Voice and Decent Work in the Gig Economy: A Moderated Mediation Analysis of Worker Outcomes Across Platform Types

Purpose: Drawing on the Psychology of Working Theory and the organizational voice literature, this study examines how platform worker voice relates to key work outcomes through perceptions of decent work and whether these relationships vary across types of digital labor platforms. Specifically, the study tests a mediation model in which decent work perceptions link voice to worker outcomes and a moderated mediation model in which platform type conditions these processes. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data were collected from 856 platform workers in Hungary engaged in delivery, transport, and professional service platforms. Platform worker voice was specified as the independent variable, perceptions of decent work as the mediator, and job satisfaction, psychological well-being, turnover intention, and perceived job precarity as outcomes. Conditional process analyses were conducted to test mediation and moderated mediation effects across platform types. Findings: Platform worker voice was positively associated with perceptions of decent work, which in turn were positively related to job satisfaction and psychological well-being and negatively related to turnover intention and perceived job precarity. Perceptions of decent work mediated the relationships between voice and all outcomes. Platform type did not moderate the association between voice and decent work, but it did moderate several associations between decent work and worker outcomes, with generally stronger effects observed among delivery workers compared to transport and professional service workers. Conditional indirect effects varied across platform types, indicating partial support for moderated mediation. Originality/value: This study advances research on decent work in the gig economy by identifying platform worker voice as a key antecedent of decent work perceptions and by showing that the consequences of decent work vary across platform contexts. By integrating mediation and moderation within a single analytical framework, the findings highlight the importance of considering structural heterogeneity when examining psychological processes linking voice to worker outcomes in platform-based employment.