rotmanmagazine.ca / 125couldn’t be accomplished any other way. But today, organi-
zations have started to treat people who are not in the domi-
nant power group as somehow not fully human participants
in the activity of the organization. They treat them like
dehumanized robots, and this threatens the legitimacy of
the corporation in society both by creating job crises and
by diminishing civility. In the U.S., these problems have led
to a national crisis.
How is the growing ‘gig economy’ affecting all of this?
In the gig economy, individuals who would previously have
been employed as delivery or taxi drivers are now hired as
independent contractors, without access to many of the
benefits required under employment laws, thus dramati-
cally lowering costs for their employers. Arranging work in
this way also minimizes workers’ basis for social comparison
that tends to maintain parity of wages across positions.
The economic, physical and psychological effects on
those engaged in such tasks can be disastrous: With costs
kept low, replacement of workers is easy. Workers are fined
for failure to complete assignments fast. And under close
monitoring made possible through surveillance technolo-
gies, many workers not only earn less than they would under
traditional employment arrangements, but they also suffer
physical and mental illnesses.
Such dynamics can lead to catastrophic outcomes —
as in the widely reported case of UK delivery driver Don
Lane who died after missing several scheduled health
checks because he felt unable to take a day off from his de-
livery rounds. Led by charismatic entrepreneurs and hyped
up by exuberant market analysts, firms in the gig economy
often hide new, oppressive power relations privileging
the credentialed elite over workers on the other side of the
digital divide.
You have argued that a lack of access to powerful net-
works can be a big problem. Please explain.
The difference in opportunities and advantages enjoyed
by those at the tops of organizations is reinforced by the
knowledge, networks and resources that their roles provide.
While some independent entrepreneurs and professionals
benefit from the extra capital organizations free up from job
outsourcing and tech substitution of jobs, the people left
working in low-level jobs are almost inevitably less fortu-
nate. The tasks they are employed to perform prevent them
from accumulating the varied experience that workers in
other positions can accrue, making a career ladder almost
impossible.
These jobs provide very few opportunities to meet
and develop relationships with senior members of the orga-
nization, and thus to cultivate organizational mentors and
sponsors.
Even simple job performance measures, such as punc-
tuality, can create difficulties for those who are unable to
afford reliable transportation or childcare, potentially jeop-
ardizing employment and definitely limiting career progres-
sion. On top of that, low-level jobs have become more and
more demanding socially. People in these roles often are
required to be pleasant and engaged, and are evaluated on
that. All of these factors prevent those disadvantaged by
their organizational positions from climbing out of them,
perpetuating and amplifying economic inequality.What steps can an organization take to address these
complex issues?
Every organization, large and small, should be adopting
best practices in terms of remediating inequalities. For
example, by using gender-blind reviews of resumes when
hiring, or by rethinking job design to make low-level jobs
more meaningful. The broader opportunity at the most se-
nior levels of the organization is to really reflect on the aspi-
ration of the firm for creating value over the long term. The
key is to examine whether or not that aspiration is aligned
with the core values of the people who are engaged by the
organization.
For example, if your aspiration is to become ‘the best’ at
something, what does that mean for all the people who can’t
afford the best? What does it mean for those who haven’t
had the required educational opportunities and can’t tap
into the systems that are creating ‘the best’ of something?