Browsing by Subject "gig economy"

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    Gig Working Relationships: A Grounded Theory Study on the Dynamics between Gig Workers and Digital Platforms in the U.S.
    (2024-05) Zhang, Panpan
    As the gig economy continues to grow, the relationships between gig workers and digital platforms become increasingly complex. Acknowledging a gap in our understanding of these dynamics, this dissertation aims to develop a theoretical framework of the psychological mechanisms underpinning gig working relationships in the U.S. context. By adopting a grounded theory method, this study conducted interviews with 19 gig workers across various sectors to explore their work experiences and perceptions of their psychological contracts and relationships with their platforms. Based on the findings, this study introduces a theoretical framework that delineates the establishment and ongoing refinement of gig working relationships, driven by the interplay of reciprocity mechanisms and power relations. This framework outlines how gig workers navigate power imbalances and accept the authority of digital platforms in the formation of their working relationships. A critical finding is the shift in gig workers’ perceptions regarding their non-employee status. Initially perceived as an entry cost, this status gradually becomes recognized as a potential source of exclusion, which marks a profound transition in gig workers’ understanding of their position in the gig economy’s power structure. This study advocates for increased human resource development (HRD) focus on creating training and development programs tailored for gig workers, as well as on refining algorithmic management practices, with the goal of systematically developing the gig workforce and fostering sustainable growth of the gig economy.
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    Organizing the Fissured Workplace: The Fight to Cultivate Collective Worker Power in an Era of Nonstandard Work
    (2019-11) Franco, Lucas
    The goal of this dissertation is to explain variation in the organizing strategies unions in the US and Norway have pursued in response to the rise of nonstandard employment models. Nonstandard employment models, such as franchising, subcontracting and independent contracting, fissure workplaces creating ambiguities in the employer/employee relationship, barriers to employer accountability and increased worker precarity. They also make it difficult for workers to collectively organize into unions to improve their plight. Despite these challenges, union movements across advanced industrialized countries are investing in ambitious organizing campaigns to cultivate collective worker power and improve the lives of nonstandard workers. The strategies unions have embraced to organize nonstandard workers have varied widely despite common challenges. The goal of this dissertation is to explain this variation. To do this, I develop an interdisciplinary, cross-national and cross-industry study of nonstandard worker organizing campaigns. I argue that strategic variation is explained by three factors. First, differences in existing labor market institutions explain cross-national strategic variation. The labor market context incentivizes campaigns of institutional conformity in Norway and campaigns of institutional reform in the US. Second, variation in organizing responses across industries is explained by differences in the nature of workplace fissuring. Nonstandard employment models fissure workplaces in distinct ways producing unique organizing challenges. Third, subnational variation in union responses across the US is explained by differences in political opportunity structures. Ultimately, this dissertation reveals the challenges and opportunities workers face in building collective power in a rapidly changing global economy.