Abstracts
Abstract
New labour market intermediaries, such as those using digital platforms, are challenging not only temporary help agencies but also traditional employer–employee relationships. A new conceptual scheme is proposed to distinguish between three functions: a) allocating the work; b) entering into a contract with the worker; and c) managing and organizing the work.
By using this scheme in a study of 11 intermediaries of knowledge-intensive work in Norway, we found that self-service platforms are insufficient and must be supplemented with active client involvement during several stages of the allocation process. Such active involvement is driven by the complexity of the assignments and the client’s uncertainty about job requirements. Regarding management of the work, our findings contrast both with the common perception of independent contractors’ work as self-directed and with the idea that an intermediary can use algorithms to manage work. In reality, the contractor's work is managed in very different ways.
Our paper outlines several approaches that combine some or all of the three functions and adds to the literature by describing new forms of triangular work arrangements.
Keywords:
- Labour market intermediaries,
- allocation,
- digital platforms,
- contractor
Résumé
Les nouveaux intermédiaires du marché du travail, comme ceux utilisant les plateformes numériques, remettent en question non seulement les agences de placement temporaire, mais aussi les relations traditionnelles entre employeur et employé. Un nouveau schéma conceptuel est proposé pour distinguer trois fonctions : a) répartir le travail ; b) conclure un contrat avec le travailleur; et c) gérer et organiser le travail.
En utilisant ce schéma dans une étude portant sur 11 intermédiaires des travailleurs du savoir en Norvège, nous avons constaté que les plateformes en libre-service sont insuffisantes et doivent être complétées par l’implication active du client à plusieurs étapes du processus de répartition. Cette implication active est motivée autant par la complexité des affectations que par l'incertitude du client quant aux exigences du poste. En ce qui concerne la gestion du travail, nos résultats contrastent avec la perception courante du travail des entrepreneurs indépendants comme étant autodirigé, ainsi qu’avec l’idée qu’un intermédiaire puisse utiliser des algorithmes pour gérer le travail. En réalité, le travail de l'entrepreneur est géré de plusieurs manières très différentes.
En somme, nous décrivons plusieurs approches qui combinent tout ou partie de ces trois fonctions. De plus, nous enrichissions la littérature en décrivant de nouvelles modalités de travail triangulaires.
Mots-clés :
- Intermédiaires du marché du travail,
- répartition,
- plateformes numériques,
- entrepreneur
Appendices
References
- Aguinis, Herman A. and Sola O. Lawal (2013). eLancing: A review and research agenda for bridging the science–practice gap. Human Resource Management Review 23: 6-17.
- Ajunwa, Ifeoma and Daniel Greene (2019). "Platforms at Work: Automated Hiring Platforms and Other New Intermediaries in the Organization of Work" In Work and Labor in the Digital Age. Published online: 14 Jun 2019; 61-91. DOI: 0.1108/S0277-283320190000033005.
- Aloisi, Antonio (2016). Commoditized Workers. Case Study Research on Labour Law Issues Arising from a Set of 'On-Demand/Gig Economy' Platforms (May 1, 2016). Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 37: (3), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2637485 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2637485
- Anderson, Tracy and Matthew Bidwell (2019). Outside insiders: Understanding the role of contracting in the careers of managerial workers. Organization Science 30(5): 1000-1029.
- Anderson, Tracy and Peter Cappelli (2020). Management without managers: Expanding our understanding of managing through the study of contractors. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3875634.
- Ashford, Susan J., Elisabeth George and Ruth Blatt (2007). Old assumptions, new work: The opportunities and challenges of research on nonstandard employment. I J. P. Walsh and A. Brief (eds.), The Academy of Management Annals 1: 6–117. Mahwah, NH: Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Atkinson, John (1984). Manpower strategies for flexible organisations. Personnel Management 16: 28-31.
- Barley, Stephen R. and Gideon Kunda (2004). Gurus, Hired Guns, and Warm Bodies: Itinerant Experts in a Knowledge Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Bonet, Rocio, Peter Cappelli and Monika Hamori (2013). Labor market intermediaries and the new paradigm for human resources. The Academy of Management Annals 7: 341-392.
- Bucher, Elianne Leontine, Peter Kalum Schou and Matthias Waldkirch, Matthias (2021). Pacifying the algorithm – Anticipatory compliance in the face of algorithmic management in the gig economy. Organization 28(1): 44–67.
- Cappelli, Peter and JR Keller (2013). Classifying work in the new economy. Academy of Management Review 38: 575-596.
- Claussen, Jørg, Pooyan Khashabi, Tobias Kretschmer and Marieke Seifried (2013). Knowledge work in the sharing economy: What drives project performance in online labor markets? Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3102865.
- Coiquaud, Urwana and Isabelle Martin (2019). Access to Justice for Gig Workers: Contrasting Responses from Canadian and American Courts. Relations Industrielles Industrial Relations 74(3): 577-588.
- Degryse, Christophe (2020). Du flexible au liquide : le travail dans l’économie de plateforme, Relations industrielles/industrial relations. 75(4): 660-683.
- De Stefano, Valerio, Ilda Durri, Charalampos Stylogiannis, and Mathias Wouters (2021). Platform work and the employment relations, ILO Working papers 27.
- Fabo, Brian, Miroslav Beblavý, Zakhary Kilhoffer and Karolien Leonards (2017). An overview of European platforms: Scope and business models: Publications Office of the European Union.
- Frenken, Koen and Juliet B. Schor (2017). Putting the sharing economy into perspective. A research agenda for sustainable consumption governance. Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Howcroft, Debra and Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn (2018). A Typology of Crowdwork Platforms. Work, Employment and Society.
- Jarrahi, Mohammed H., Wil Sutherland, Sarah Beth Nelson and Steve Sawyer (2020). Platformic management, boundary resources for gig work, and worker autonomy. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 29(1): 153-189.
- Jesnes, Kristin (2019). Employment Models of Platform Companies in Norway: A Distinctive Approach? Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies 9(S6). https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.v9iS6.114691
- Jesnes, Kristin and Sigurd M. N. Oppegaard (2020). Platform work in the Nordic models: Issues, cases and responses: Nordic Council of Ministers.
- Kalleberg Arne L. (2011). Good jobs, bad jobs: The rise of polarized and precarious employment systems in the United States, 1970s-2000s: Russell Sage Foundation.
- Kalleberg Arne L. and Michael Dunn (2016). Good jobs, bad jobs in the gig economy. LERA for Libraries 20.
- Kalleberg, Arne L., Jeremy Reynolds and Peter V. Marsden (2003). Externalizing employment: Flexible staffing arrangements in U.S. organizations. Social Science Research 32: 525–552.
- Kenney, Martin and John Zysman (2016). The rise of the platform economy. Issues in Science and Technology 32: 61.
- Kuhn, Kristine M. and Amir Maleki (2017). Micro-entrepreneurs, dependent contractors, and instaserfs: Understanding online labor platform workforces. Academy of Management Perspectives 31: 183-200.
- Lee Min Kyung, Daniel Kusbit and Evan Metsky (2015). Working with Machines: The Impact of Algorithmic and Data-Driven Management on Human Workers. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Seoul, Republic of Korea: ACM, 1603-1612.
- Lévesque, Christian, Peter Fairbrother and Nicolas Roby (2020). Digitalization and Regulation of Work and Employment: Introduction. Relations industrielles/industrial relations 75(4): 647-659
- McKeown, Tui (2016). A consilience framework: Revealing hidden features of the independent contractor. Journal of Management and Organization 22 (6): 779-796.
- Meijerink, Jeroen and Martijn Arets (2020). Online labor platforms versus temp agencies: What are the differences? Strategic HR Revew. DOI 10.1108/SHR-12-2020-0098.
- Meijerink, Jeroen and Anne Keegan (2019). Conceptualizing human resource management in the gig economy. Journal of Managerial Psychology 34(4): 214-232.
- Nakatsu Robbie T., Elissa B. Grossman and Charalambos Iacovou (2014). A taxonomy of crowdsourcing based on task complexity. Journal of Information Science 40: 823-834.
- Nesheim Torstein. (2004). 20 år med Atkinson-modellen: Åtte teser om 'den fleksible bedrift'. Sosiologisk tidsskrift 12: 3-24.
- Nesheim Torstein, Bjørnar Fahle and Anita E. Tobiassen (2014). When external consultants work on internal projects: exploring managerial challenges. Management and organization of temporary agency work. Routledge, 84-98.
- NOU (2021). Den norske modellen og fremtidens arbeidsliv. NOU 2021: 9.
- Oliver, Christine (1991). Strategic responses to institutional processes, Academy of Management Review 16: 145-179.
- Olsen, Karen M. (2006). The role of nonstandard workers in client-organizations. Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations 61(1), 93-117.
- Pfeffer, Jeffrey and James N. Baron (1988). Taking the workers back out: Recent trends in the structuring of employment. Research in Organizational Behavior 10: 257-303.
- Prassl, Jeremias (2018). Humans as a Service - The Promise and Perils of Work in the Gig Economy, London: Oxford University Press.
- Ratti, Luca (2016). Online Platforms and Crowdwork in Europe: a Two-Step Approach to Expanding Agency Work Provisions. Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal, 28 (2): 477-511.
- Roverud, Liv Helene, Tor Kristian Kjølvik, Torstein Nesheim and Kristin Jesnes (2017). Mellomledd i oppdragsmarkedet. Søkelys på arbeidslivet 34: 199-215.
- Steen, Jørgen Ingerød, Johan Røed Steen, Kristin Jesnes and Rolf Røtnes (2019). The knowledge-intensive platform economy in the Nordic countries. Nordic Innovation.
- Vallas, Steven and Juliet B. Schor (2020). What Do Platforms Do? Understanding the Gig Economy. Annual Review of Sociology 46: 273-294.
- Vallas, Steven (2019). Platform capitalism: What’s at stake for workers? New Labor Forum. SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA, 48-59.
- Wang, Tianyu and Fang Cooke (2021). Internet Platform Employment in China: Legal Challenges and Implications for Gig Workers through the Lens of Court Decisions. Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations 76(3): 541-564.