scholarly journals Co-creation in Macrotask Knowledge Work on Online Labor Platforms

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Seppänen ◽  
Clay Spinuzzi ◽  
Seppo Poutanen ◽  
Tuomo Alasoini

Nordic working life studies have mostly focused on the precarious aspects of work mediated via online labor platforms. We follow a different approach and examine the potential of such work to benefit professionals by enhancing their job quality and learning. This qualitative, practice-based study applies the concept ‘co-creation’ to examine how a social form of creating value takes place in Upwork macrotask projects. It then investigates how platform features shape opportunities for co-creation. The data comprise interviews of 15 freelancers residing in Finland. The findings suggest that co-creation is possible in macrotask projects, but the platform does not seem to actively support co-creation. This paper provides insights into the discussion of job quality at platform work and how co-creation on platforms might be developed to support the Nordic labor market model.

Author(s):  
Jan Ch Karlsson

The idea behind this book is thrilling: If we presuppose that we since a couple of decades live in an era of flexibility in working life – in which way has the quality of jobs been changed? Now, since a long time, we know that the concept of ‘flexibility’ is of various meanings and often deceptive (Furåker et al. 2007; Skorstad & Ramsdal 2016). It is strongly value laden in that everything that is flexible stands out as something good and every word combined with flexibility becomes a good word – wage flexibility, organizational flexibility, time flexibility, flexible labor market, flexible working life. Who can be against flexibility? Who can call for three cheers for rigidity? (...)


Stanovnistvo ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo Sukovic

This paper analyzes the mutual dependence of the labor market and the population, since the supply of the labor force depends on population size and its structure. The demographic aspects of the labor market are especially analyzed and it is shown that the supply of the labor force does not depend only on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the population but that the mutual dependence of the labor market and demographic factors are much more complex and multiply expressive. An analysis of the key trends on the labor market presented in this paper indicates that the global economy requires an increasingly flexible labor force. In that sense, the forecasts of numerous economists and sociologists are based on the conviction that more and more people in future will become workers with a portfolio. They will posses a certain number of skills and qualifications which they will use to transfer from one job on to another during their working life. A continuous profession, namely a steady career, in today's sense of the word, will only a relatively small number of people have. It all goes in favor of the theory that having a 'job for your whole working life' is becoming a thing of the past. In this paper it is further concluded that for tracing the path for an efficient labor market, it should be considered that, during the nineties of the last century, there has been an increase in poverty and a change in population structure, not only because of a large inflow of refugees and internally displaced persons, but due to emigration of the younger population and an increase of the old, ill and dependant persons. All these changes greatly influenced the supply of the labor force, in a quantitative and qualitative way, and thus the strategy for increasing employment should be adjusted. The rapid expansion of the underground-informal economy must be added to all this, which grew rapidly in the nineties of the last century, naturally to the detriment of the formal sector. This paper especially stresses that the economic crisis has large unfavorable consequences on our labor market. The estimation of numerous experts indicate that after the economic recovery and end of the economic crisis, unemployment will still be very high and that the recovery of the labor market will be the slowest, namely that the effects of the economic recovery will reflect the slowest on the labor market, namely employment increase. For this reason it will be necessary to stimulate the reformative processes of the labor market so as to increase its efficiency and thus create conditions to rationally engage the large working potential of Serbia's population, which is one of the key prerequisites for larger economic growth and development.


Author(s):  
Nikhil Garg ◽  
Ramesh Johari

Problem definition: Platforms critically rely on rating systems to learn the quality of market participants. In practice, however, ratings are often highly inflated and therefore, not very informative. In this paper, we first investigate whether the platform can obtain less inflated, more informative ratings by altering the meaning and relative importance of the levels in the rating system. Second, we seek a principled approach for the platform to make these choices in the design of the rating system. Academic/practical relevance: Platforms critically rely on rating systems to learn the quality of market participants, and so, ensuring these ratings are informative is of first-order importance. Methodology: We analyze the results of a randomized, controlled trial on an online labor market in which an additional question was added to the feedback form. Between treatment conditions, we vary the question phrasing and answer choices; in particular, the treatment conditions include several positive-skewed verbal rating scales with descriptive phrases or adjectives providing specific interpretation for each rating level. We then develop a model-based framework to compare and select among rating system designs and apply this framework to the data obtained from the online labor market test. Results: Our test reveals that current inflationary norms can be countered by reanchoring the meaning of the levels of the rating system. In particular, positive-skewed verbal rating scales yield substantially deflated rating distributions that are much more informative about seller quality. Further, we demonstrate that our model-based framework for scale design and optimization can identify the most informative rating system and substantially improve the quality of information obtained over baseline designs. Managerial implications: Our study illustrates that practical, informative rating systems can be designed and demonstrates how to compare and design them in a principled manner.


2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-129
Author(s):  
Jannis Hergesell ◽  
Jana-Maria Albrecht

Zusammenfassung Arbeitsmarkt(re)integration von gesundheitlich eingeschränkten Mitarbeiter*innen findet hauptsächlich in Betrieben statt. Allerdings nimmt die Stay at- und Return to Work-Forschung die spezifischen Strukturen von betrieblicher Wiedereingliederung nur randständig in den Blick. Fokussiert werden hauptsächlich formale Verfahren wie das betriebliche Wiedereingliederungsmanagement und schematisch beschriebene Akteurskonstellationen. Kurzfristige Absprachen im Arbeitsalltag, Koordination außerhalb von eingefahrenen Pro­zeduren und bewusstes Abweichen von Vorschriften werden so außer Acht gelassen. Daher bleiben auschlaggebende Gelingensbedingungen betrieblicher Wiedereingliederung unerkannt. Wir adressieren diese Forschungslücke und plädieren für eine genuin organisationsoziologische Perspektive auf betriebliche Arbeitsmarkt(re)integration. Wir nutzen das theoretische Konzept der organisationalen Routinen und können so ein Ablaufmodell gelingender Integrationsroutinen entwickeln. Abstract: Integration as an Organizational Routines Labor market (re)integration of employees with reduced earning capacity mainly takes place in companies. Nevertheless, previous research has disregarded companies as specific environments for reintegration. The research focus stays on formal cooperate health care procedures and schematically described actor constellations. Deliberate deviations from these formal procedures and the complex informal coordination of integration in everyday working life, as well as their success conditions, thus remain hidden. To address this unsolved task, we argue for a genuine organizational-sociological perspective on company-based labor market (re)integration. Subsequently, we introduce a model of successful integration processes based on the concept of organizational routines.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 715-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Banfi ◽  
Benjamín Villena-Roldán

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