The Gig-Economy is an alternative way of describing a world where long-term employees turn into short-term independent contractors in charge of their own careers. The cross-sectional half of the current study will gather data from multiple generations of professionals and emerging professionals that assesses their career adaptabilities, gender, marital status, presence of children, and preference for the Gig Economy. Previous research has not analyzed these factors in combination with each other. The Millennial participants from the cross-sectional portion of the study will be tested once every five years as they progress through their careers on these same measures. Millennials will have more career adapt abilities than other generations, and will prefer the Gig Economy more than other generations. However, females will prefer the Gig Economy more than men, as it provides for more flexibility. Those who are married and especially those with children will prefer the Gig Economy more than those who are unmarried or without children. The information from the current study will be helpful to anyone currently working in or about to start working. It will allow career counselors information with which to best guide Millennials and all those struggling to find their way in the Gig Economy.

A new type of worker, the gig worker, is acknowledge and problematized as to what challenges mediators can face with managing them as previous research points out their differences from other workers. The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze challenges that a mediator can face when managing gig workers and also elevate the knowledge regarding gig workers on how to work with them. A semi-structured interview was conducted with four participants, three mediators of established gig firms in Sweden and one management consultant and expert in the field of gig economy. The finding indicated that there exist two challenges that mediators can face when managing gig workers: 1) The expectations of the matchmaking 2) Allowing gig workers to be independent

In the last ten years, the gig economy has become a significant part of the labor market. Consumers depend on the services provided by people performing gig work, particularly as on-demand services are increasingly desired. Another trend that has developed is the rise of fast casual restaurants due to their relatively inexpensive and quick service while simultaneously providing unique and interesting cuisine options. I examined if there was a relationship between the rise of these emerging sectors of the economy through looking at the performance of limited service eating place establishments using a panel data regression model at the Metropolitan Statistical Area level from 2006 to 2015. I concluded that there is a negative relationship between the number gig firms and the number limited service eating places and no relationship between the number gig firms and the annual payroll of limited service eating places. With opposite results from those hypothesized, I recommend ways to improve the research and propose alternative research questions to answer looking at the gig economy and the restaurant industry.

abstract: Two-sided online platforms are typically plagued by hidden information (adverse selection) and hidden actions (moral hazard), limiting market efficiency. Under the context of the increasingly popular online labor contracting platforms, this dissertation investigates whether and how IT-enabled monitoring systems can mitigate moral hazard and reshape the labor demand and supply by providing detailed information about workers’ effort. In the first chapter, I propose and demonstrate that monitoring records can substitute for reputation signals such that they attract more qualified inexperienced workers to enter the marketplace. Specifically, only the effort-related reputation information is substituted by monitoring but the capability-related reputation information. In line with this, monitoring can lower the entry barrier for inexperienced workers on platforms. In the second chapter, I investigate if there is home bias for local workers when employers make the hiring decisions. I further show the existence of home bias from employers and it is primarily driven by statistical inference instead of personal “taste”. In the last chapter, I examine if females tend to have a stronger avoidance of monitoring than males. With the combination of the observational data and experimental data, I find that there is a gender difference in avoidance of monitoring and the introduction of the monitoring system increases the gender wage gap due to genders differences in such willingness-to-pay for the avoidance of monitoring. These three studies jointly contribute to the literature on the online platforms, gig economy and agency theory by elucidating the critical role of IT-enabled monitoring. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2019

The gig economy has rapidly become something of a phenomenon in the digital economy today. New firms are quickly being added to this digital market ecosphere and the business model has garnered the attention of the business and investor communities as a new organizational alternative to standard hierarchies. However this new business model also poses substantial problems for its workers, who as independent contractors are not afforded the benefits or rights of the welfare state that are granted to employees. As the gig economy continues to achieve financial success and holds a more prominent place in our labor force, the precarious state of gig labor is becoming an increasingly political problem. This thesis explores the present state of labor in the gig economy by situating it within the context of welfare state scholarship. I examine how the inner mechanics of the gig economy operate, as well as examine the structures of the American welfare state that create this dualist divide between contractors and employees. I argue that welfare state scholarship demonstrates a path by which gig laborers and gig firms can form cross class alliances that can help develop new welfare state policies to improve gig worker conditions and be supported by gig firms themselves. / Master of Arts / The gig economy has rapidly become something of a phenomenon in the digital economy today. New firms are quickly being added to this digital market ecosphere and the business model has garnered the attention of the business and investor communities as a new organizational alternative to standard hierarchies. However this new business model also poses substantial problems for its workers, who as independent contractors are not afforded the benefits or rights of the welfare state that are granted to employees. As the gig economy continues to achieve financial success and holds a more prominent place in our labor force, the precarious state of gig labor is becoming an increasingly political problem. This thesis explores the present state of labor in the gig economy by situating it within the context of welfare state scholarship. I examine how the inner mechanics of the gig economy operate, as well as examine the structures of the American welfare state that create this dualist divide between contractors and employees. I argue that welfare state scholarship demonstrates a path by which gig laborers and gig firms can form cross class alliances that can help develop new welfare state policies to improve gig worker conditions and be supported by gig firms themselves.

[pt] Mudanças nas últimas décadas no contexto do trabalho levaram ao delineamento de novos modelos de carreira que não são mais ancorados nas organizações, mas no próprio trabalhador. As organizações e funcionários se tornaram menos dependentes e comprometidos um com os outros. Um dos arranjos alternativos de trabalho, que surgiram e cresceram nesse cenário, foi a Gig Economy, caracterizada por relações de trabalho intermediadas por plataformas, temporárias e sob contrato. A recente ascensão, impacto no mercado de trabalho, novas características, experiências e habilidades de trabalho da Gig Economy evidenciam a importância de se entender as orientações profissionais desses trabalhadores. Partindo do entendimento de que essas mudanças no contexto do trabalho tendem a se intensificar, nos próximos anos, o objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar as principais âncoras de carreira dos profissionais da Gig Economy. Para isso, foi aplicado o inventário de Schein (1996) a 211 trabalhadores Gig das categorias de transporte por aplicativo, entregas por aplicativo, guia turístico e redator/designer, a fim de identificar as suas motivações, habilidades e valores de trabalho. As duas âncoras predominantes encontradas foram Estilo de vida e Competência Técnico-Funcional, enquanto a âncora menos predominante foi Competência Gerencial. / [en] In recent decades, changes in the work environment have led to the establishment of new career models that are no longer based on organizations, but on the worker themselves. Organizations and employees have become less dependent on and committed to each other. One of the alternative work arrangements that have emerged and grown in this scenario is the Gig Economy, characterized by work relationships mediated by platforms, temporary and contract-based. The recent rise, impact on the labor market, new characteristics, experiences, and work skills of the Gig Economy highlight the importance of understanding the professional orientations of these workers. Based on the understanding that these shifts in the work context are poised to intensify in the near future, the objective of this research was to determine the key career anchors of professionals in the Gig Economy. To accomplish this, Schein s inventory (1996) was administered to 211 Gig workers in the categories of ride-sharing, delivery services, tour guides, and writer/designers, to identify their work motivations, skills, and values. The two predominant career anchors identified were Lifestyle and Technical/Functional Competence while the least predominant anchor was General Managerial Competence.

Over the past two decades, work relations have changed dramatically. New phenomena like “gig-economy” or “crowd work” not only constitute precarious working conditions but also contradict with our social esteem of work resulting from the social theories of the classical economy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The central focus of classical economists on building an educated and disciplined workforce provided not only the base for the upcoming industrial society but also resulted in a work-based society where “being employed” became the precondition for social security and social participation. It is the aim of this contribution to show how our positive attitudes towards work, established by the political economic theories of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, are jeopardized by the social changes in post-industrialized societies, due to the effects of globalized economies, digitalization and changed industrial relations. This has also far-reaching consequences for managerial theories based on conceptions like meaningful work or discussions about social responsibilities vis-à-vis employees as primary stakeholder groups.

Sedan 2015, då antalet asylsökande i Sverige nådde rekordhöjder, har frågan om hur flyktingar ska integrera sig i samhället tagits upp. Konsensus är att arbetsmarknadsetableringen är en viktig faktor och därmed har så kallade ”enkla jobb” föreslagits som en lösning på att öka sysselsättningen för flyktingar. Samtidigt kan det observeras ett nytt fenomen på arbetsmarknaden, gigekonomin. Kan gigekonomins enkla jobb vara lösningen?  Syftet med denna undersökning är att analysera gigekonomins påverkan på flyktingars arbetsmarknadsutfall i form av sysselsättning och inkomst. I studien används paneldataanalys för att isolera effekten av gigekonomiföretagens etablering på flyktingars sysselsättning och inkomster. Undersökningens huvudestimat visar att existensen av gigekonomi i en kommun ökar sysselsättningen för flyktingar med 5,2 procentenheter. Efter utförande av flera känslighetstest kan dock denna effekt inte betraktas som robust. Därmed kan inte undersökningen påvisa att det är just gigekonomin som har orsakat denna effekt. / Since 2015, when the number of asylum seekers in Sweden grew to record breaking heights, the question about how refugees will integrate into society has been raised. The consensus is that the integration into the labour market is an important factor and therefore entry level jobs have been suggested as a solution. Currently a new phenomenon can be observed on the labour market, the gig economy. The objective of this paper is to analyse the effect of the gig economy on refugees’ social outcome in terms of employment and income. The study uses panel data analysis to isolate the effect of the gig economy on refugees employment and income. The main estimate of the study shows that the impact of the existance of a gig economy in i municipality increases the employment for refugees by 5,2 percentage points. However, after the execution of multiple robustness tests the effect cannot be considered robust. Therefore, the study cannot prove that it is specifically the gig economy that is the cause to this effect.

Background: Considering the growing popularity of gig organisations and the socioeconomic situation enabling precarity in this type of firms, there is the need to investigate potential gains and losses of this type of work contract from the organisational side.  Aim: The aim is to understand the benefits and losses platform organisations may face by offering precarious work conditions. Apart from economic influence, as on direct labour costs and staff turnover, there are expected to be cultural and social capital losses. Methodology: A qualitative study approach was chosen to discover new details and access the background of the employees. Six food deliverers from three different app-based food delivery companies in Sweden were interviewed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the problem. Findings: The empirical findings indicated that apart from decreasing direct labour costs and high turnover, offering precarious working conditions may deprive organisations of access to a qualified workforce and knowledge pool that the employees bring.

Background:  Despite the utilization of algorithms as data management tools, they are increasingly used as people management tools to allocate, optimize and evaluate workers. This is especially popular among digital labor platforms of the gig economy as it is seen as one of the core innovations that enabled such platforms. Usually, these platform workers are self-employed, which results in an apparent autonomy while working under a rigid algorithm. For those workers, proactively shaping the job according to their own needs and abilities, commonly known as job crafting, may be increasingly important. As research suggests that job crafting occurs across professions and industries, how is it possible under the constraints of algorithmic management?  Purpose:  This thesis investigates the abilities of German food delivery riders of the company Lieferando to perform job crafting while being managed by an algorithm.  Method:  To meet the purpose of this study, the authors conducted a qualitative study. The data was collected through technology-mediated interviews with riders of the company Lieferando in Germany. The authors applied an online recruitment strategy through various social media websites to find suitable interviewees. Interview partners were picked with a random sampling strategy. The interviews were semi-structured, and the researchers guided the interviewees through a previously prepared topic guide with open-ended questions.  Conclusion:  The results of this study provide empirical evidence that riders of the food delivery company Lieferando engage in job crafting activities although working under the constraints of algorithmic management. The outcomes further show that all riders performed task crafting and cognitive crafting in various ways, whereas engagement in relational crafting was less developed. Riders not only have the ability to modify their work but also enrich it.  The findings of this study allow to draw several theoretical and managerial implications as well as provide possible research opportunities for future studies.