TY - CHAP

T1 - Building collective institutional infrastructures for decent platform work: The development of a crowdwork agreement in Germany

AU - Gegenhuber, Thomas

AU - Schüßler, Elke

AU - Reischauer, Georg

AU - Thäter, Laura

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Thomas Gegenhuber, Elke Schuessler, Georg Reischauer and Laura Thäter. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited.

PY - 2022/3/29

Y1 - 2022/3/29

N2 - Working conditions on many digital work platforms often contribute to the grand challenge of establishing decent work. While research has examined the public regulation of platform work and worker resistance, little is known about private regulatory models. In this paper, we document the development of the “Crowdwork Agreement” forged between platforms and a trade union in the relatively young German crowdworking field. We find that existing templates played an important role in the process of negotiating this new institutional infrastructure, despite the radically new work context. While the platforms drew on the corporate social responsibility template of voluntary self-regulation via a code of conduct focusing on procedural aspects of decent platform work (i.e., improving work conditions and processes), the union contributed a traditional social partnership template emphasizing accountability, parity and distributive matters. The trade union’s approach prevailed in terms of accountability and parity mechanisms, while the platforms were able to uphold the mostly procedural character of their template. This compromise is reflected in many formal and informal interactions, themselves characteristic of a social partnership approach. Our study contributes to research on institutional infrastructures in emerging fields and their role in addressing grand challenges.

AB - Working conditions on many digital work platforms often contribute to the grand challenge of establishing decent work. While research has examined the public regulation of platform work and worker resistance, little is known about private regulatory models. In this paper, we document the development of the “Crowdwork Agreement” forged between platforms and a trade union in the relatively young German crowdworking field. We find that existing templates played an important role in the process of negotiating this new institutional infrastructure, despite the radically new work context. While the platforms drew on the corporate social responsibility template of voluntary self-regulation via a code of conduct focusing on procedural aspects of decent platform work (i.e., improving work conditions and processes), the union contributed a traditional social partnership template emphasizing accountability, parity and distributive matters. The trade union’s approach prevailed in terms of accountability and parity mechanisms, while the platforms were able to uphold the mostly procedural character of their template. This compromise is reflected in many formal and informal interactions, themselves characteristic of a social partnership approach. Our study contributes to research on institutional infrastructures in emerging fields and their role in addressing grand challenges.

KW - Decent work

KW - Digital platforms

KW - Governance

KW - Grand challenge

KW - Institutional infrastructure

KW - Regulation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126719446&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/2cb5e043-fd8a-3037-8158-931cbebca297/

U2 - 10.1108/S0733-558X20220000079004

DO - 10.1108/S0733-558X20220000079004

M3 - Chapter

AN - SCOPUS:85126719446

SN - 978-1-83909-829-1

T3 - Research in the Sociology of Organizations

SP - 43

EP - 68

BT - Organizing for societal grand challenges

A2 - Gümüsay, Ali Aslan

A2 - Marti, Emilio

A2 - Trittin-Ulbrich, Hanna

A2 - Wickert, Christopher

PB - Emerald Publishing Limited

CY - Bingley

ER -