Flexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers

Crowdwork is a new form of digitally enabled work in which organizations assign tasks to an anonymous group of workers via platform intermediaries. For crowdworkers, crowdwork offers both opportunities and risks. On the one side, crowdworkers enjoy high flexibility on when, where, and how much to wo...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Katharina D. Schlicher, Julian Schulte, Mareike Reimann, Günter W. Maier
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	crowdwork crowdsourcing gig work digital work somatic health regeneration Psychology BF1-990
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/4b29c299daf4472da184b36f37a858f7
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:4b29c299daf4472da184b36f37a858f7
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:4b29c299daf4472da184b36f37a858f72021-12-02T10:50:41ZFlexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers1664-107810.3389/fpsyg.2021.724966https://doaj.org/article/4b29c299daf4472da184b36f37a858f72021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.724966/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/1664-1078Crowdwork is a new form of digitally enabled work in which organizations assign tasks to an anonymous group of workers via platform intermediaries. For crowdworkers, crowdwork offers both opportunities and risks. On the one side, crowdworkers enjoy high flexibility on when, where, and how much to work. On the other side, risks comparable to other forms of atypical employment arise: no labor regulation, unstable income, and uncertainty about whether enough tasks are available. Regulation of working hours lies within the crowdworkers’ own authority. Also, crowdwork in industrialized nations is often conducted during leisure times as a side-job to some other kind of employment. In accordance with Conservation of Resources Theory, we state that when leisure time gets used up with crowdwork, regeneration cannot occur and health declines. On a sample of N=748 German crowdworkers recruited from four different platform types, we analyzed whether participation in crowdwork is linked to increased somatic symptoms compared to regularly employed personnel. We found that crowdworkers show significantly increased somatic symptoms as compared to a German norm sample, that are stable across different kinds of tasks and platforms, gender, and age groups, and that is statistically due to the extent of participation in crowdwork. Specifically, we found that total work hours per week were not associated with an increase in somatic symptoms, but we did find associations with strain-based work–family conflict and the primary motivation to do crowdwork being to earn money. Consequences for research and labor regulations are discussed.Katharina D. SchlicherKatharina D. SchlicherJulian SchulteJulian SchulteMareike ReimannMareike ReimannGünter W. MaierGünter W. MaierFrontiers Media S.A.articlecrowdworkcrowdsourcinggig workdigital worksomatic healthregenerationPsychologyBF1-990ENFrontiers in Psychology, Vol 12 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	crowdwork crowdsourcing gig work digital work somatic health regeneration Psychology BF1-990
spellingShingle	crowdwork crowdsourcing gig work digital work somatic health regeneration Psychology BF1-990 Katharina D. Schlicher Katharina D. Schlicher Julian Schulte Julian Schulte Mareike Reimann Mareike Reimann Günter W. Maier Günter W. Maier Flexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers
description	Crowdwork is a new form of digitally enabled work in which organizations assign tasks to an anonymous group of workers via platform intermediaries. For crowdworkers, crowdwork offers both opportunities and risks. On the one side, crowdworkers enjoy high flexibility on when, where, and how much to work. On the other side, risks comparable to other forms of atypical employment arise: no labor regulation, unstable income, and uncertainty about whether enough tasks are available. Regulation of working hours lies within the crowdworkers’ own authority. Also, crowdwork in industrialized nations is often conducted during leisure times as a side-job to some other kind of employment. In accordance with Conservation of Resources Theory, we state that when leisure time gets used up with crowdwork, regeneration cannot occur and health declines. On a sample of N=748 German crowdworkers recruited from four different platform types, we analyzed whether participation in crowdwork is linked to increased somatic symptoms compared to regularly employed personnel. We found that crowdworkers show significantly increased somatic symptoms as compared to a German norm sample, that are stable across different kinds of tasks and platforms, gender, and age groups, and that is statistically due to the extent of participation in crowdwork. Specifically, we found that total work hours per week were not associated with an increase in somatic symptoms, but we did find associations with strain-based work–family conflict and the primary motivation to do crowdwork being to earn money. Consequences for research and labor regulations are discussed.
format	article
author	Katharina D. Schlicher Katharina D. Schlicher Julian Schulte Julian Schulte Mareike Reimann Mareike Reimann Günter W. Maier Günter W. Maier
author_facet	Katharina D. Schlicher Katharina D. Schlicher Julian Schulte Julian Schulte Mareike Reimann Mareike Reimann Günter W. Maier Günter W. Maier
author_sort	Katharina D. Schlicher
title	Flexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers
title_short	Flexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers
title_full	Flexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers
title_fullStr	Flexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers
title_full_unstemmed	Flexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers
title_sort	flexible, self-determined… and unhealthy? an empirical study on somatic health among crowdworkers
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/4b29c299daf4472da184b36f37a858f7
work_keys_str_mv	AT katharinadschlicher flexibleselfdeterminedandunhealthyanempiricalstudyonsomatichealthamongcrowdworkers AT katharinadschlicher flexibleselfdeterminedandunhealthyanempiricalstudyonsomatichealthamongcrowdworkers AT julianschulte flexibleselfdeterminedandunhealthyanempiricalstudyonsomatichealthamongcrowdworkers AT julianschulte flexibleselfdeterminedandunhealthyanempiricalstudyonsomatichealthamongcrowdworkers AT mareikereimann flexibleselfdeterminedandunhealthyanempiricalstudyonsomatichealthamongcrowdworkers AT mareikereimann flexibleselfdeterminedandunhealthyanempiricalstudyonsomatichealthamongcrowdworkers AT gunterwmaier flexibleselfdeterminedandunhealthyanempiricalstudyonsomatichealthamongcrowdworkers AT gunterwmaier flexibleselfdeterminedandunhealthyanempiricalstudyonsomatichealthamongcrowdworkers
_version_	1718396527616983040

Flexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers

Ejemplares similares