2022/07/04 by Pedro Mendonça, Nadia K. Kougiannou · 5 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Engineering · Social Sciences · #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Sharing Economy and Platforms #Transportation and Mobility Innovations
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/ntwe.12251
openalex publication_date 2022/07/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Abstract This article examines how gig economy platform companies, via algorithmic management, shape working conditions and collective organisation of food delivery couriers. Using qualitative data from one case study operating in a city in the United Kingdom, the study captures real‐time intraplatform unilateral changes in algorithmic management to provide increased flexibility for couriers. Findings show algorithmic changes generating a reconfigured, fragmented and compliant workforce. As a result, couriers demonstrate different interests and motivations to work for the company, where disparities in the demands for improved working conditions hindered efforts for collective organising. This article argues that intraplatform algorithmic changes create affordances that companies can exploit to concentrate power over labour even when conceding some control over the labour process.