Dasgupta, Prakriti, Carbery, Ronan, McDonnell, Anthony and Jooss, Stefan (2026) Algorithmic management and worker agency: The platform perspective on algoactivism. Human Relations. pp. 1-36. ISSN 0018-7267
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Abstract
Do platform workers inadvertently strengthen the algorithmic management (AM) systems they seek to resist? Drawing on 37 interviews with digital labor platform managers, this paper provides an organizational perspective on workers’ “algoactivism” in food and grocery delivery. We reveal that platforms are not passive targets and their reactions to algoactivist acts unfold through a dynamic cycle of sensemaking across three stages: noticing, framing, and acting. We identify key determinants at each stage, explaining why platforms react differently to worker acts. Unlike traditional organizations with formal conflict management procedures, we suggest that platforms operate as adaptive socio-technical systems, continually recalibrating managerial mechanisms through experimentation. We find that workers exploit gaps that platforms subsequently close, rendering them unwitting contributors to their own control. Explaining workers’ algoactivism and its role in shaping AM practices, we situate sensemaking within the duality of AM, highlighting how its interpretive flexibility creates tensions between intended design and actual use. We refine this conceptualization, asserting that the recursivity of AM is not open-ended, as interpretive flexibility may shrink with platforms continually adapting to algoactivist acts. While mutual shaping persists, recursive dynamics may compress worker agency, exposing the limits of algoactivism and challenging assumptions about its emancipatory potential.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (CC BY-NC 4.0) This license allows others to re-use the Contribution without permission as long as the Contribution is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. The Proprietor will receive exclusive commercial rights to the Article and non-exclusive commercial rights to the abstract and Supplemental Material |
| Keywords: | algoactivism; algorithmic management; duality; platform work; sensemaking; socio-technical systems; worker agency; |
| Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Business |
| Item ID: | 21585 |
| Identification Number: | 10.1177/00187267261445807 |
| Depositing User: | Prakriti Dasgupta |
| Date Deposited: | 19 May 2026 12:14 |
| Journal or Publication Title: | Human Relations |
| Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Related URLs: | |
| Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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