OMS 405

OMS 405
Senior Capstone on the Gig Economy
Reading List

Prof. Alice Brawley, Gettysburg College, Spring 2018
(see syllabus here)

1. What is gig work? (Jan 26)

• Alternative work arrangements: Two images of the new world of work (Spreitzer, Cameron, & Garrett, 2017)
• Micro-entrepreneurs, dependent contractors, and instaserfs: Understanding online labor platform workforces (Kuhn & Maleki, 2017)
• Fast Company: Freelancers are sick of being called “gig workers” (Reader, 2017) – https://www.fastcompany.com/40481646/freelancers-are-sick-of-being-called-gig-workers

2. This ain’t a new problem, folks!

2a. Some historical and big picture perspective (the changing nature of work) (Jan 31)

• The legal context of the management of human resources (Murphy, 2018), pp. 2-5 (“Historical Context”) and pp. 16-17 (“Who is an Employee…?”)
• Labour is not a technology: Reasserting the Declaration of Philadelphia in times of platform-work and gig-economy (de Stefano, 2017), pp. 4-6 (Section 2. “Uber: Digital service…?”) and pp. 8-14 (Sections 4 and 5)

2b. A primer on employee classification, taxes, and tax forms (Feb 2)

• Making Money on Youtube and Paying Taxes! (Anneayail, 2016, see link in Week 2-3 slides)
• The Sharing Economy (Sundararajan, 2016), Ch. 8 “The Future of Work: What Needs to Be Done,” pp. 177-192

2c. Employee classification in light of the gig economy (Feb 7)

• NY Times: How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers’ Buttons (Scheiber, 2017) nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/02/technology/uber-drivers-psychological-tricks.html?_r=0

2d. Recent rulings, etc. (Feb 9)

• ArsTechnica: GrubHub “gig economy” trial ends with judge calling out plaintiff’s lies (Mullin, 2017) https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/grubhub-gig-economy-trial-ends-with-judge-calling-out-plaintiffs-lies/
• London @Uber drivers are workers: summary & analysis of today’s Employment Appeal Tribunal decision #ukemplaw #gigwork Thread. 1/n (Prassl, 2017)  https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/928999294933327872.html
• O’Connor v. Uber http://uberlitigation.com/index.php
• TaxProf Blog: The Senate tax bill and the battles over worker classification (Oei, 2017) http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/11/the-senate-tax-bill-and-worker-classification.html
• Sky News: Taxi app Uber places limit on driver hours (Staton, 2018) https://news.sky.com/story/taxi-app-uber-places-limit-on-driver-hours-11210378
• Bloomberg: U. S. Labor Board Complaint Says On-Demand Cleaners Are Employees (Eidelson, 2017) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-31/u-s-labor-board-complaint-says-on-demand-cleaners-are-employees
• NY Times: Uber dealt setback after European court rules it is a taxi service (Alderman, 2017) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/business/uber-europe-ecj.html
• NY Times: Uber drivers ruled eligible for jobless payments in New York state (Scheiber, 2016) https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/business/state-rules-2-former-uber-drivers-eligible-for-jobless-payments.html
• The New Yorker: The gig economy is especially susceptible to sexual harassment (Heller, 2018) https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-gig-economy-is-especially-susceptible-to-sexual-harassment

3. Exploring platforms

3a. Student mini-presentations #1 on selected various platforms (in class Feb 14)

3b. Limits of uberization? (Feb 16)

• The Policy and Internet Blog: The limits of uberization: How far can platforms go? (Lehdonvirta, 2016)  http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/policy/the-limits-of-uberization-how-far-can-platforms-go/
• HuffPost: High Tech Comes to the Sex Worker Industry (Spieler, 2017) https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/high-tech-comes-to-the-sex-worker-industry_us_59ab4d9de4b0bef3378cd935
• Business Insider: An umbrella-sharing startup unintentionally gave away 300,000 free umbrellas (Weller, 2017) http://www.businessinsider.com/umbrella-sharing-startup-loses-300000-umbrellas-2017-7

3c. Organizing what we know so far about gig work platforms (Feb 16)

• The Sharing Economy (Sundararajan, 2016), Ch. 3 “Platforms: Under the Hood”

4. Being a gig worker

4a. Firsthand experience (Feb 21)

• “Being an MTurk Worker” participation prep assignment

4b. Secondhand experiences (including interview prep) (Feb 21 & 23)

• PBS NewsHour (2015) “Inside the world of a Mechanical Turker” (4:43)
• Slave to the keyboard: The broken promises of the gig economy (Milland, 2017)
• Kristy Milland’s website: http://www.kristymilland.com/

4c. Who gig works? (Feb 21)

• The On-Demand Economy Survey (Burson-Marsteller, 2016) http://www.burson-marsteller.com/what-we-do/our-thinking/the-on-demand-economy/press-release/
• Gig workers in America: Profiles, mindsets, and financial wellness (Prudential Financial, 2017) http://research.prudential.com/documents/rp/Gig_Economy_Whitepaper.pdf

5. Measuring the gig economy

5a. Variations in findings (Feb 28)

• Aspen Institute: Data on the Sharing & On-Demand Economy: What We Know and Don’t Know (Reder, 2016) https://assets.aspeninstitute.org/content/uploads/2016/10/research_agenda-2.pdf
• The rise and nature of alternative work arrangements in the United States, 1995-2015 (Katz & Krueger, 2016) http://www.oyetimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/603.pdf
• Oxford Internet Institute and the iLabour Project: The Online Labour Index http://ilabour.oii.ox.ac.uk/online-labour-index/
• Contingent Workforce: Size, Characteristics, Earnings, and Benefits (US GAO, 2015) https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-168R
• Aspen Institute: New Study: 36% of workers engaged in independent work over the last year (Steward & Pollack, 2017) https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/new-study-freelancers-upwork/
• Pew: Gig work, online selling and home sharing (Smith, 2016) http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/17/gig-work-online-selling-and-home-sharing/
• BLS: Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements, February 2005 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/conemp.nr0.htm

5b. Limitations of measurement methods (in class Feb 28)

6. Worker issues

6a. Benefits (Mar 7)

• Futurism: People in Two U.S. States Will Get $1,000 a Month in a New Basic Income Trial (Jones, 2017) https://futurism.com/people-in-two-u-s-states-will-get-1000-a-month-in-a-new-basic-income-trial/
• Fisher Phillips: Can Gig Businesses Offer Benefits To Their Workers? Recent Developments May Shed Light On Answer (Smith, 2017) https://www.fisherphillips.com/gig-employer/can-gig-businesses-offer-benefits-to-workers
• The Finnish experiment (30:00 audio, 99 Percent Invisible episode #276, 2017) https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-finnish-experiment/
• Etsy: Economic Security for the Gig Economy (2016) https://extfiles.etsy.com/advocacy/Etsy_EconomicSecurity_2016.pdf
• “The Bizarre Tale of President Nixon and His Basic Income Bill” (from Bregman’s Utopia for Realists, pp. 115-131)

6b. Occupational health (Mar 21)

• HBR: Loneliness and the digital workplace (Amico, 2017) https://hbr.org/2017/09/loneliness-and-the-digital-workplace
• The Overtake: Working in the gig economy can destroy your mental health (Anderson, 2017) https://theovertake.com/~snowflake-week/the-gig-economy-can-destroy-your-mental-health/
• Finding meaning in a hopeless place? The construction of meaningfulness in digital microwork (Kost, Fieseler, & Wong, 2018) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563218300025

6c. Collaborative efforts (Mar 21)

• The crowd is a collaborative network (Gray, Suri, Ali, & Kulkarni, 2016) https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/collab_paper21.pdf
• Fast Company: The Network Uber Drivers Built (Rosenblat, 2018) https://www.fastcompany.com/40501439/the-network-uber-drivers-built
• Evening Standard: Uber drivers ‘working together to drive up prices’ (Gillett, 2017) https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/revealed-how-uber-drivers-work-together-to-drive-up-prices-a3601806.html

6d. Collective action: Unions? Manifestos? Protests? (Mar 23)

• Algorithms that divide and unite: Delocalisation, identity and collective action in ‘microwork’ (Lehdonvirta, 2016)
• Quartz: The gig economy is a disaster for workers. Hollywood’s unions can help them learn to fight back (Fortuna, 2017) https://qz.com/1052310/hollywood-unions-offer-the-perfect-model-for-the-beaten-down-workers-of-todays-gig-economy/
• We are Dynamo http://www.wearedynamo.org/
• On Labor Blog: Uber, Lyft & Airbnb Respond to Trump’s Muslim Ban (Weinberg, 2017) https://onlabor.org/gig-news-uber-lyft-airbnb-respond-to-trumps-muslim-ban/
• Dose: Use This Black-Owned Ride App After You #DeleteUber (Dose, 2017) https://dose.com/articles/use-this-black-owned-ride-app-after-you-deleteuber/

7. Fairness

7a. Defining fairness (in class Mar 28)

7b. Ratings (Mar 28)

• Buzzfeed: That four-star rating you left could cost your Uber driver her job (O’Donovan, 2017) https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/the-fault-in-five-stars
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Watch how you treat your Uber driver. New ratings allow them to call out bad behavior (Parker, 2017) http://www.ajc.com/news/world/watch-how-you-treat-your-uber-driver-new-ratings-allow-them-call-out-bad-behavior/44nbPFcHY3Ji4duWAZF19H/

7c. Discrimination in ratings (Mar 28)

• Simulation experiments on (the absence of) ratings bias in reputation systems (Thebault-Spieker et al., 2017) http://www.brenthecht.com/publications/cscw2018pacm_ratingsbias.pdf
• Discriminating tastes: Uber’s customer ratings as vehicles for workplace discrimination (Rosenblat, Levy, Barocas, & Hwang, 2017) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/poi3.153/abstract;jsessionid=A654EAD313E28F340C16795A92EB0E4E.f01t02
• The Conversation: The gig economy may strengthen the ‘invisible advantage’ men have at work (Galperin, 2018) http://theconversation.com/the-gig-economy-may-strengthen-the-invisible-advantage-men-have-at-work-86444

7d. Pay (Mar 30)

• A data-driven analysis of workers’ earnings on Amazon Mechanical Turk (pre-print; Hara et al., 2017) https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.05796

7e. Unequal access (Mar 28 & 30)

• Racial and gender discrimination in transportation network companies (NBER Working Paper; Ge, Knittel, MacKenzie, & Zoepf, 2016) http://www.nber.org/papers/w22776
• Racial discrimination in the sharing economy: Evidence from a field experiment (Edelman, Luca, & Svirsky, 2017) http://www.benedelman.org/publications/airbnb-guest-discrimination-2016-09-16.pdf
• #airbnbwhileblack: How hidden bias shapes the sharing economy (25:06 audio; NPR Hidden Brain, 2016) https://www.npr.org/2016/04/26/475623339/-airbnbwhileblack-how-hidden-bias-shapes-the-sharing-economy
• HuffPost: These Airbnb alternatives want to make travel more welcoming for black people (Finley, 2016) https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/innclusive-noirbnb-airbnb-alternatives_us_5768462ae4b0853f8bf1c675
• NY Times: Unemployed Detroit residents are trapped by a digital divide (Kang, 2016) https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/23/technology/unemployed-detroit-residents-are-trapped-by-a-digital-divide.html

8. “Bigger picture” impacts of the gig economy

8a. Housing (Apr 4)

• Reuters: Airbnb, NYC settle rental lawsuit (Raymond, 2016) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbnb-new-york/airbnb-new-york-city-settle-rental-law-lawsuit-idUSKBN13S03U
• CBC: Toronto tackles long-term rental supply with new Airbnb rules (Rieti, 2017) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/council-airbnb-vote-1.4437321

8b. Artificial intelligence (Apr 4)

• Bloomberg: The Future of AI Depends on a Huge Workforce of Human Teachers (Hutson, 2017) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-07/the-future-of-ai-depends-on-a-huge-workforce-of-human-teachers
• The Guardian: Uber plans to buy 24,000 autonomous Volvo SUVs in race for driverless future (Gibbs, 2017) https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/20/uber-volvo-suv-self-driving-future-business-ride-hailing-lyft-waymo

8c. Welfare and social safety nets (Apr 4)

• The Sydney Morning Herald: Part-time work and ‘gig’ economy are breaking down the welfare system, IMF warns (Bagshaw, 2017) http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/parttime-work-and-gig-economy-are-breaking-down-the-welfare-system-imf-warns-20171010-gyxxo5.html
• Buzzfeed: Former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich Says The Gig Economy Can Be A “Nightmare” (O’Donovan, 2016) https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/former-us-labor-secretary-robert-reich-says-the-gig-economy

8d. Marrying traditional business and the gig economy (Apr 6)

• NY Times: The pop-up employer: Build a team, do the job, say goodbye (Scheiber, 2017) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/business/economy/flash-organizations-labor.html
• “The Era of Agile Talent” (13:00 audio; HBR Ideacast episode #534, 2016) https://soundcloud.com/hbrideacast/534-the-era-of-agile-talent
• Engadget: Greece wants to force Uber into hiring full-time taxi drivers (Dent, 2017) https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/02/greece-ride-sharing-uber-laws/
• Gizmodo: Ikea Just Bought… TaskRabbit? (Estes, 2017) https://gizmodo.com/ikea-just-bought-taskrabbit-1818964095
• Matchmakers (Evans & Scmalensee, 2016), Ch. 12 “How Multisided Platforms are Transforming Retail,” pp. 183 – 196
• Tapoly https://www.tapoly.com/

9. Is the gig economy good?

9a. “Bad”? (Apr 11)

• The C-SATS – explore this site enough to determine how this surgery rating process works http://www.csats.com/
• The New Inquiry: The virtual watchers (Moll & Parizot, 2016) https://thenewinquiry.com/the-virtual-watchers/
• The New Yorker: The gig economy celebrates working yourself to death (Tolentino, 2017) https://www.newyorker.com/culture/jia-tolentino/the-gig-economy-celebrates-working-yourself-to-death
• Motherboard: Uber’s phantom cabs (Rosenblat, 2015) https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mgbz5a/ubers-phantom-cabs
• Expensify Blog: Introducing: Private SmartScan on Amazon Mechanical Turk https://blog.expensify.com/2017/11/25/introducing-private-smartscan-on-amazon-mechanical-turk/
• HuffPost: Gig economy gives child support scofflaws a place to hide (Fifield, 2017) https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gig-economy-gives-child-support-scofflaws-a-place-to_us_5a2173c6e4b05072e8b56862
• Mother Jones: The crazy story of the professor who came to stay—and wouldn’t leave (Gordon, 2016) https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/berkeley-sarah-lawrence-professor-house-rental-saga/
• NY Times: The anti-Uber (Brown, 2017) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/opinion/sunday/the-anti-uber.html
• NY Times: Platform companies are becoming more powerful — but what exactly do they want? (Herman, 2017) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/magazine/platform-companies-are-becoming-more-powerful-but-what-exactly-do-they-want.html

9b. “Good”? (Apr 13)

• Fast Co: The Airbnb for affordable housing is here (Schwab, 2017) https://www.fastcodesign.com/90151804/the-airbnb-for-affordable-housing-is-here
• NY Times: Inside Amazon Go, a store of the future (Wingfield, 2018) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/21/technology/inside-amazon-go-a-store-of-the-future.html
• Wired: The rideshare driver who chased love across the ocean (Katz, 2017) https://www.wired.com/story/uber-driver-who-chased-love-across-the-ocean/
• Miami Herald: Airbnb homes in north Florida and Georgia welcoming Irma evacuees — for free (Herrera, 2017) http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article171853352.html
• Houston Chron: I downloaded an app. And suddenly, was part of the Cajun Navy. (Hartman, 2017) http://www.chron.com/local/gray-matters/article/I-downloaded-an-app-And-suddenly-I-was-talking-12172506.php
• International Rescue Committee: With emphasis on safety, new report shows ‘gig economy’ could help Syrian refugee women in Jordan find work (International Rescue Committee, 2017) https://www.rescue.org/press-release/emphasis-safety-new-report-shows-gig-economy-could-help-syrian-refugee-women-jordan

10. What gig work means for us

10a. As managers and management scholars (Apr 25)

• Organization theory and the dilemmas of a post-corporate economy (Davis, 2016)
• Amazon’s Mechanical Turk as a viable source for organizational and occupational health research (Michel, Hartman, & Lorys, 2017)
• Relatedly, for your final paper: Publishing in AMJ – Part 3: Setting the Hook (Grant & Pollock, 2011)
• (Review) “The Era of Agile Talent” (13:00 audio; HBR Ideacast episode #534, 2016 https://hbr.org/ideacast/2016/07/the-era-of-agile-talent.html
• Fisher Phillips: Retaining gig workers during the holidays (Banks, 2017) https://www.fisherphillips.com/gig-employer/retaining-gig-workers-during-the-holidays

10b. As people with “normal” jobs (Apr 27)

• WA Today: The gig economy is endangering wages, economists say (Martin, 2018) http://www.watoday.com.au/business/the-economy/the-gig-economy-is-endangering-wages-economists-say-20180306-p4z329.html
• The Sharing Economy (Sundararajan, 2016), Ch. 7 “The future of work: Challenges and controversies,” pp. 162-end

10c. Personally (Apr 27)

• Quartz: Are you a bad person if you still take Uber? (Griswold, 2017) https://qz.com/1164217/are-you-a-bad-person-if-you-still-take-uber/
• Gizmodo: Is Amazon evil and am I evil for using it? (Koltz, 2018) https://gizmodo.com/is-amazon-evil-and-am-i-evil-for-using-it-1824070880

10d. As people who want the future of work to be good (Apr 27)

• Winning the battle, losing the war?: Assessing the impact of misclassification litigation on workers in the gig economy (Dubal, 2017)
• Your role in creating a fairer world of work (Graham, 2017, pp. 28-31)