Gurus, Hired Guns and Warm Bodies: Itinerant Experts in a Knowledge Economy

Recoupling Corporate Culture with New Political Discourse in China’s Platform Economy: The Case of Alibaba

“…The massive layoffs and problematic managerial practices in the high-tech industry, in particular the '996 work schedule' and the subsequent online 996.ICU movement (Li, 2019) have shown that the social contract between employment security and loyalty and commitment has irreversibly changed. In the tech sector, employment relationships and management have become increasingly market-mediated, peculiarly exemplified by the rising of contractual relations, indirect employment and agency working in Silicon Valley (Kunda and Barley, 2004).…”

Managerial Technique and Worker Subjectivity in Dialogue: Understanding Overwork in China’s Internet Industry

“…The process of financialisation, namely, companies only taking responsibility for their shareholders' interest, especially in the stock market (Thompson, 2003), has profoundly shaped the Internet industry since the Internet bubble in the US in 2000 (Xiang, 2006). High volatility of jobs has become an endemic feature of the new economy because companies pursue flexibility in employment relationships and increasingly rely on contingency workers (Benner, 2002;Kunda and Barley, 2004). Like its US counterpart, Internet companies in China emphasise flexibility in employment relationships, as illustrated by rounds of layoffs in Internet giants (Li, 2019).…”

“…Despite its insights, it risks a static theorisation of management strategies in the changing historical context when labour mobility plays a more prominent role. Existing literature has pointed out that the volatility of jobs and increasing labour mobility in the IT sector manifest managerial attempts in achieving flexibility in employment relationships (Benner, 2002;Kunda and Barley, 2004;Yan, 2020). However, the consequent increasing indeterminacy of labour mobility imposes a new challenge for management inside one firm.…”

“…Gershon (2017) noted that the 'self-as-business' metaphor gradually replaced the 'selfas-property' metaphor in understanding employment relationships in the US since the 1970s, especially in the new economy of Silicon Valley. The self-as-property metaphor reflected the conventional, Marxist understanding of the employment relationship; in contrast, the self-as-business metaphor, resonating the belief in 'employability' as a new source of job security (Kanter, 1993;Kunda and Barley, 2004), encouraged workers to run themselves as a business and invest in their skills, experiences and networks. Nevertheless, this article revealed an apparent paradox: both metaphors were adopted (implicitly) by the Chinese workers to make sense of their participation in overwork.…”