How Organizations Shape Platform-Based Gig Work: The Case of Instacart

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 14: Platforms and Participants

Abstract

Over the past few decades, workers’ ties to organizations have become increasingly tenuous. The rise of digital labor platforms appears to have further weakened the links between workers and traditional organizations. However, many platforms facilitate gig work that occurs in or around organizational settings, such as food delivery and shopping for customers at grocery stores. Although researchers have produced numerous accounts of labor control and identity in platform-based work, far less is known about the relationship between gig workers and the organizations with which they regularly come into contact. Drawing on participant-observation research and in-depth interviews with Instacart shoppers and grocery store employees, this article examines how the social and material infrastructure of organizational settings can affect platform-based workers. Sometimes Instacart shoppers can rely on grocery store workers to help them meet the app’s aggressive goal times. In other cases, even well-meaning grocery store employees can slow shoppers down, resulting in feelings of tension and stress for gig workers. And in some instances, the intersection of store and platform policies create problems that neither the store nor the platform can resolve, forcing shoppers to forego wages or perform extra unpaid work to get back on track. This study highlights the importance of examining how algorithmic management is enacted within organizational settings. As organizations become increasingly reliant on platform-based workers to advance their goals, it is essential for researchers to examine how organizational rules and roles can shape gig workers’ wages, cross-organizational relationships, and subjective experiences of work.

Authors

• Chelsea Wahl, St. John Fisher University

• Benjamin Shestakofsky, Cornell University