Not yet human-reviewed

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Algorithmic Management in Limbo: Task-Driven Interweaving of Hierarchy and Market Management

Citation. Robinson, A. P., Jarrahi, M. H., Keegan, A., & Meijerink, J. (2026). Algorithmic management in limbo: Task-driven interweaving of hierarchy and market management. Human Resource Management, 65(1), 117–131. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.70019

Summary. This inductive qualitative study examines how 23 digital labor platforms use algorithmic management across HR activities, drawing on 33 semi-structured interviews with platform workers and platform documentary data. It finds that platform algorithms combine market-oriented matching and hierarchy-oriented control rather than operating as one or the other, with the balance shaped by task characteristics.

Key claims

• Digital labor platforms use algorithmic management for HR activities including worker selection, task assignment, performance management, supervision, and remuneration.
• Task autonomy, complexity, and interdependence are associated with more market-oriented algorithmic management, while urgency is associated with more hierarchy-oriented management.
• For routine, time-sensitive, and tightly specified tasks, platforms tend to automate matching and control through hierarchy-oriented mechanisms that reduce discretion and enforce predictable execution.
• For complex or creative tasks requiring autonomy or client interaction, platforms tend to use market-oriented mechanisms that permit more worker discretion and flexible matching.
• The study argues that digital labor platforms occupy a conditional “limbo” between market intermediary and organizational supervisor, using algorithms to shift between flexibility and control.

Evidence & limitations

• Inductive qualitative analysis of 33 platform-worker interviews and documentary data from 23 digital labor platforms supports a task-centered framework rather than causal estimates of algorithmic effects.
• The framework is based on platform work and may not transfer unchanged to conventional employment relationships or non-platform AI management systems.
• Published open access in Human Resource Management; the record uses the public DOI landing page as canonical provenance.

Feeds

• work-redesign
• responsible-ai-deployment
• Proposed new topic: algorithmic-management — task-contingent combinations of market coordination and hierarchical control in platform-mediated HR management are a distinct reusable construct not yet represented in the topic map.