Algorithms have absorbed managers’ organizational functions in platform work

Evidence

Strictly speaking, the concept means the individualization of working tasks as both a result of and a presupposition for the adoption of digital technologies in the labor process. These fragmented technologies allow for new modes of standardization, decomposition, quantification, and surveillance of labor, often realized through forms of (semi-)automated management, cooperation and control (Cherry 2016). Among such forms of control, the most ground breaking is the algorithm, whose adoption has significantly transformed both the form of managerial control and the work organization. Algorithms have in fact absorbed many organizational functions traditionally performed by managers, such as, among other things, assigning tasks to workers, speeding up work processes, determining the timing and length of breaks and monitoring quality. — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds, 49

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines technological fragmentation and characterizes algorithmically absorbed managerial functions.
• XREF: Speaks to the reading purpose by showing the algorithmic control substrate shared by both Amazon drivers and couriers. — connects to: Algorithmic managers have replaced human bosses in key sectors — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 326; Platforms fragment workers through individualized scoring to discipline labor and lift productivity — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds: Solidarity…, 50; Platform algorithms automated capital’s command over all people, not just workers — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 360 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Algorithmic managers have replaced human bosses in key sectors #corroborates (0.95) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 326
• Monitoring algorithms replace managers in enforcing work intensity #corroborates (0.92) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 117
• Workplace algorithmic control differs only superficially from mechanical Taylorism #qualifies (0.80) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 324
• Platforms fragment workers through individualized scoring to discipline labor and lift productivity #expands (0.78) — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds, 50
• Platform algorithms automated capital’s command over all people, not just workers #expands (0.75) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 360
• Economies of action get institutionalized into automated algorithms that modify behavior #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 939