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

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  • 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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    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.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mohd Daud, Siti Nurazira & Osman, Zaiton & Samsudin, Shamzaeffa & Phang, Ing Grace, 2024. "Adapting to the gig economy: Determinants of financial resilience among “Giggers”," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 756-771.
    2. Yi Zhang & Dan Li & Shengren Liu, 2024. "Time Evolution Analysis of Riders’ Preference Attention and Satisfaction on Real-Time Crowdsourcing Logistics Platform," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, August.

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