Gig platforms and technology-driven management – An overview of algorithms driving platform labor

Abstract

The rapid growth of the platform-based economy, universally identified as the “gig economy”, in the last decade has paved the way for scholarly discussion on various aspects of platform labor, specifically the use of technology in managing the workforce by such organizations. This paper evaluates Algorithmic Management(AM), also termed Technology Driven Management (TDM) interchangeably, and its use for labor management on gig platforms. TDM is a fundamental pillar of any platform-based organization which they use in managing hundreds of workers spread across regions and time zones, subsequently shaping their performance and the intended outcome of the labor working on their platform. Furthermore, the categorization of TDM by different researchers is explored, in light of which a new framework for TDM categorization is proposed for gig platforms. The need to explore the algorithm as a replacement for traditional roles in the firm is emphasized, as compared to an existing perspective as only the replacement for the supervisory layer of the firms. This review has implications for the burgeoning utilization of TDM particularly in the gig economy perspective and generally the broader market.