Harvard Business School, BlackBox Lab, How Algorithmic Management Repurposes Workplace Consent

Photo credit: T. Hogan

Michigan Ross Impact Report. A Personal Interest in the Gig Economy’s Impacts

Photo credit: Shira Yudkoff

Aspen Institute, Working in America Discussion Series. The Rise of Gig Work: Creating Flexibility and Stability for Workers in a New Era

Photo credit: Aspen Institute

University of Chicago. AI in Society Summit. The 4th Industrial Revolution: What Do the Workers Do?

Photo Credit: Jacy Anthis

Research Interests

Gig Economy • Algorithmic Management • Future of Work
Contemporary Careers • Financial Well-being • Lower-paid Work • Field Research

Dissertation

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of autonomy, consent to the work is continually produced and reproduced; however consent is fragile and can be withdrawn at any time.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 dissertation 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
Manuscripts Under Review

Cameron, L. (Revise & Resubmit Requested). “(Relative) Freedom in Algorithms: How Digital Platforms Reconfigure Workplace Consent

Cameron, L. & Meuris, J.* (Under review). “The Perils of Paycheck Dispersion: When Fluctuation in Compensation Jeopardize Retention”.
*Shared First Authorship

Rahman, H.*, Cameron, L.*, & Karunakaran, A*. “Taming Platform Power: Taking Accountability Into Account, An Integrative Review on Digital Platforms” Proposal Accepted, Academy of Management Annals
*Shared First Authorship

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

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 from 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.

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

Features

On the Gig Economy: An Interview with Lindsey Cameron. Accounts Newsletter, Winter 2022, Offical 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

Other Writing

I have published essays in several anthologies and literary journals and am featured in various books including, Young Women of Achievement: A Resource for Girls in Math, Science, and Technology  (by Frances Karnes and Kristen Stephens).

© 2022 Lindsey D. Cameron | Developed by Scholarly Studio