#Knowyourworth: How influencers commercialise meaningful work
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#Knowyourworth : How influencers commercialise meaningful work. / Trittin-Ulbrich, Hannah; Glozer, Sarah.
In: Human Relations , 2024.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - #Knowyourworth
T2 - How influencers commercialise meaningful work
AU - Trittin-Ulbrich, Hannah
AU - Glozer, Sarah
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Studies of meaningful work have proposed that work that holds personal significance and meaning can transcend pay. But how can workers who do not want, or cannot afford, to sacrifice pay for meaning commercialise their work to realise its market worth? We explore this question in the context of social media influencers who participated in the InfluencerPayGap community (an Instagram profile established in 2020 to expose pay disparities in the influencer industry). Combining concepts of worth from the meaningful work literature with a sociological theory of valuation, we identify three enrichment narratives engaged with by influencers to circumvent expectations of performing free labour. Besides illuminating how influencers construct and connect the personal worth of their work with its market worth, we show how these narratives of authenticity, relationality and quantification involve a ‘double loop of enrichment’. Consisting in the interplay between influencers’ own sense of the worth of their work and feedback from their followers and the algorithms of social media platforms, this loop can reinforce and transform but also undermine influencers’ perceptions of the worth and meaning of their work. Our findings contribute to a greater understanding of meaningful work and the valuation of work in non-traditional work contexts.
AB - Studies of meaningful work have proposed that work that holds personal significance and meaning can transcend pay. But how can workers who do not want, or cannot afford, to sacrifice pay for meaning commercialise their work to realise its market worth? We explore this question in the context of social media influencers who participated in the InfluencerPayGap community (an Instagram profile established in 2020 to expose pay disparities in the influencer industry). Combining concepts of worth from the meaningful work literature with a sociological theory of valuation, we identify three enrichment narratives engaged with by influencers to circumvent expectations of performing free labour. Besides illuminating how influencers construct and connect the personal worth of their work with its market worth, we show how these narratives of authenticity, relationality and quantification involve a ‘double loop of enrichment’. Consisting in the interplay between influencers’ own sense of the worth of their work and feedback from their followers and the algorithms of social media platforms, this loop can reinforce and transform but also undermine influencers’ perceptions of the worth and meaning of their work. Our findings contribute to a greater understanding of meaningful work and the valuation of work in non-traditional work contexts.
KW - enrichment
KW - meaningful work
KW - narrative analysis
KW - social media influencer
KW - valuation
KW - worth
KW - Management studies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85183856862&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/9cae597f-c0ca-3ff6-ad29-cce8d0d168d7/
U2 - 10.1177/00187267231220260
DO - 10.1177/00187267231220260
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85183856862
JO - Human Relations
JF - Human Relations
SN - 0018-7267
ER -