IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v66y2023i2p181-190.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When gig workers become essential: Leveraging customer moral self-awareness beyond COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Friedland, Julian
  • Balkin, David B.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic intensified economic reliance on gig workers that perform essential tasks such as health care, personal transport, food and package delivery, and ad-hoc tasking services within the developed and developing world. As a result, workers who provide such services are no longer perceived as low-skilled laborers but as essential workers who fulfill a crucial role in society. These workers’ newly elevated moral and economic status increases consumer demand for corporate social responsibility toward this stakeholder group, specifically for practices that increase worker freedom and rewards. We provide algorithmic tools for online labor platforms to meet this demand, bolstering their social purpose and ethical branding while better protecting themselves against potential reputational crises. To do this, we propose a managerial strategy rooted in moral self-awareness theory that leverages customers’ self-perceived virtuosity to increase gig-worker freedom.

Suggested Citation

  • Friedland, Julian & Balkin, David B., 2023. "When gig workers become essential: Leveraging customer moral self-awareness beyond COVID-19," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 181-190.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:66:y:2023:i:2:p:181-190
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2022.05.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681322000477
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2022.05.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Janine Berg & Hannah Johnston, 2019. "Too Good to Be True? A Comment on Hall and Krueger’s Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber’s Driver-Partners," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(1), pages 39-68, January.
    2. Waqar Nadeem & Mari Juntunen & Nick Hajli & Mina Tajvidi, 2021. "The Role of Ethical Perceptions in Consumers’ Participation and Value Co-creation on Sharing Economy Platforms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 421-441, March.
    3. Madeleine Rauch & Shahzad (Shaz) Ansari, 2022. "From ‘Publish or Perish’ to Societal Impact: Organizational Repurposing Towards Responsible Innovation through Creating a Medical Platform," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 61-91, January.
    4. Julian Friedland & Benjamin M. Cole, 2019. "From Homo-economicus to Homo-virtus: A System-Theoretic Model for Raising Moral Self-Awareness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 191-205, March.
    5. Christian Fieseler & Eliane Bucher & Christian Pieter Hoffmann, 2019. "Unfairness by Design? The Perceived Fairness of Digital Labor on Crowdworking Platforms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 987-1005, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angela Garcia Calvo & Martin Kenney & John Zysman, 2023. "Understanding work in the online platform economy: the narrow, the broad, and the systemic perspectives," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 32(4), pages 795-814.
    2. Mainardes, Emerson Wagner & Coutinho, Ananda Raquel Silva & Alves, Helena Maria Batista, 2023. "The influence of the ethics of E-retailers on online customer experience and customer satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    3. Niki Panteli & Andriana Rapti & Dora Scholarios, 2020. "‘If He Just Knew Who We Were’: Microworkers’ Emerging Bonds of Attachment in a Fragmented Employment Relationship," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(3), pages 476-494, June.
    4. Yao, Qiongrui (Missy) & Baker, LaKami T. & Lohrke, Franz T., 2022. "Building and sustaining trust in remote work by platform-dependent entrepreneurs on digital labor platforms: Toward an integrative framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 327-339.
    5. Antonio ALOISI & Valerio DE STEFANO, 2020. "Regulation and the future of work: The employment relationship as an innovation facilitator," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 159(1), pages 47-69, March.
    6. Marcela Parada-Contzen & José Rigoberto Parada-Daza, 2023. "On the weighting of homo economicus and homo virtus in human behaviour," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Oliver Alexander & Jeff Borland & Andrew Charlton & Amit Singh, 2022. "The Labour Market for Uber Drivers in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 55(2), pages 177-194, June.
    8. Mark Christensen & Geoffrey Lamberton, 2022. "Accounting for Animal Welfare: Addressing Epistemic Vices During Live Sheep Export Voyages," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 35-56, September.
    9. Jikai Zou & Ying Shao, 2022. "A Study on Factors Affecting the Value Co-Creation Behavior of Customers in Sharing Economy: Take Airbnb Malaysia as an Example," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, October.
    10. Brad Greenwood & Idris Adjerid & Corey M. Angst & Nathan L. Meikle, 2022. "How Unbecoming of You: Online Experiments Uncovering Gender Biases in Perceptions of Ridesharing Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 499-518, January.
    11. Ismael Gálvez-Iniesta & José L. Groizard & Ferran Portella-Carbó, 2023. "Sharing my place: the local labor market impact of the P2P technology shock," DEA Working Papers 97, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Departament d'Economía Aplicada.
    12. Ahmad Ibrahim Aljumah, 2023. "Investigating the Impact of Blockchain Technology on Social Sustainability and the Mediating Role of Ethics and CSR," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-17, November.
    13. Jingtao Yi & Jiatao Li & Liang Chen, 2023. "Ecosystem social responsibility in international digital commerce," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(1), pages 24-41, February.
    14. Michael David Maffie, 2023. "The mythology of ‘Big Data’ as a source of corporate power," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 674-696, September.
    15. Michael David Maffie, 2020. "Are we ‘sharing’ or ‘gig‐ing’? A classification system for online platforms," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(6), pages 536-555, November.
    16. Sanae Tashiro & Stephen Choi, 2021. "Labor market outcomes under digital platform business models in the sharing economy: the case of the taxi services industry," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 240-251, October.
    17. Bingbing Zhang & Yin Yao & Guangkui Han & Jialiang He & Yu Xie & Xinyu Wang, 2023. "How Does Platform Labour Process Control Affect Courier’s Employment Mobility Intentions?—The Mediating Effects of Overtime Work and Job Autonomy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-19, June.
    18. Gideon D. Markman & Marvin Lieberman & Michael Leiblein & Li‐Qun Wei & Yonggui Wang, 2021. "The Distinctive Domain of the Sharing Economy: Definitions, Value Creation, and Implications for Research," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 927-948, June.
    19. Katerina Paschalidou & Efi Tsitskari & Kostas Alexandris & Thomas Karagiorgos & Dionisios Filippou, 2023. "Segmenting Fitness Center Customers: Leveraging Perceived Ethicality for Enhanced Loyalty, Trust, and Word-of-Mouth Communication," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-19, November.
    20. Xiao-xiao Liu & Feng Xiong & Xingqiang Du, 2023. "Innovator or Troublemaker? The Co-evolution of Ethical Controversies, Legitimation and Institutionalisation of the Ridesharing Firms in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(4), pages 723-737, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:66:y:2023:i:2:p:181-190. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.