Challenges to large-scale digital organization: the case of Uber

Abstract

Mobile computing, the so-called Internet of Things, and the rapid expansion of Internet connectivity all over the world are combining to challenge long-standing assumptions about the mission, function, and reach of traditional organizational forms. Uber is a fast-growing company with several unique attributes: its drivers are not employees, the company does not own the majority of its productive infrastructure, and the management is often at odds with local law and custom. Uber's rapid rise to unprecedented scale serves to illustrate the gaps between traditional organizational assumptions and the reach of current technological capability. To address these gaps, we conclude by suggesting four principles for designing large-scale digital organizations.

Citizen Science: An Information Quality Research Frontier

“…A general lesson emerging from this research is that the physical environment and hardware characteristics have a measurable impact on information qualitya novel consideration for traditional information systems research, which routinely abstracts away implementation details when dealing with representational issues (Jabbari et al 2018;Jabbari Sabegh et al 2017;Wand and Weber 1995). This insight may be increasingly relevant in Bbring your own deviceâ nd app-driven organizational settings (French et al 2014;Hopkins et al 2017;Jordan 2017;Weeger et al 2015).…”

Brothers and broken dreams: Men, masculinity, and emotions in platform capitalism

“…Platform capitalism challenges the foundations of economies (Srnicek, 2016), organizational models (Jordan, 2017), and categories of business (Cornelissen & Cholakova, 2021). The likes of Google and Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, Amazon, Alibaba and Tencent, Airbnb and Uber are businesses that provide the hardware and software foundation for others, and act as intermediary platforms.…”

“…Companies such as Uber are instrumental in advocating new categories such as “ride‐hailing company” (Cornelissen & Cholakova, 2021). They bring to light dynamics of large‐scale digital organizations that serve as app‐driven “intermediaries,” in the case of Uber, “between two different markets: riders and drivers” (Jordan, 2017, p. 3). In line with its business model, “algorithms run most everything at Uber: how drivers are hired and retained (via rider ratings), pricing (including the controversial ‘surge’ increases), driver dispatch, advertising, and, it can be assumed, global expansion planning” (Jordan, 2017, p. 8).…”

“…Extant research suggests that platform companies steer the formation of the “gig economy.” In terms of its drivers, Uber strives to establish a new category of “independent workers” (Cornelissen & Cholakova, 2021, p. 726) or “partners.” Such in‐between categories mark a “gray area” that “creates ambiguity in the market” (ibid.). Jordan (2017, pp. 724–725) talks about “Uber's notorious culture, in which rider privacy was routinely violated, women employees were treated poorly based on their gender, and local political and regulatory officials were blatantly disregarded.” While raising hopes of autonomy, entrepreneurial fulfillment, and being “one's own boss” (Purcell & Brook, 2020), Uber has stood accused of “overpromising and underperforming on drivers' estimated earnings” (Jordan, 2017, p. 726; see also Hill, 2015).…”

“…The triumph of new forms of capitalism with their varied social and societal consequences are critiqued with a focus on precarity in low‐skilled jobs (Tassinari & Maccarrone, 2020; Veen et al., 2020; Wood et al., 2019) as well as in professional knowledge work (Petriglieri et al., 2019; Sutherlandet al., 2020). Platform capitalism has a distinctly “dark side” where workers are exploited (Jordan, 2017) and ambiguity regarding companies and their businesses persists (Cornelissen & Cholakova, 2021). However, researchers often discuss precarious work in a Western‐centric way as something new (Allison, 2013).…”