TY - JOUR
T1 - Expanding the Locus of Resistance
T2 - Understanding the Co-constitution of Control and Resistance in the Gig Economy
AU - Cameron, Lindsey D.
AU - Rahman, Hatim
N1 - Funding Information:
History: This paper has been accepted for the Special Issue on Emerging Technologies and Organizing. Funding: The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by Stanford University and Uni-versity of Michigan to collect data.
Funding Information:
The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by Stanford University and University of Michigan to collect data.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 INFORMS
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Existing literature examines control and resistance in the context of service organizations that rely on both managers and customers to control workers during the execution of work. Digital platform companies, however, eschew managers in favor of algorithmically mediated customer control-that is, customers rate workers, and algorithms tally and track these ratings to control workers' future platform-based opportunities. How has this shift in the distribution of control among platforms, customers, and workers affected the relationship between control and resistance? Drawing on workers' experiences from a comparative ethnography of two of the largest platform companies, we find that platform use of algorithmically mediated customer control has expanded the service encounter such that organizational control and workers' resistance extend well beyond the execution of work. We find that workers have the most latitude to deploy resistance early in the labor process but must adjust their resistance tactics because their ability to resist decreases in each subsequent stage of the labor process. Our paper, thus, develops understanding of resistance by examining the relationship between control and resistance before, during, and after a task, providing insight into how control and resistance function in the gig economy. We also demonstrate the limitations of platforms' reliance on algorithmically mediated customer control by illuminating how workers' everyday interactions with customers can influence and manipulate algorithms in ways that platforms cannot always observe.
AB - Existing literature examines control and resistance in the context of service organizations that rely on both managers and customers to control workers during the execution of work. Digital platform companies, however, eschew managers in favor of algorithmically mediated customer control-that is, customers rate workers, and algorithms tally and track these ratings to control workers' future platform-based opportunities. How has this shift in the distribution of control among platforms, customers, and workers affected the relationship between control and resistance? Drawing on workers' experiences from a comparative ethnography of two of the largest platform companies, we find that platform use of algorithmically mediated customer control has expanded the service encounter such that organizational control and workers' resistance extend well beyond the execution of work. We find that workers have the most latitude to deploy resistance early in the labor process but must adjust their resistance tactics because their ability to resist decreases in each subsequent stage of the labor process. Our paper, thus, develops understanding of resistance by examining the relationship between control and resistance before, during, and after a task, providing insight into how control and resistance function in the gig economy. We also demonstrate the limitations of platforms' reliance on algorithmically mediated customer control by illuminating how workers' everyday interactions with customers can influence and manipulate algorithms in ways that platforms cannot always observe.
KW - Algorithms
KW - Control resistance
KW - Gig economy
KW - Labor process theory
KW - Lyft
KW - Service work
KW - Uber
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85125586571&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1287/ORSC.2021.1557
DO - 10.1287/ORSC.2021.1557
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85125586571
SN - 1047-7039
VL - 33
SP - 38
EP - 58
JO - Organization Science
JF - Organization Science
IS - 1
ER -