The digitalisation of service work – social partner responses in Denmark, Sweden and Germany

Abstract

The discussion on digitalization of work has intensified in recent years. The literature points at two main trends that are accelerated by digitalization -the automatization of work which erases or changes job functions and the creation of work without jobs via digital platforms. This paper addresses the question as to how social partners define the digitalization of work and their perception of its consequences along with their recent responses to digitalization. Drawing on interviews with unions and employers´ organizations in Denmark, Sweden and Germany, it examines social partner initiatives at the unilateral, tripartite and bipartite arena in various forms of neo-corporatist labour market regulation. Focus is on private services, which is

Decent work for the digital platform workers. A preliminary survey in Beijing

“…Nearly 85 % of the respondents are less than 45 years old. This is consistent with the findings of other surveys that digital platform workers are dominated by young people 13 (Graham et al, 2017). The overall gender distribution is generally balanced, but it is quite uneven in different jobs.…”

“…The other is "work-on-demand via apps", which is managed online but carried out offline, mostly incorporating traditional services restricted to a local-based labor market, such as transportation (e. g. Uber, Lyft), delivery (e. g. Instacart, Deliveroo), and home services (e. g. Taskrabbit, Helpling). Although the size of the platform economy is still relatively modest (Farrell & Greig, 2016;Ilsøe, 2017), it is expanding at a remarkable pace. For example, a widely cited report predicts revenue in the key sectors of the platform economy growing from US $ 15 bn as of this date to US $ 335 bn in 2035; 3 an index measuring the utilization of digital labor platforms suggests their use is growing globally at a rate of 25 % per annum (Kässi & Lehdonvirta, 2018).…”

Rethinking country effects: robotics, AI and work futures in Norway and the UK

“…through public policy), the development and diffusion of robotics and AI, and their impact on work. A few studies have begun to address the potential of trade unions to shape public policy, highlighting how unions in some North European countries are participating in tripartite structures concerned with the development of policies on robotics and AI (Ilsøe, ; Neufeind et al ., ). However, these studies are limited in scope, tending to focus on the union perspective, with little reference to the question of diffusion.…”

A framework of digitalization: Insights based on resource orchestration theory for digital transformation of traditional retailers

“…Therefore, digitalization of organizations is not the application of digital technology to organizations, but how can organizations organically integrate with digital technology to become digitally driven organizations(Johan et al, 2016) [28].The process of digitalization involves changes in work content, business process(Valenduc and Vendramin, 2017) [43], organizational structure(Hansen and Sia, 2015) [21], and business model innovation(Farrington and Alizadeh, 2017) [14],also need management paradigm shifts on leadership, culture, communication, innovation(Chun-hua et al, 2019 [9]; Cianni and Steckler, 2017 [10]; Jian et al, 2020) [27].Digitization requires not only the reorganization of internal relations, but also the transformation of external relations. The degree of networking and multilateral of the organization's external relations deepens (Pagani, 2013) [35], the factors regulate inter-organizational relationships varies (Bharadwaj et al, 2013) [6], customers and suppliers become important participants in digital value co-creation (Barua et al, 2004) [5], social organizations are no longer dispensable (Ilsoe, 2017) [26]. To sum up, digitalization is a process of rearranging resources, capabilities and relationships to form an underlying mental model that is compatible with the strategic positioning(Hao et al) [22].…”