Paper Number
2080
Paper Type
Complete Research Paper
Abstract
Algorithmic control (AC) is an emerging phenomenon shaping the future of work. Besides its central role in many platform organizations, AC has been steadily making its way into non-platform organizations. While existing studies provide important insights into workers’ legitimacy judgments of individual AC forms, our understanding of how different combinations of such forms are judged by workers remains limited. Our study therefore adopts a configurational perspective and uses fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to analyze data from platform and non-platform workers. The results reveal 14 configurations of AC leading to positive worker legitimacy judgments in terms of autonomy, fairness, and privacy. The identified configurations show similarities across work contexts and also point to nuanced contextual differences and major differences across legitimacy dimensions. For example, we find that positive privacy judgments require the absence of several AC forms. Moreover, our results suggest a detrimental effect of workplace isolation on workers’ legitimacy judgments.
Recommended Citation
Hirsch, Felix; Gräubig, Dix Maik; Wiener, Martin; and Benlian, Alexander, "Algorithmic Control Configurations: A Comparative Study of Platform and Non-Platform Workers' Legitimacy Judgments" (2024). ECIS 2024 Proceedings. 12.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2024/is_governance/track21_is_govern/12
Algorithmic Control Configurations: A Comparative Study of Platform and Non-Platform Workers' Legitimacy Judgments
Algorithmic control (AC) is an emerging phenomenon shaping the future of work. Besides its central role in many platform organizations, AC has been steadily making its way into non-platform organizations. While existing studies provide important insights into workers’ legitimacy judgments of individual AC forms, our understanding of how different combinations of such forms are judged by workers remains limited. Our study therefore adopts a configurational perspective and uses fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to analyze data from platform and non-platform workers. The results reveal 14 configurations of AC leading to positive worker legitimacy judgments in terms of autonomy, fairness, and privacy. The identified configurations show similarities across work contexts and also point to nuanced contextual differences and major differences across legitimacy dimensions. For example, we find that positive privacy judgments require the absence of several AC forms. Moreover, our results suggest a detrimental effect of workplace isolation on workers’ legitimacy judgments.
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