[en] Many studies have emphasized the dehumanized character of algorithmic management, linked to the breach created by newcomers like Uber in the traditional institutional field of taxi services. We here wonder whether such growing forms of alienated work are unavoidable in the gig economy. To address this issue, we studied an atypical platform active in the transportation sector in Brussels that pretends to operate differently from its competitors by offering more supportive working conditions and relational management to its self-employed drivers. Firstly, we tried to better understand the management devices and practices promoted by the platform to support its drivers. Secondly, we collected the drivers' experiences regarding their work on multiple platforms in order to grasp the specific way in which they enact such management devices and practices. All interviewees are indeed multiplatform drivers (most often with Uber), which allows measuring the extent to which they experience a difference with other platforms. Our findings highlight the dual structure/agency process shaping the quest for institutional legitimacy of this platform: on the one hand, a series of ‘functional equivalents’ to the standard employment relationship are provided to drivers; on the other hand, the latter do not really use these devices but build their own individual and collective strategies, which reinforces the capacity of the platform to increase its discursive differentiation. Indeed, the platform relies on these realities of the drivers to make its devices evolve and acquire in this way an institutional legitimacy
Disciplines :
General management, entrepreneurship & organizational theory
