skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: More than Temporal Control: Forms of Agency That Matter to High-Skilled Independent Workers
Nearly one third of U.S workers are self-employed or independent contractors. Autonomy has long been identified as a driving motivation for independent workers, but it remains unclear how these workers experience agency in their day-to-day lives. In an interview and diary study with highly-skilled independent workers, we find that “autonomy” is not a monolithic or unidimensional experience; rather, there are multiple forms of autonomy, that we label “agencies” that workers value. In addition, the experienced value of these agencies generally supersedes the uncertainties associated with independent work, even during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. By creating a framework of experienced agencies in independent work, this paper expands our understanding of how autonomy is experienced in practice and the tradeoffs that independent workers make in service of seeking various forms of agency. For, we find that only when experienced agency disappears entirely, with little hope of returning, do these highly-skilled workers consider abandoning independent work and contemplate working for a traditional organization.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1928733
PAR ID:
10333119
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Academy of Management [BEST PAPER PROCEEDINGS]
Volume:
2021
Issue:
a
Page Range / eLocation ID:
16322
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction)
    This paper presents a mixed-methods study of app-based motorcycle taxis in Thailand to explore the social dynamics of rideshare drivers and their exercised autonomy both through social pressure and a hostile work environment. As motorcycle taxis are open-air vehicles, drivers can be exposed to prolonged air pollution and other weather events, potentially impacting their health. In an initial quantitative study of server-side rideshare logs, we unexpectedly found that drivers do not exercise the autonomy provided by their rideshare platform to avoid air pollution events. This prompted a follow-on investigation through semi-structured interviews of both drivers and passengers in three provinces to explore why these drivers fail to experience the autonomy promised by gig-work in this context and elucidated further examples this lack of autonomy experienced by drivers. Our study sheds light on the social context that may constrain a driver's agency, including financial pressures, weather conditions, conflicts with local taxi organizations, and a false perception that drivers need to work around the ride assignment algorithm to avoid being blacklisted. We find that when leveraging app-based rideshare opportunities, drivers simultaneously perceive increased flexibility in their work hours and a lack of agency to prioritize their health and safety. We conclude with a discussion on potential interventions aimed at mitigating the forces preventing drivers from exercising their autonomy. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; (, Perspectives on Public Management and Governance)
    A critical question in relation to inter-agency coordination is not only whether, but how, to coordinate. This question is particularly salient when agencies are subject to a top-down mandate. While inter-agency coordination can provide multiple benefits, agencies frequently have concerns about the potential risks of coordination. Differing coordination mechanisms may reduce or exacerbate those concerns. Depending on their coordination concerns, agencies will be inclined to favor certain mechanisms over others. Examination of the implementation of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which mandates local agency coordination, indicates that coordination mechanism selection is influenced by which combination of concerns agencies hold, with autonomy considerations taking priority over other concerns. These findings suggest opportunities to improve the explanatory power of theories of inter-agency coordination by incorporating potential hierarchies of concerns, their distribution across the multiple agencies tasked with coordinating, and configurational effects. To this end, we propose a contingency theory of agency concerns and coordination mechanism choice under a mandate to coordinate. 
    more » « less
  3. ; (, Journal of computing sciences in colleges)
    As more people turn to discretionary online tools to learn new skills such as computer programming, exploring how to better support a wide range of learners is becoming increasingly essential to train the next generation of highly skilled technology workers. In our prior work, users with high learner autonomy complained that most online resources they used to learn more programming did not provide them with the flexibility they preferred to navigate through learning materials, locking them into a set sequence of topics/concepts. To explore this, we implemented a level-jumping feature into an online educational programming game. We tested it with 350 new users, tracking their progress through the game for 7 days each. We found that those with high learner autonomy did use the level jumping feature more than those with low learner autonomy. We also found that males were more likely to use this new feature, regardless of learner autonomy level, compared to their female counterparts. Finally, we found that those with low learner autonomy ultimately completed more levels than their high autonomy counterparts, and that this was particularly true of female learners (who completed the most levels overall). Based on these findings, we believe that autonomous-supportive features such as flexible navigation may be beneficial to all users of online educational tools, and that encouraging its use by a wider group of users (particularly females), may increase positive effects. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Communications of the ACM)
    null (Ed.)
    Flexible, contingent, or 'agile,' working arrangements provide workers with greater autonomy over when, where, or how to fulfill their responsibilities. In search of increased productivity and reduced absenteeism, organizations have increasingly turned to flexible work arrangements. Although access to flexible work arrangements is more prevalent among high-skilled workers, in the form of flextime or co-working, the past decade has also witnessed growth of independent contractors, digital nomadism, digitally enabled crowdwork, online freelancing, and on-demand platform labor. Flexible work arrangements reduce commutes and can enable workers with care-responsibilities to stay in the workforce. Younger workers also see flexibility as a top priority when considering career opportunities. Flexible working arrangements can also be mutually beneficial, enabling organizations to scale dynamically. Specific skill sets can be immediately accessed by turning to freelancers to fill organizational gaps. A growing number of organizations and workers rely on short-term and project-based relationships, using online platforms such as Upwork or Fiverr to connect. However, flexible work arrangements often come entwined with precarity cloaked in emancipatory narratives. Fixed salaries and benefits have given way to hourly rates and quantified ratings. Flexible workers often face unpredictability and uncertainty as they carry more risk and responsibility, and are burdened with a great portion of administrative costs (that is, overhead) associated with organizational support systems. Flexible workers at Google, for instance, outnumber full time workers but face far more unpredictability. Current formulations consider organizations as relatively fixed 'containers', which encapsulate the work performed and the information and communications technology (ICT) systems used to perform it.12 However, flexible work arrangements take place outside of organizational containers. In this new sociotechnical dynamic, flexible workers interact with a diversity of digital tools that defy centralized, top-down standardization or governance. We capture this diversity of digital tools through the concept of Personal Digital Infrastructures (PDIs), which denote an individualized assemblage of tools and technologies, such as personal laptops, smartphones, cloud services, and applications brought together by workers to perform their work tasks. Yet, flexible workers constantly reconfigure their PDIs as the technology landscape, client-relationship, and task requirements shift. For flexible work arrangements to be mutually beneficial, PDI integration in ICT systems for work is increasingly necessary, beyond a narrow focus on enterprise systems supporting standard work. Our collective research on flexible work arrangements indicates that PDIs present non-trivial challenges, but a more effective design of ICT systems for work can facilitate the integration of these bottom-up infrastructures. The nuanced understanding of PDIs presented here highlights their interplay with flexible work arrangements across key dimensions (spatial, temporal, organizational, and technological) and suggests key priorities for technology and platform developers. 
    more » « less
  5. ; (, Theory and Society)
    null (Ed.)
    This article asks how people come to interpret themselves and others as autonomous given their multiple dependencies. We draw on a cross-case comparison of ethnographic studies with two populations for whom autonomy is both central and problematic: elderly patients in post-acute care, and young adults with disabilities in an independent living program. Analyzing the institutional efforts to make their clients “as independent as possible,” we find that staff members at each organization formulate autonomy as a temporal project through an ongoing calibration of open futures, ideal pasts, and situational competence. Constantly adjusting and fine-tuning where in time autonomy “really” is, workers arrange present dependence so that the contours of the future remain open for their clients. In other words, they make use of temporal markers to produce recognizable autonomous subjects whose dependencies are momentary. Theorizing this temporal project enables us to see more clearly how all of us engage in the constant business of “doing” autonomy, and to better understand the role of institutions in producing autonomous selves. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email