Between automation and gamification: forms of labour control on crowdwork platforms

Abstract

Algorithmic management is a core concept to analyse labour control on online labour platforms. It runs the risk, however, of oversimplifying the existing variety and complexity of control forms. In order to provide a basis for further research, this article develops a typology of labour control forms within crowdwork and discusses how they influence perceptions of working conditions. It identifies the two most relevant forms of labour control in crowdwork: direct control mainly takes the form of automated output control, while indirect control aiming at creating motivation and commitment is mainly exerted through ranking and reputation systems (gamification). The article shows that these forms of control and their combination are linked with very different ways of how platform workers perceive working conditions on platforms. In addition, the analysis shows significant differences regarding the perception of working conditions between those who work on platforms in addition to a regular employment as opposed to those who are self-employed and rely more strongly, if not fully, on their income from platform work. The analysis is based on qualitative and quantitative research on crowdwork platforms. In particular, it builds on an online survey conducted with 1,131 crowdworkers active on different types of platforms.

HRM models of online labor platforms: Strategies of market and corporate logics

“…Work processes are referred to here when talking about actual work performance, such as driving, repairing, and translating. Work process rules are direct instructions to workers, like working times, routes, or quality standards (e.g., Kuhn and Maleki, 2017;Krzywdzinski and Gerber, 2022). Work process rules express whether OLPs manage work performances and implementations of work and thus take responsibility for produced services in addition to labor intermediation.…”

“…In others, they are references in workers' competence profiles. Ratings can also determine workers' positions in OLPs' inner rankings and affect their possibilities to get new tasks (e.g., Kahancová et al, 2020;Krzywdzinski and Gerber, 2022). Thus, ratings can be used to support market logic to promote workers' self-marketing or corporation logic when utilized for monitoring, sanctioning, or creating hierarchies.…”

Tension between autonomy and dependency: insights into platform work of professional (video)bloggers

“…The platform economy and platform work has attracted enormous attention from both the research and policy communities, with the emergence of online platforms now seen as one of the most significant social and economic developments of recent years (Kenney and Zysman, 2016;Rahman and Thelen, 2019). Numerous qualitative and quantitative studies have provided valuable insights into the diverse forms and features of platform-mediated work (see for example Drahokoupil and Vandaele, 2021;Krzywdzinski and Gerber, 2021). Nonetheless, this research has focused almost exclusively on platforms that match the supply of and demand for paid work, such as food delivery, ride hailing, cleaning and data entry activities.…”

“…Rather, with their digital infrastructures and automated decisionmaking processes via algorithms, they significantly structure work processes by allocating tasks to workers and controlling their completion via digital monitoring and control (for example, evaluation and ranking systems or even screen recordings). The fact that such control is partly automated has led to it being dubbed as 'algorithmic management' (Rosenblat and Stark 2016;Rani and Furrer, 2020;Krzywdzinski and Gerber, 2021). Research has devoted considerable attention to how platform algorithms structure work (Krzywdzinski and Gerber, 2021).…”

Advancing arguments on technology, work and the body, in the global political economy

“…Much of the debate on platform economy, gig work and algorithmic management has been generated by researchers outside of the Global Political Economy discipline, from Business, Law, Humanities and Geography Schools. Without citing all of the authors who are important within this field (due to an unfortunate lack of space), researchers in gig work research include, Debra Howcroft (see Howcroft and Bergvall-Kåreborn, 2019), Ursula Huws (see Huws, 2017), Valerio De Stefano (see De Stefano, 2016, Jamie Woodcock (see Woodcock, 2021), Mark Graham and Mohammad Anwar (see Graham and Anwar, 2019), Adam Badger (see van Doorn and Badger, 2020), Martin Krzywdzinski, and Christine Gerber (see Krzywdzinski and Gerber, 2021), Miriam Cherry and Antonio Aloisi (see Cherry and Aloisi, 2017), and already mentioned Phoebe V. Moore and Simon Joyce. To name a few on worker tracking and algorithmic management research are Jeremias Adams-Prassl (see Adams-Prassl, 2019), Phoebe V. Moore (2019aMoore ( , 2019b, Simon Schaupp (see Schaupp, 2022) and Joanna Bronowicka (see Bronowicka, 2019).…”