Thesis (D. Min.)--Abilene Christian University, 2002. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-105).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Abilene Christian University, 2002. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-105).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Abilene Christian University, 2002. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-105).

Organizational research about the autonomy paradox –the discrepancy between workers' increased level of autonomy in carrying out their work and their increased self-imposed constraints– is limited in two ways. First, our understanding of the role of technology in perpetuating the paradox of autonomy is limited to the influence of relatively simple features of technology (e.g., email devices' portability and ubiquity) in amplifying the expectations of near-constant availability. However, human-computer interaction research and practice increasingly show that design features of advanced technology, too, can play an important role in cultivating the culture of constant connectivity. Second, organizational research on the autonomy paradox has primarily focused on organizational shared expectations and has not examined social forces and cultural images that might contribute to the autonomy paradox in the individualized context of independent work. Thus, our understanding of socio-cultural processes that might contribute to the tension between autonomy and discipline in the context of platform work is incomplete. In this dissertation, I explore these issues through a review study and two empirical studies that draw on 50 semi-structured interviews with Instagram content creators, four years of participant observation, and a walkthrough analysis of the platform’s features. The first study integrates the literature on sociomateriality, identity control, and autonomy paradox to explore the interconnected cultural, social, and material mechanisms that contribute to the autonomy paradox. I discuss how we can extend our understanding of autonomy in technology use by attending more explicitly to material features of digital technology and how mechanisms identified in organizational contexts can guide our understanding of platform workers’ autonomy. In so doing, this study maps out pathways for examining autonomy and discipline outside traditional organizational contexts. The second paper examines how through a recurring process that I label identity baiting, evaluative metrics provided by digital platforms function as habit-forming identity affirming opportunities for desired identities which motivate work effort and sustain underpaid future oriented labor. By attending to workers’ desired identities rooted in cultural ideals of independent work, this study sheds light on entanglement of cultural ideals and technological features in shaping the tensions of autonomy and self-imposed constraints in platform work. Finally, the third study explores how people navigate the tensions arising from the collocation of externally prescribed authenticity in the discourse of personal branding with the internal desire to be and feel authentic in contemporary work. I find that tensions arise from the consistency required to maintain a personal brand and the inconsistency of the authentic self over time. Further, practices induced by the rhetorical invocations of authenticity sometimes contradicted workers’ internal needs for a strategic balance between authentic and image management. This study shows that tensions of autonomy remain even if the external prescription demands individuality and authenticity rather conformity and collective assimilation. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy / How and why might workers (choose to) constrain their own autonomy in the context of platform work? Animated by this overarching research question, this thesis explores the tensions between autonomy and self-imposed constraints through three essays. The first essay integrates multiple streams of organizational research to portray the constellation of three structural forces (social norms, cultural discourses, and material features of technology) that interact with workers’ identity to shape the autonomy paradox. The second essay demonstrates how evaluative metrics provided by digital platforms function as habit-forming identity baits that control workers’ behavior and sustain underpaid labor. Finally, the third essay demonstrates how prescribed authenticity (e.g., the ethos of ‘just be yourself’) prevalent in the discourse of personal branding ironically constrain workers’ autonomy by turning the once protective fender of personal brand into a system of radical self-revelation. The second and third essays draw on an inductive qualitative inquiry of Instagram content creators.

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