Search results

Algorithms are widely used to manage various activities in the gig economy. Online car-hailing platforms, such as Uber and Lyft, are exemplary embodiments of such algorithmic management, where drivers are managed by algorithms for task allocation, work monitoring and performance evaluation. Despite employing substantially, the platforms face the challenge of maintaining and fostering drivers' work engagement. Thus, this study aims to examine how the algorithmic management of online car-hailing platforms affects drivers' work engagement.

Drawing on the transactional theory of stress, the authors examined the effects of algorithmic monitoring and fairness on online car-hailing drivers' work engagement and revealed the mediation effects of challenge-hindrance appraisals. Based on survey data collected from 364 drivers, the authors' hypotheses were examined using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The authors also applied path comparison analyses to further compare the effects of algorithmic monitoring and fairness on the two types of appraisals.

This study finds that online car-hailing drivers' challenge-hindrance appraisals mediate the relationship between algorithmic management characteristics and work engagement. Algorithmic monitoring positively affects both challenge and hindrance appraisals in online car-hailing drivers. However, algorithmic fairness promotes challenge appraisal and reduces hindrance appraisal. Consequently, challenge and hindrance appraisals lead to higher and lower work engagement, respectively. Further, the additional path comparison analysis showed that the hindering effect of algorithmic monitoring exceeds its challenging effect, and the challenge-promoting effect of algorithmic fairness is greater than the algorithm's hindrance-reducing effect.

This paper reveals the underlying mechanisms concerning how algorithmic monitoring and fairness affect online car-hailing drivers' work engagement and fills the gap in the research on algorithmic management in the context of online car-hailing platforms. The authors' findings also provide practical guidance for online car-hailing platforms on how to improve the platforms' algorithmic management systems.

This paper aims to explore the prevalence of undeclared activities conducted on digital labour platforms, and then to discuss what policies are likely to be more effective in order to prevent the growth of the informal activities on these platforms.

To depict the profile of the digital worker conducting undeclared activities, the sectors where undeclared activities are more prevalent and the effectiveness of deterrent policies, data are reported from 2019 Special Eurobarometer survey covering the European Union member states and the UK.

The finding is that 13% of undeclared activities are conducted on digital labour platforms. This practice is more common amongst men, those married or remarried, those living in small/middle towns, in sectors such as repairs/renovations, selling goods/services, assistance for dependant persons, gardening and help moving house. The higher the perceived sanction, the lower the likelihood of undertaking undeclared activities on digital labour platforms. Intriguing, a higher risk of detection is associated with a higher likelihood to use digital labour platform for undeclared activities.

The attitudes toward risk can be interpreted closer to the gaming context, and not to the working environment, looking at platform workers as being involved in a state versus individual game. Policy makers should consider improving the correspondence of laws and regulations between countries and offering operational assistance for suppliers and consumers.

This is the first paper to explore the prevalence of undeclared activities conducted on digital labour platforms and to outline the policy measures required to reduce this practice.

High-quality employee motivation can contribute to an organization’s long-term success by supporting employees’ well-being and performance. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research concerning how organizations motivate workers in non-traditional work contexts. In the algocratic context of the gig-economy, the purpose of this paper is to understand the role that technology can play in motivating workers.

Drawing on the self-determination theory, job-characteristic theory and enterprise social media research, this conceptual paper explores how the architecture of the digital labor platforms underlying the gig-economy (and the characteristics of jobs mediated through these IT artifacts) can impact key antecedents of self-motivation.

Combining theory and empirical evidence, this paper develops a mid-range theory demonstrating how organizations can support the self-motivation of gig-workers through the thoughtful design of their digital labor platforms and the integration of two social media tools (namely, social networking and social badging).

This paper answers calls for psychologically-based research exploring the consequences of gig-work as well as research studying the impacts of advanced technologies in interaction with work contexts on motivation. In theorizing around a large set of social-contextual variables operating at different levels of analysis, this paper demonstrates that individual-level motivation can be influenced by both task-based and organizational-level factors, in addition to individual-level factors.

The proposed theory provides novel insight into how gig-organizations can leverage widely accessible social media technology to motivate platform workers in the absence of human supervision and support. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The paper brings Foucauldian analysis of neoliberal governmentality in the discussion on the new forms of labour control within digital labour platforms. The aim of the paper is to reveal the effect of control mechanisms employed by platforms on “entrepreneurial self” within the context of work relations.

Drawing on in-depth interviews, conducted with workers under different service categories, the author undertook an extended case study of Armut.com, a digital labour platform operating in Turkey.

The study finds that competitive mechanisms employed by the platform have a considerable effect on worker self-commercialisation and self-rationalisation. This is dependent on different control mechanisms employed by the platform, based on different platform working models.

The research brings the worker subjectivities to the discussion of control within the scope of digital labour platforms. By undertaking a rare empirical study on this issue, it contributes to the theory of entrepreneurial self within the scope of work relations.

This paper aims to examine the role of technology in shaping the interplay between intimate and economic relations in collaborative consumer networks (CCNs).

This research is based on a three-year participatory netnographic and ethnographic field study of hosts, guests and community members within the Airbnb home-sharing network in New Zealand. The data consist of interviews, online and offline participant observations and brief discussions onsite (large-scale Airbnb events, host meetups and during Airbnb stays).

The findings reveal how technologies shape the relational work of home-sharing between intimate and economic institutions through grooming, bundling, brokerage, buffering and social edgework. This paper proposes a framework of triadic relational work enacted by network actors, involving complex exchange structures.

This study focusses on a single context – a market-mediated home-sharing platform. The findings may not apply to other contexts of economic and social exchanges.

The study reveals that the construction of specific relational packages by Airbnb hosts using their digital technologies pave a path for home-sharing to skirt the norms of the home as a place of intimacy and the market as a place for economics. This allows these two spheres to flourish with little controversy.

By augmenting Zelizer’s relational work, this study produces theoretical insights into the agentic role of technology in creating and stabilising a CCN.

This empirical study of one of China's biggest take-out platforms during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) explores the legal rights and protections for gig workers' availability time.

The study uses a quantitative survey and interviews of take-out platform riders, investigating the intrinsic features of working time and availability time. Labour law professionals and scholars are interviewed to verify the findings.

The availability time of take-out platform riders is difficult to define under the current legal working-time framework. There is a need for a specific method to define availability time, considering the multiple factors in gig-take-out-sector work. One option is to apply working-time regulations to availability time but to use a proportionality test to preserve flexibility whilst the platform offers protection to the riders during that time.

Pandemic-related travel restrictions limited the authors' study to one take-out platform in Beijing. Future studies should cover a wider geographical area and multiple take-out platforms.

The study uniquely evaluates the availability time of take-out platform riders to determine appropriate public policy and theoretical implications. It proposes a proportionality test regulating riders' availability. In particular, the workers being “at leisure” during availability time could mitigate the platform's liability for full remuneration or moderate the ceiling of working hours. The occupational health and safety of riders must be fully protected, as they are still “at the platform's disposal” at that time.

While digital labour platforms are being increasingly studied across the Global South, the existing literature does not conceptualise the theoretical link between such platforms and socio-economic development. This paper theorises such a link drawing on the notion of institutional voids defined, as in Khanna and Palepu (2010), as “the absence of intermediaries to efficiently connect buyers and sellers” in an economy. We frame digital labour platforms as means to fill institutional voids, seeking to create “development” in the form of earning opportunities in contexts of deprivation.

We draw on an interpretive case study of an online work training project in a deprived region of Pakistan, where members of marginalised communities were trained to become freelancers for global digital labour platforms. We use the notion of market-enabling institutions aimed at filling institutional voids as a lens to study the project's declared goals, examining the extent to which these were met in practice for the workers who participated in the training.

Our analysis reveals three types of market-enabling institutions–credibility enhancers, aggregators and distributors, and transaction facilitators–through which digital labour platforms seek to fill institutional voids. However, workers' narratives reveal that institutional voids are only partially filled by these platforms, and their perpetuation results in diverse forms of power asymmetries leveraged by clients and owners of the platforms. We also observe the formation of solidarity networks among workers, networks that are intra-familial and societal rather than characterised by formal unionisation.

The paper offers a novel perspective to theorise the link between digital labour and socio-economic development. Applying such a perspective in a Global South context, it also finds the limits of the digital platforms' institutional void-filling potential, highlighting the emergence of power asymmetries and the emerging formation of worker solidarity networks.

The unique employment status of gig workers as independent contractors and their impact on consumers provide an important opportunity for the current research to understand gig workers' perceptions of their employment and how that affects job performance outcomes. These gig workers serve as the frontline service providers for platforms like Airbnb hosts, Lyft drivers and Wag walkers performing customer-facing services. However, their status as gig workers, not traditional employees, presents challenges to platforms. The purpose of this research is to gain insights into the profiles of gig workers, examine the challenges platforms have in retaining high-performing workers and provide a research agenda on this important group of frontline service providers.

Incorporating variables deemed important in examining self-determination theory, a large-scale data collection via an online survey was administered, yielding 447 completed surveys. A two-step cluster analysis procedure was conducted to categorize sample respondents into four distinct groups.

Four groups emerged from the cluster analysis, labeled “Ambivalent Outsider,” “Competent Cog,” “Independent Insider” and “Committed Comrade.” The results suggest that there are significant differences across all variables and groups based on gig worker responses and self-reported customer satisfaction scores. The gig worker profiles developed are then utilized to formulate research propositions that are the basis for the research agenda presented.

The goal of many collaborative consumption platforms may be to hire Independent Insiders or Committed Comrades; however, that is difficult to attain with every hire. Thus, the segmentation results provide insights for companies seeking to hire, retain, and successfully motivate their workforce.

Given the freedom and flexibility afforded to gig workers, and the importance they have on the service experience for customers, understanding their own perceptions of employment and performance is critical to ensuring a positive experience for all parties. Research on collaborative consumption has largely focused on consumers or the management of freelance workers with only tangential applicability to gig work. This paper offers a comprehensive research agenda for gig worker management based on the typology of gig workers created.

This paper examines the circumstantial state of mediated work to develop a conceptual framework exemplifying the determinants of voice of workers in triangular employment relationships. These workers are in work context involving two or more firms – agency/platform and clients/client firms.

Paralleling employee voice research in the triangular employment relationship context, the authors theorised the influencing forces at four levels to propose 12 distinct antecedents of triangular workers' voice. External level (2) – legal employer ambiguity and legal regulation and protection; employment context level (3) – availability and presence, assignment duration and autonomy; firm level (3) – institutional complexity, cost and control and governance structure conflicts; individual level (4) – perceived relative equity, voice skill, self-identity and transition opportunity.

The triangular workers' voice determinants framework provides a comprehensive outlook on how the external, employment context, firm and individual forces influence voice of workers in triangular employment relationships.

Emanating from the framework are propositions that can be empirically tested for validation. Hence, as with conceptual papers, this paper is limited by non-empirical testing.

Managers of workers in these employment relationships should be cognizant of the different levels of forces that can influence their voice.

This paper contributes to the employee voice literature by presenting a four-level framework that demonstrate a holistic view of how triangular workers' voice is influenced.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of virtual community trust on work engagement and person–job fit in the context of digital work platforms. The emergence of the platform economy is changing the work environment fundamentally. It has enabled the appearance of alternative work arrangements, such as temporary organizing and the increase of independent contracting, also among highly specialized knowledge workers.

Data were collected with an online survey and used to test the relationships between virtual community trust, work engagement and person–job fit. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to test the goodness of a theoretical model.

Based on the data of 127 experts contracting on digital work platforms, virtual community trust positively affects both work engagement and person–job fit. In addition, the relationship between work engagement and person–job fit in the context of digital work platforms is significant and positive.

This study shows that trust among independent contractors working on digital platforms is important for work engagement and that platform providers can improve work performance through person–job fit by assisting in the creation of trust among members of their platforms.

The research literature on knowledge work in the changing context of work is scarce, and the role of trust in the context of digital work platforms needs clarification. This paper tests a theoretical model on the effects of trust among highly skilled experts working in the digital platform context as independent contractors and provides evidence for the importance of building trust among members of a virtual work community.