Unveiling ‘Algorithm Governance’

Shaping Labour Platforms’ Strategies and Working Conditions in the Digital Era

Abstract

Research on platform work has primarily focused on analyzing how algorithmic management influences working conditions by empowering platforms to govern digitally-delivered services. However, prior research has overlooked the crucial aspect of how algorithmic management underlies platforms’ use of diverse contractual forms of employment available in the labor markets from where they source their workforces. Bridging this gap is vital to understanding how labor platforms integrate algorithm management, which employs digitally programmed procedures for coordinating and governing labor input, with various contractual employment structures influenced by regulations and collective actors such as trade unions. Coined as algorithm governance, this phenomenon represents the fusion of algorithm management with contractual employment frameworks, emanating from labor market regulations and policies. This essay pioneers the concept of algorithm governance, illuminating its ontological capacity to enrich debates on algorithm management. Algorithm governance thus explains how algorithm management intricately shapes working conditions by influencing the use of diverse contractual employment forms within the labor market.