1 CET School of Management, College of Engineering Trivandrum, Kerala, India
2 Recruiter-Talent Acquisition Group, Tata Consultancy Services, Uttar Pradesh, India
Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-Commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed.
Online technology has developed to an extent where traditional labor markets have transformed, creating opportunities for people and businesses to participate in the global marketplace by employing contract labor. Application-based transportation including ridesharing apps, food and commodity delivery platform apps, and other consumer-facing services brought in the concepts of flexible work reshaping gig work into the mainstream creating millions of jobs in the areas of operation. Even though the gig economy provides flexibility in work, the real situation of the gig workforce seems very complex. The article discusses the impacts of the gig economy on labor markets by identifying the challenges faced by gig workers in the online labor market and the impact of gig economy on their health and well-being. A detailed field research conducted among the gig workers in the state of Kerala aided examining the labor market trends, motives, and effect beyond the gig economy. It further supplemented developing specific actions to accelerate the development of the gig economy to ensure worker protection and safety needs in creating an inclusive economy.
Gig work, gig economy, gig stress, employee well-being, push-pull factors
American Psychological Association. (2018). Work and well-being survey.
Allan, B. A., Tay, L., & Sterling, H. M. (2017). Construction and validation of the subjective underemployment scales (SUS). Journal of Vocational Behavior, 99, 93–106.
Ashford, S. J., Caza, B. B., & Reid, E. M. (2018). From surviving to thriving in the gig economy: A research agenda for individuals in the new world of work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 38, 23–41.
Bajwa, U., Gastaldo, D., Di Ruggiero, E., & Knorr, L. (2018). The health of workers in the global gig economy. Globalization and Health, 14(1), 1–4.
Baltes, B. B., Briggs, T. E., Huff, J. W., Wright, J. A., & Neuman, G. A. (1999). Flexible and compressed workweek schedules: A meta-analysis of their effects on work-related criteria. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(4), 496.
Berger, T., Frey, C. B., Levin, G., & Danda, S. R. (2018, October). Uber happy Work and well-being in the “gig economy”. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/201809_Frey_Berger_UBER.pdf
Cascio, W. F., & Montealegre, R. (2016). How technology is changing work and organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, 349–375.
Christie, N., & Ward, H. (2019). The health and safety risks for people who drive for work in the gig economy. Journal of Transport & Health, 13, 115–127.
Farrell, D., & Greig, F. (2016). Paychecks, paydays, and the online platform economy: Big data on income volatility. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Institute.
Fedi, A., Pucci, L., Tartaglia, S., & Rollero, C. (2016). Correlates of work-alienation and positive job attitudes in high-and low-status workers. Career Development International, 21(7), 713–725.
Fisher, S. L., & Connelly, C. E. (2017). Lower cost or just lower value Modeling the organizational costs and benefits of contingent work Academy of Management Discoveries, 3(2), 165–186.
Harms, P. D., Credé, M., Tynan, M., Leon, M., & Jeung, W. (2017). Leadership and stress: A meta-analytic review. The Leadership Quarterly, 28, 178–194.
Harms, P. D., & Han, G. (2019). Algorithmic leadership: The future is now. Journal of Leadership Studies, 12, 74–75.
Hirschfeld, R. S., & Feild, H. S. (2000). Work centrality and work alienation: Distinct aspects of a general commitment to work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21, 789–800.
Kalleberg, A. L. (2009). Precarious work, insecure workers: Employment relations in transition. American Sociological Review, 74, 1–22.
Katz, L. F., & Krueger, A. B. (2019). The rise and nature of alternative work arrangements in the United States, 1995–2015. ILR Review, 72(2), 382–416.
Kuhn, K. M. (2016). The rise of the “gig economy” and implications for understanding work and workers. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 9(1), 157–162.
Lee, M. K. (2018). Understanding perception of algorithmic decisions: Fairness, trust, and emotion in response to algorithmic management. Big Data & Society, 5(1), 1–16.
Murray, N., & Ball, T. (2016). The gig economy and the U.S. labor system. Labor and Employment Law, 44(3), 1–2.
Parker, S. K., Morgeson, F. P., & Johns, G. (2017). One hundred years of work design research: Looking back and looking forward. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), 403.
Scheiber, N. (2017). How Uber uses psychological tricks to push its drivers’ buttons. The New York Times, 2.
Shantz, A., Alfes, K., & Truss, C. (2014). Alienation from work: Marxist ideologies and twenty-first-century practice. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(18), 2529–2550.
Spreitzer, G. M., Cameron, L., & Garrett, L. (2017). Alternative work arrangements: Two images of the new world of work. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 4, 473–499.
Tran, M., & Sokas, R. K. (2017). The gig economy and contingent work: An occupational health assessment. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 59, e63.
Webster, J. (2016). Microworkers of the gig economy: Separate and precarious. New Labor Forum, 25(3), 56–64.
Wilensky, H. L. (1963). The moonlighter: A product of relative deprivation. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 3(1), 105–124.
Woodcock, J. (2019). The impact of the gig economy. In Work in the age of data. BBVA. https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/articles/the-impact-of-the-gig-economy/