Research Interests
Algorithmic Management • Digital Platforms • Gig Economy • Future of Work
Front-Line Workers • Contemporary Careers • Mindfulness & Well-Being • Qualitative Methods & Field Research
Ride-Hailing Industry
The Rise of Algorithmic Work: Implications for Managerial Control and Worker Autonomy
Upwork. Caviar. Uber. In less than a decade the on-demand economy, a labor market characterized by short-term assignments where work is coordinated through algorithms, has radically reshaped the nature of work and workers’ experience. Long-standing organizational theories suggest that the rise of algorithmic management systems will tighten the iron cage, estranging workers by ever increasing comprehensive, instantaneous, real-time, and opaque levels of control. This dissertation, however, reveals the multiple ways workers find and express individual agency in such an environment. In my first paper, I examine how, in the absence of such traditional organizational scaffolds (e.g., managers, socialization practices), do individuals make meaning of their work in a way that fosters investment into the work? I find that through interactions the customer and the app individuals turn their work into games that they find meaningful, can control, and ‘win’ each with divergent implications. In the second empirical paper, I examine the relationship between algorithmic management and autonomy finding they are not necessarily antithetical. I describe how algorithms structure the work and, how at the site of each human-algorithm interaction, workers are able to express autonomy. At these micro-moments of autonomy, consent to the work is continually produced and reproduced; however consent is fragile and can be withdrawn at any time. This research has implications for theories around meaning-making, workplace games, and algorithmic management.
Committee: Jerry Davis (Chair), Jane Dutton, Seth Carnahan (Strategy), Tawanna Dillahunt (Information Science), Beth Bechky (NYU, Stern)
Publications
Cameron, L. Forthcoming. “The Making of the “Good Bad” Job: How Algorithmic Management Repurposes Workplace Consent through Constant and Confined Choice. Administrative Science Quarterly
Kulkarni, M., Cameron, L.*, Gehman, J.*, Glaser, V.*, Greenwood, M.*, Islam, G.*, Lindebaum, D.*, Mantere, S.*; Pachidi, S*., Rahman, H.*, Vaara, E.*, & Van den Broek, E.*. Forthcoming. “The Future of Research in an Artificial Intelligence Driven World.” Journal of Management Inquiry.
*Shared Authorship; Essay Title “Language Large Models in Qualitative Research: All the Glitters is Not Gold
Rahman, H.*, Karunakaran, A.* & Cameron, L.*. Forthcoming. “Taming Platform Power: Taking Accountability Into Account In the Management of Platforms.” Academy of Management Annals
*Shared First Authorship, Reverse Alphabetical Order
Cameron, L.,* Lamars, L.*, Leicht-Deobald, U.*, Lutz, C.*, Meijerink, J.* & Mohlmann, M.*.2023. Algorithmic Management: Its Implications for Information Systems Research. Communications of the Association of Information Systems.
*Authorship Alphabetical
Cameron, L., Chan, C. & Anteby, M. 2022. “Heroes from Above But Not (Always) From Within: Gig Workers Responses to the Public Moralization of their Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Cameron, L.* & Meuris, J.* 2022. “The Perils of Pay Variability: The Determinants of Worker Aversion to Variable Compensation in Low and Middle Wage Jobs” In Sonia Taneja (Ed.), Proceedings of the Eighty-second Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Online ISSN: 2151-6561.
*Shared First Authorship
Cameron, L. 2022. ““Making Out” While Driving: The Relational and Efficiency Game in the Gig Economy.” Organization Science.
Cameron, L*. & Rahman, H*. 2022. “Expanding the Locus of Resistance: The Constitution of Control and Resistance in the Gig Economy”. Organization Science.
*Shared First Authorship
Cameron, L., Thomason, B., & Conzon, V. 2021. “Risky Business: Gig Workers and the Navigation of Ideal Worker Expectations During the COVID-19 Pandemic”. Journal of Applied Psychology
Cameron, L.* & Hafenbrack, A.* Spreitzer, G., Noval, L., Zhang, C. & Shaffakat, S. 2020. “Helping Others by Being in the Present Moment: Mindfulness and Prosocial Behavior at Work” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
*Shared First authorship
Cameron, L., Garrett, L.E, Spreitzer, G.M. 2019. Contingent, Contract, and Alternative Work Arrangements. Oxford Bibliographies in Management.
Kamaswaren, V., Cameron, L., Dillahunt, T. 2018. Support for Social and Cultural Capital Development in Real-time Ridesharing Services. Computer-Human Interactions. CHI 2018: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. [Acceptance Rate 25%]
Spreitzer, G.M., Cameron, L., & Garrett, L.E. 2017. Alternative Work Arrangements: Two Images of the New World of Work. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 4: 473-499.
Manuscripts Under Review & Working Papers
Cameron, L. & Meuris, J.* (Under Review). “The Perils of Paycheck Dispersion: When Fluctuation in Compensation Jeopardize Retention”.
*Shared First Authorship
Cameron, L.*, Thomason, B*. & Occhiuto, N*. (Working Paper). “How Platform Work Translates Across Borders, A Multi-National Comparative of the RideHaling Industry”.
*Shared First Authorship
Mayberry, K.*+ & Cameron, L.* (Under Review). “The New Frontier of Activism: Understanding Multi-Sided Algo-Activism in the On-Demand Economy.”
*Shared First Authorship.
+ Student Author
Thomason, B. & Cameron,L. (Working Paper). “From Capetown and Nairobi via San Francisco: How Uber Drivers Create and Foster Global Connection and Global Belonging.”
Nurmohamed, S, McCluney, C., Cameron, L., Mayer, D. (Working Paper) “Show me the money?: The Business vs. Ethical Case for Diversity in Corporations.”
Cameron, L. (Working Paper). “The Sound, Smells, and Tastes that Bind Us: Materiality in the Process of Organizational Identification in Diverse Communities”
Op-Eds & Practitioner Publications
Soujouner, A., Houseman, S., Mueller, C., Cameron, L., Handel, M., Kelly, E., Kemp, J., Kosanovich, K., Kreisman, D., Mas, A., Mueller, A., Pedulla, D., Robertson, C., Rodgers, W., Schenider, D., Smith, J. 2023. “Employment and Work Arrangements Content Panel Report.” NORC. Published on 26 May 2023.
Cameron, L. 2023. Does Mindfulness Actually Make you Happier (or Better) at Work? Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris. Released on 29 March 2023.
Cameron, L. & Hafenbrack, A. 2022. When Mindfulness Does — And Doesn’t — Help at Work. Harvard Business Review. Published on 12 December 2022.
Cameron, L. & Winn, B. 2021. Worker Voice & Choice: The Democratization and Uberification of Work. (Linking Theory + Practice Series). People + Strategy Journal, Society for Human Resource Management, Fall 2021
Cameron, L. 2021. The Gig Economy and the Pandemic. Work and Life Podcast with Stew Friedman. Released on 11 February 2021.
Cameron, L. & Rosenblat, A. 2020. Gig Work Used to Be a Recession-Proof Safety Net. Not Anymore. Fast Company. Published on 10 August 2020.
Cameron, L. (as interviewed by Cross, M.). 2019. The New Uber Law’s Ripple Effect. Kiplinger’s. Published on 15 November 2019.
Public Hearings
Pennsylvania Joint Task Force on Worker Misclassification. February 2022
Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing: Worker Misclassification and the Future of Work. November 2022
Pennsylvania State Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing: Testimony on Ride-hailing Companies. June 2020
Research in Progress
Cameron, L.*, Thomason, B*. & Occhiuto, N*. (Working Paper). “The Platform is Not Neutral: Examining Regulatory Disputes in a Multinational Ethnography of the RideHaling Industry”.
*Shared First Authorship.
Mayberry, K.*+, Cameron, L.*, & Rahman, H. (Writing). “Unhooking from the Matrix: The Rise of Algo-Activism”
*Shared First Authorship.
+ Student Author
Thomason, B. & Cameron,L. (Working Paper). “From Capetown and Nairobi via San Franscisco: How Uber Drivers Create and Foster Global Connection and Global Belonging.”
Cameron, L. (Data Collection). “The Gig Worker and the Pandemic”.
Cameron, L. (Data Collection). “The Racialization of Platform Work”.
Cameron, L.*, & Viscelli, S.* (Data Collection). “The Limits of Uberification: An Examination of Human Supply Chains for Last-Mile Delivery”
*Shared First Authorship.
Resource List
Resources on writing, critical thinking, research design, qualitative methods, and managing life as an academic and creative professional.
Resources on applying to PhD programs in Business
Resources on the academic job market (courtesy of Verónica Rabelo)
Features
Meet a Hacker Turned Scholar: Q&A with Lindsey D. Cameron. Fall 2023. Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton.
Make a Way: Lindsey Cameron with Sareeta Amrute. Summer 2023. Data and Society Research Institute.
On the Gig Economy: An Interview with Lindsey Cameron. Winter 2022. Accounts Newsletter, Official Newsletter of the Occupations & Work and Economic Sociology section of the American Sociological Association.
Research Spotlight: Prof. Lindsey Cameron on drivers in the gig economy. (2021, November 29), Wharton Social Impact Initiative
Research Spotlight: Lindsey D. Cameron, A Personal Interest in the Gig Economy Impact’s. (2020, October 19), Michigan Center for Positive Organization
Lindsey Cameron: USA Today All Academic Team, First Team. Spring 2001. USA Today.
Young Women of Achievement: A Resource for Girls in Math, Science, and Technology. 2001. University of Mississippi Press, by Frances Karnes and Kristen Stephens
Affiliations
The Changing Nature of Work
© 2022 Lindsey D. Cameron | Developed by Scholarly Studio
