Unfairness by Design? The Perceived Fairness of Digital Labor on Crowdworking Platforms
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Citations
MTurk Research: Review and Recommendations:
Incumbents and business model innovation for the sharing economy: Implications for sustainability
Pacifying the algorithm – Anticipatory compliance in the face of algorithmic management in the gig economy:
Sharing Economy, Sharing Responsibility? Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Age
Digital labour platforms and new forms of flexible work in developing countries: Algorithmic management of work and workers:
References
Amazon Mechanical Turk and the commodification of labour
2 Old Assumptions, New Work: The Opportunities and Challenges of Research on Nonstandard Employment
Employment with a Human Face: Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and Voice
Sweatshops and Respect for Persons
The Crowd is a Collaborative Network
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Frequently Asked Questions (13)
Q2. What are the future works in this paper?
Unfortunately, their study did not get into much depth to interconnect these lines, but the authors would argue that it would be fruitful for future research to further explore these relationships and to connect to the biographies behind the roles performed on the platforms. Thus, it would be interesting in future research to not only look at the workers ’ perspective in isolation, but also consider the framing of the platforms, which might have led to the current discourse and levels of expectation. Future studies could focus on attempts by digital microworkers to affect the governance of platforms from within ( cf. Gray, Suri, & Kulkarni, 2016 ; Irani & Silberman, 2016 ; Soule, 2012 ). For that hope to become reality, further critical evaluations of the institutional setting and dynamics of these platforms are necessary and practicable measures to ameliorate asymmetries and bolster the fairness of digital labor remain to be explored.
Q3. What is the role of the agent in the case of digital labor?
It should be noted that a governance mode reliant on rules and monitoring provides significant power to the agent setting these rules, who, in the case of digital labor, is the platform.
Q4. What is the role of employee voice in the analysis of digital labor fairness?
the motivation and voluntariness of workers may play a key role in the analysis of digital labor fairness, similar to offline microwork settings.
Q5. What is the role of procedural fairness in the context of digital labor?
Procedural fairness may also play a particularly important role in the context of digital labor as platforms may systematically limit the scope and outcomes of work negotiations.
Q6. What is the reason why workers are criticized for using a comparison with servitude?
The moral outrage expressed by these workers, such as using a comparison with servitude, may be aggravated by the fact that financial compensation is the only tangible measure of their work’s value.
Q7. What are the salient suggestions for enhancing platform-mediated fairness?
On an objective level, a number of respondents demand that platform-mediated work should be rewarded according to clear and transparent standards, such as national and regional minimal wages.
Q8. What are some community-driven initiatives to ‘rehumanize’ the workforce?
There are some community-driven initiatives to ‘rehumanize’ the workforce that support ‘turkers’ (AMT workers) both informationally and emotionally, as well as adding enhancements to the AMT interface, such as TurkerNation, Turkopticion, MTurkGrind, Reddit’s /r/HITsWorthTurkingFor and Dynamo (Irani & Silberman, 2013; Salehi et al., 2015).
Q9. What is the role of the platform provider in determining the fairness perceptions of digital labor?
By designing the platform, its features, processes, and affordances, the platform provider plays a key role in determining the antecedents and characteristics of (un)fairness in digital labor.
Q10. What is the definition of employee voice?
The ability of employees to raise concerns and negotiate the terms of an exchange has been termed employee voice (Van Buren & Greenwood, 2008).
Q11. What does the platform allow requesters to do?
The platform does, in fact, allow requesters to reject work deemed unsatisfactory and withhold payment with only minimal or no explanation provided.
Q12. What is the common form of sanctions for workers?
As is, sanctions are nearly exclusively applicable to workers, for example, by requesters rating unsatisfactory services or even withholding payment.
Q13. What would be the benefits of moving the governance mechanism of microworking platforms away from hierarchy and authority?
These workers would presumably benefit by moving the governance mechanismof microworking platforms away from hierarchy and authority toward social capital and trust (Adler, 2001; Ouchi, 1980).