Gig-workers’ motivation: thinking beyond carrots and sticks
Abstract
Purpose High-quality employee motivation can contribute to an organization’s long-term success by supporting employees’ well-being and performance. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research concerning how organizations motivate workers in non-traditional work contexts. In the algocratic context of the gig-economy, the purpose of this paper is to understand the role that technology can play in motivating workers. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the self-determination theory, job-characteristic theory and enterprise social media research, this conceptual paper explores how the architecture of the digital labor platforms underlying the gig-economy (and the characteristics of jobs mediated through these IT artifacts) can impact key antecedents of self-motivation. Findings Combining theory and empirical evidence, this paper develops a mid-range theory demonstrating how organizations can support the self-motivation of gig-workers through the thoughtful design of their digital labor platforms and the integration of two social media tools (namely, social networking and social badging). Research limitations/implications This paper answers calls for psychologically-based research exploring the consequences of gig-work as well as research studying the impacts of advanced technologies in interaction with work contexts on motivation. In theorizing around a large set of social-contextual variables operating at different levels of analysis, this paper demonstrates that individual-…
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These affordances are intended to be analogues of typical organizational communication between employees and managers.
“These affordances are intended to be analogues of typical organizational communication between employees and managers (Jabagi et al., 2019).”
From Socio‐technical issues in the platform‐mediated gig economy: A systematic literature review: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper (2024) · cites this paper as Jabagi et al., 2019
TaskRabbit rewards workers who have met platform-specified criteria with Elite badges.
“TaskRabbit rewards workers who have met platformspecified criteria with ' Elite ' badges (Jabagi et al., 2019).”
From Socio‐technical issues in the platform‐mediated gig economy: A systematic literature review: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper (2024) · cites this paper as Jabagi et al., 2019
Social badging has been leveraged to ensure work quality and clients' trust in the process.
“Similarly, social badging has been leveraged to ensure work quality and clients' trust in the process (Jabagi et al., 2019).”
From Socio‐technical issues in the platform‐mediated gig economy: A systematic literature review: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper (2024) · cites this paper as Jabagi et al., 2019
Algorithmic management has been associated with a reduction of workers' autonomy.
“In particular, AM has been associated with a reduction of workers' autonomy (Jabagi, Croteau, Audebrand, & Marsan, 2019;Mohlmann & Zalmanson, 2017;Toyoda, Lucas, & Gratch, 2020)”
From Algorithms as work designers: How algorithmic management influences the design of jobs (2022) · cites this paper as Jabagi et al., 2019
Algorithmic scheduling activities may limit workers' voice and active role in determining their schedule, reducing their autonomy.
“Researchers have found that algorithmic scheduling activities may limit workers' voice and the active role in the determination of their schedule, reducing their level of autonomy (Jabagi et al., 2019;Lehdonvirta, 2018;Moore & Hayes, 2018).”
From Algorithms as work designers: How algorithmic management influences the design of jobs (2022) · cites this paper as Jabagi et al., 2019
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“Discourse around algorithmic management often translates into a simplified narrative of algorithmic systems progressively replacing human roles (Jabagi et al., 2019).”
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“…encourage workers' awareness of the precarity of gig work (Behl, Jayawardena, et al., 2022; Huber et al., 2022; Woodcock & Graham, 2019), through, for example, the possibility of being deactivated at any time, and increasing the difficulty of connecting with other workers (Jabagi et al., 2019).”
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“…ride hail, food delivery and domestic work services because a large and flexible pool of workers enables them to regulate the supply side of their platforms through a combination of incentives, gamification and algorithmic management (Gandini 2019; Jabagi et al. 2019; Woodcock and Graham 2019).”
- Authors
- Jabagi, N., Croteau, A.-M., Audebrand, L. K., & Marsan, J.
- Affiliations
- Concordia University (CA)
- Université Laval (CA)
- Venue
- Journal of Managerial Psychology
- Publisher
- Emerald
- Published
- 2019-05-13
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 192-213
- ISSN
- 0268-3946 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2917527157
- Cited by
- 354
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 53 · 2025: 63 · 2024: 74 · 2023: 58 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 53.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Managerial Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Corpus Université Laval (Université Laval) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Economy and Work Transformation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Industrial relations › Legal and Labor Studies
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Keywords
- gig work, employee motivation, self-motivation, gig economy, online labour platforms, self-determination theory, job characteristics model, social networking, enterprise social media, platform work, employee well-being, non-traditional work
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