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of autonomy, consent to the work is continually produced and reproduced; however consent is fragile and can be withdrawn at any time.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
- Cameron, L.,* Lamars, L.*, Leicht-Deobald, U.*, Lutz, C.*, Meijerink, J* & Mohlmann, M.*. 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.” 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. 2021. “(Relative) Freedom in Algorithms: How Digital Platforms Repurpose Workplace Consent.” In Sonia Taneja (Ed.), Proceedings of the Eighty-first Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Online ISSN: 2151-6561.
- Cameron, L*. & Rahman, H.* 2021. “(Not) Seeing Like an Algorithm: Managerial Control and Worker Resistance in the Platform Economy” In Sonia Taneja (Ed.), Proceedings of the Eighty-first Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Online ISSN: 2151-6561.
- *Shared First Authorship
- Cameron, L. 2020. “Allies or Adversaries?: Making Meaning of Work in the ‘New’ Gig Employment Relationship.” In Guclu Atinc (Ed.), Proceedings of the Eightieth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Online ISSN: 2151-6561.
- Cameron, L.* & Hafenbrack, A.* Spreitzer, G., Noval, L., Zhang, C. & Shaffakat, S. “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
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.
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
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).
Affiliations
The Changing Nature of Work
© 2022 Lindsey D. Cameron | Developed by Scholarly Studio
