The service platform as a dualistic meta-organisation: An ethnographic account of contingency work and its organisational cultures

Abstract

This study examines the character of service platforms in terms of economic and organisational sociology. It is based on an ethnographic study and semi-structured interviews at a delivery platform in Germany. The article argues that ser-vice platforms can be conceived of as dualistic meta-organisations. At the centre of the company is a complete organisation with membership rights and obligations. Be-yond the centre of the organisation, there is a peripheral organisation which is a hybrid between organisation and market. This partial organisation only provides limited rights and duties to its members. These conditional labour relations in the digital economy can be seen as a modern-ized organisational match of precarious labour relations in the form of contingency work. Within this structure, em-ployees thus experience new forms of insecurity.

Ridiculing the artificial boss: organisational technocultures and the humorous criticism of AI at work

“…Such cultures are almost completely segregated, dividing administrative staff from couriers. There is a start-up like company culture in the administrative offices, and a proletarian culture among the riders based on distancing oneself from the 'impractical' office work (Nachtwey and Schaupp, 2021). This quality means that critical technocultures can assert themselves very easily among the couriers, as they can talk freely at work without having to fear repercussions from management.…”