Two conflicting hats: Using a platform trade association to resolve gig work role conflicts
Date and time: 15 June 2021, 15:00 – 16:00 CEST (UTC +2)
Speaker: Claire Ingram Bogusz, Uppsala University
Title: Two conflicting hats: Using a platform trade association to resolve gig work role conflicts
Zoom: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/69560887455
Meeting ID: 695 6088 7455
Password: 755440
Watch the recorded presentation:
Abstract: Platform organisations sometimes face a conflict between their financial goals, in which matchmaking at any cost is the goal, and norms not captured in market information. In the case of a gig work platform, the most significant of these is concern that gig work normalises a “day labourer” model, in which workers face precarious and uncertain employment and often low wages. Gig work platforms not only have to respond to these concerns (and associated regulations) but also build a financially viable business based on multi-sided matching, whether algorithmic or otherwise. In this presentation, I will discuss the role of the platform trade organisation as a form of meta organisation that allows gig work platforms in Sweden to come to terms with, and resolve, the need to “wear two (conflicting) hats”. The first of these is one in which worker protections are paramount, and the second one in which maximising the number of (revenue-generating) matches, no matter the conditions, are the priority.
Bio: Claire Ingram Bogusz is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at Uppsala University. She conducts empirical research into how mediation through code-based technologies (e.g. code itself, digital platforms, machine learning, AI, digital automation) changes how we work, how organising occurs, and the meanings we attribute to organisational structures, especially given unequal access and understandings. She is also affiliated with the House of Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics and is a research advisor to the independent venture capital investor Industrifonden.