Algorithmic Control: A Legitimacy Perspective on Worker-level Implications
Felix Hirsch, M.Sc.
Research assistant and doctoral candidate at the Chair of Business Information Systems, esp. Business Engineering
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1. What is the title of your thesis? How did the idea come about to deal with this particular topic?
My dissertation is entitled "Algorithmic Control: A Legitimacy Perspective on Worker-level Implications." The idea to address this topic in my dissertation arose during my master's studies. My thesis advisor, Prof. Wiener, has been working on the topic of organizational control in the field of Information Systems for a long time. "Control" in this context refers to steering employees in organizations. Algorithmic Control (AC) thus refers to the management-related use of algorithms and modern information technologies for the automated steering of workers. In previous years, technical aspects such as digital devices and algorithms were only used as a context for researching topics such as project control. Here, the focus was usually on classic control relationships between managers and workers. With AC, technology is now becoming an essential part of the control process itself, as algorithms take over the control of workers in their daily work and with this, automate control. Both the phenomenon itself and the research on it are still quite young. In 2015, the first article explicitly addressing this topic was published. After becoming aware of this interesting field, I wrote my master's thesis on this topic at the chair of Prof. Wiener. One month after finishing my master's thesis, I was able to start my dissertation in December 2021 as part of a DFG project and directly followed up on my previous research.
2. What are the central research questions of your thesis and what methods do you use to answer these questions?
As mentioned above, research on AC is still relatively young but has gained considerable momentum in the last year and a half. At the beginning of my doctoral studies, there was no holistic conceptual framework for AC and also no scale for the empirical assessment of AC. The DFG project in which I am doing my dissertation in, is being conducted in cooperation with TU Darmstadt and Prof. Alexander Benlian.
The central research questions we are addressing in the research project are:
RQ1: What are the key conceptual dimensions that constitute AC, and how can these dimensions be measured?
RQ2: What AC characteristics trigger positive or negative worker reactions, and to what extent and why do worker reactions vary across (a) traditional and (b) platform-based work contexts?
To answer the first research question, we developed a framework based on an extensive literature review and interviews with workers and managers who deal with AC in their daily work. The framework describes AC in seven dimensions and covers the context of both platform-based and traditional organizations. The AC phenomenon was first described in the example of the ride-hailing company Uber, whose business model is almost entirely based on AC. Some drivers report that they have worked for Uber for years but have never come into contact with a human manager, as the control of the workforce is entirely handled by algorithms.
However, AC is also increasingly used in traditional, non-platform organizations, so our framework covers this context as well. Based on the developed framework, we then conducted an extensive scale development process to enable empirical studies on the phenomenon of AC in the future. With this framework and the developed scale, we aim to systematize and structure the initial research findings that have emerged since 2015 and provide a foundation to comprehensively examine the impact of AC use, particularly on the workforce of the future.
To answer the second research question, we now focus on these effects of AC and the impact on workers who get in touch with AC during everyday work. After all, how workers perceive and judge being controlled by algorithms instead of human managers and what reactions may result has been little researched to date. To answer the second research question, we use a broad mix of methods, such as interview studies, focus groups, topic modeling, and experience sampling.
3. What do you think are the most exciting results of your research?
The first milestone of our research was the development of our AC framework and the scale development we conducted based on it. The results will be published in several steps at leading conferences, as is usual in Information Systems. The first results of the framework and scale development were presented by my colleague Armin Alizadeh from TU Darmstadt at the Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS) in January 2023. Additional publications will follow shortly. During the development of the framework, it became clear that AC is already widely adopted in the platform context and that many business models simply would not work without relying on AC. We were also able to gain insights into the use of AC in traditional contexts, such as logistics warehouses, for example, at Amazon. During the scale development process, we developed a set of items based on our AC framework, which we refined, tested, and validated in numerous steps. Once the development of the scale is complete, we hope to provide the research community with a powerful instrument that will allow researchers to gain deep insights into the adoption of AC but especially into the effects AC adoption has on workers, how they perceive and judge AC and how they react to this novel type of organizational control.
4. Your dissertation is integrated into a DFG project of the Chair of Business Engineering? How do you manage to combine project work and work on your thesis?
The work on my dissertation goes hand in hand with my work for the DFG project. Due to the ambitious goals of the project, the work requires a high level of intensity. Since my doctoral colleague in Darmstadt is working on the project together with me, we can support and exchange ideas very well with each other. We cooperate when working on the papers to publish the research results of the project. In addition, we receive dedicated support from Prof. Wiener and Prof. Benlian and can also draw on the international network of both professorships, which helps us a lot.