Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Algorithmic management refers to the use of software algorithms to assume core managerial functions such as coordination and control. These “faceless” mechanisms originated in platform-based work contexts (e.g., food delivery, ride-hailing), where algorithms allocate tasks, evaluate performance, and enforce sanctions. More recently, algorithmic management has also diffused into traditional work contexts (i.e., with traditional management philosophies and hierarchies), such as Amazon warehouses. While in platform-based work contexts algorithms frequently substitute human managers, in traditional work contexts they tend to complement rather than fully replace managerial roles. Generally, this mode of management has profound implications. For workers, it often creates a technical corset: algorithmic decisions are opaque, difficult to contest, and leave little room for discretion. Workers respond in different ways: some engage in resistance-like practices (e.g., strikes, workarounds), which can result in penalties such as platform exclusion. Others adopt proactive and constructive strategies, such as job crafting, defined as self-initiated changes to tasks, relationships, or the cognitive framing of work, in order to increase autonomy, meaning, and well-being. The dissertation pursues three objectives: (1) to analyze the translatability of algorithmic management mechanisms across platform-based and traditional work contexts, (2) to investigate job crafting as a behavioral response to algorithmic management, and (3) to examine the implications for managers, whose tasks are increasingly subject to substitution or reconfiguration by algorithms. Overall, this dissertation advances our understanding of the interplay between algorithmic control and coordination and human agency. In addition, it contributes to shaping the future of work in society.:TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................................................................I TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................................... II PART I: SYNOPSIS OF THE DISSERTATION .....................................................................................................................1 1 MOTIVATION ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Algorithmic Management-related Work Contexts ......................................................................................................3 2.2 Algorithmic Management and its Mechanisms ............................................................................................................4 2.3 Worker-related Implications of and Behavioral Responses to Algorithmic Management ........................ 6 2.4 Job Crafting as Specific Behavioral Response ................................................................................................................7 2.5 Managerial Implications of Algorithmic Management ............................................................................................. 9 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................................................. 10 4 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION ............................................................................................................................................... 11 5 SUMMARY OF THE PAPERS .............................................................................................................................................................. 14 5.1 Paper #1: Context Matters: The Use of Algorithmic Management Mechanisms in Platform, Hybrid, and Traditional Work Contexts ......................................................................................................................................................... 14 5.2 Paper #2: Mind the App: Platform Workers’ Algorithmic Management Experiences .............................. 17 5.3 Paper #3: The Dynamic Relationships between Algorithmic Management and Workers’ Occupational Well-being: A Job Demands-Resources Perspective ..................................................................................... 19 5.4 Paper #4: Job Crafting in the Era of Algorithmic Management ......................................................................... 22 5.5 Paper #5: Crafting the Clock: A Time-based Perspective on the Job Crafting Practices among Algorithmically Managed Quick Commerce Workers ............................................................................................................. 26 5.6 Paper #6: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Managerial Work: A Theoretical Review of Managerial Roles ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 6 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 34 6.1 Contributions to Research................................................................................................................................................... 35 6.2 Practical Implications ........................................................................................................................................................... 36 6.3 Limitations and Directions for Future Research ....................................................................................................... 37 7 CONCLUDING REMARKS ................................................................................................................................................................... 37 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 38 APPENDIX...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 47 PART II: PAPERS OF THE DISSERTATION .................................................................................................................... 56 Paper #1 Context Matters: The Use of Algorithmic Management Mechanisms in Platform, Hybrid, and Traditional Work Contexts ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 57 Paper #2 Mind the App: Platform Workers’ Algorithmic Management Experiences .......................................................... 68 Paper #3 The Dynamic Relationships between Algorithmic Management and Workers’ Occupational Well-being: A Job Demands-Resources Perspective..................................................................................................................................................... 85 Paper #4 Job Crafting in the Era of Algorithmic Management..................................................................................................... 101 Paper #5 Crafting the Clock: A Time-based Perspective on the Job Crafting Practices among Algorithmically Managed Quick Commerce Workers ........................................................................................................................................................ 119 Paper #6 Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Managerial Work: A Theoretical Review of Managerial Roles.............................................................................159
Author: Lippert, Isabell
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7082416619