred up by their precarious working lives and focus on producing work that let them define, express, and develop their selves. Thus holding environments transformed workers’ precariousness into a tolerable and even generative predicament. By clarifying the process through which people manage emotions associated with precarious and personalized work identities, and thereby render their work identities viable and their selves vital, this paper advances theorizing on the emotional underpinnings of identity work and the systems psychodynamics of independent work.
This article examines how taxi drivers adapt to, manipulate and fight against the rise of ride-hailing platforms like Didi Chuxing in China (which purchased Uber China). Chinese taxi drivers entered the on-demand labour platforms before private car drivers. Based on a nationwide data survey, the article argues that the technological power of Didi took shape by reinforcing inequalities facing informally employed taxi drivers prior to the emergence of ride-hailing apps. Drivers, far from being passive app users, have counteracted the changes in the work environment that resulted from platformisation in new and evolving ways, from strikes to algorithmic activism. This study suggests that online platforms are contested spaces where digital labour politics penetrate beyond the purported algorithmic power of the technology. The article enriches researches on on-demand labour by deconstructing the distinction between taxi drivers and private gig drivers and by pointing to the unfolding new grounds for digital labour activism.
This article explores three legal and regulatory concerns that primarily affect the supply side of marketing channels in the sharing economy. The sharing economy depends on resources and relationships between and among numerous networks and actors, including government regulators, emerging businesses, service providers, and end users who interact directly with the supply chain. Although providing economic prospects for companies and contractors, the sharing economy presents a variety of challenges for all parties, including the proper classification of the employment relationship; the use of, and access to, private property; and data privacy and security. The nascent state of theory and regulation means that companies and other stakeholders are potentially and unwarily assuming significant risk in the structure and implementation of the supply chain.
Paid work associated with digital platform businesses (in taxi, delivery, maintenance and other functions) embodies features which complicate the application of traditional labour regulations and employment standards. This article reviews the extent of this type of work in Australia, and its main characteristics. It then considers the applicability of existing employment regulations to these ‘gig’ jobs, citing both Australian and international legislation and case law. There is considerable uncertainty regarding the scope of traditional regulations, minimum standards and remedies in the realm of irregular digitally mediated work. Regulators and policymakers should consider how to strengthen and expand the regulatory framework governing gig work. The article notes five major options in this regard: enforcement of existing laws; clarifying or expanding definitions of ‘employment’; creating a new category of ‘independent worker’; creating rights for ‘workers’, not employees; and reconsidering the concept of an ‘employer’. We review the pros and cons of these approaches and urge regulators to be creative and ambitious in better protecting the minimum standards and conditions of workers in these situations.