Stuff

    Subscribe to our newsletter

    What's Hot
    petrol prices

    September could see massive petrol price cuts for South Africa

    August 12, 2022
    Xiaomi CyberOne

    CyberOne is Xiaomi’s new humanoid robot, because reasons

    August 12, 2022
    Eskom Strike electricity

    Higher electricity connection fees in South Africa? A good, and necessary, next step

    August 12, 2022
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube SoundCloud
    Trending
    • September could see massive petrol price cuts for South Africa
    • CyberOne is Xiaomi’s new humanoid robot, because reasons
    • Higher electricity connection fees in South Africa? A good, and necessary, next step
    • Ghost Robotics’ unmanned dog-bots may soon patrol Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
    • The Red Bull Campus Clutch esports tournament returns for 2022
    • The Canon EOS R5 is a Prime candidate for a Transformers upgrade
    • SA schools to receive updated tech-focused curriculum
    • Know when to Fold ’em? – Our first look at Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 4
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    StuffStuff
    • News
      • App News
      • Business News
      • Camera News
      • Gaming News
      • Headphone News
      • Industry News
      • Internet News
      • Laptops News
      • Motoring News
      • Other Tech News
      • Phone News
      • Tablet News
      • Technology News
      • TV News
      • Wearables News
    • Reviews
      • Camera Reviews
      • Car Reviews
      • Featured Reviews
      • Game Reviews
      • Headphone Reviews
      • Laptop Reviews
      • Other Tech Reviews
      • Phone Reviews
      • Tablet Reviews
      • Wearables Reviews
    • Columns
    • Stuff Guides
    • Podcasts & Videos
      • Videos
      • Stuffed
      • Stuffing Around
      • Tech Byte
      • T2S2
    • Win
    • Subscribe
      • Print
      • Digital
        • Google Play
        • iTunes
        • Download
        • Zinio
    • Stuff Shop
      • Shop Now
      • My Account
      • Downloads
    • Contact Us
      • Get In Touch
      • Advertise
    0 Shopping Cart
    Stuff
    Home » News » Industry News » Algorithms workers can’t see are increasingly pulling the management strings
    Industry News

    Algorithms workers can’t see are increasingly pulling the management strings

    The ConversationBy The ConversationAugust 24, 2020Updated:October 1, 2021No Comments6 Mins Read
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” HAL’s cold, if polite, refusal to open the pod bay doors in 2001 A Space Odyssey has become a defining warning about putting too much trust in artificial intelligence, particularly if you work in space.

    In the movies, when a machine decides to be the boss – or humans let it – things go wrong. Yet despite myriad dystopian warnings, control by machines is fast becoming our reality.

    Algorithms – sets of instructions to solve a problem or complete a task – now drive everything from browser search results to better medical care.

    They are helping design buildings. They are speeding up trading on financial markets, making and losing fortunes in micro-seconds. They are calculating the most efficient routes for delivery drivers.

    In the workplace, self-learning algorithmic computer systems are being introduced by companies to assist in areas such as hiring, setting tasks, measuring productivity, evaluating performance and even terminating employment: “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid you are being made redundant.”

    Giving self‐learning algorithms the responsibility to make and execute decisions affecting workers is called “algorithmic management”. It carries a host of risks in depersonalising management systems and entrenching pre-existing biases.

    At an even deeper level, perhaps, algorithmic management entrenches a power imbalance between management and worker. Algorithms are closely guarded secrets. Their decision-making processes are hidden. It’s a black-box: perhaps you have some understanding of the data that went in, and you see the result that comes out, but you have no idea of what goes on in between.

    Algorithms at work

    Here are a few examples of algorithms already at work.

    At Amazon’s fulfilment centre in south-east Melbourne, they set the pace for “pickers”, who have timers on their scanners showing how long they have to find the next item. As soon as they scan that item, the timer resets for the next. All at a “not quite walking, not quite running” speed.

    Amazon’s fulfillment centre in Dandenong, south-east Melbourne, Victoria. Revere Agency/AAP

    Or how about AI determining your success in a job interview? More than 700 companies have trialled such technology. US developer HireVue says its software speeds up the hiring process by 90% by having applicants answer identical questions and then scoring them according to language, tone and facial expressions.

    Granted, human assessments during job interviews are notoriously flawed. Algorithms,however, can also be biased. The classic example is the COMPAS software used by US judges, probation and parole officers to rate a person’s risk of reoffending. In 2016 a ProPublica investigation showed the algorithm was heavily discriminatory, incorrectly classifying black subjects as higher risk 45% of the time, compared with 23% for white subjects.

    How gig workers cope

    Algorithms do what their code tells them to do. The problem is this code is rarely available. This makes them difficult to scrutinise, or even understand.

    Nowhere is this more evident than in the gig economy. Uber, Lyft, Deliveroo and other platforms could not exist without algorithms allocating, monitoring, evaluating and rewarding work.

    Algorithms dictate who gets work on food-delivery platforms like Deliveroo and Uber Eats. Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

    Over the past year Uber Eats’ bicycle couriers and drivers, for instance, have blamed unexplained changes to the algorithm for slashing their jobs, and incomes.

    Rider’s can’t be 100% sure it was all down to the algorithm. But that’s part of the problem. The fact those who depend on the algorithm don’t know one way or the other has a powerful influence on them.

    This is a key result from our interviews with 58 food-delivery couriers. Most knew their jobs were allocated by an algorithm (via an app). They knew the app collected data. What they didn’t know was how data was used to award them work.

    In response, they developed a range of strategies (or guessed how) to “win” more jobs, such as accepting gigs as quickly as possible and waiting in “magic” locations. Ironically, these attempts to please the algorithm often meant losing the very flexibility that was one the attractions of gig work.

    The information asymmetry created by algorithmic management has two profound effects. First, it threatens to entrench systemic biases, the type of discrimination hidden within the COMPAS algorithm for years. Second, it compounds the power imbalance between management and worker.

    Our data also confirmed others’ findings that it is almost impossible to complain about the decisions of the algorithm. Workers often do not know the exact basis of those decisions, and there’s no one to complain to anyway. When Uber Eats bicycle couriers asked for reasons about their plummeting income, for example, responses from the company advised them “we have no manual control over how many deliveries you receive”.

    Broader lessons

    When algorithmic management operates as a “black box” one of the consequences is that it is can become an indirect control mechanism. Thus far under-appreciated by Australian regulators, this control mechanism has enabled platforms to mobilise a reliable and scalable workforce while avoiding employer responsibilities.

    “The absence of concrete evidence about how the algorithms operate”, the Victorian government’s inquiry into the “on-demand” workforce notes in its report, “makes it hard for a driver or rider to complain if they feel disadvantaged by one.”

    The report, published in June, also found: it is “hard to confirm if concern over algorithm transparency is real.”

    But it is precisely the fact it is hard to confirm that’s the problem. How can we start to even identify, let alone resolve, issues like algorithmic management?

    Fair conduct standards to ensure transparency and accountability are a start. One example is the Fair Work initiative, led by the Oxford Internet Institute. The initiative is bringing together researchers with platforms, workers, unions and regulators to develop global principles for work in the platform economy. This includes “fair management”, which focuses on how transparent the results and outcomes of algorithms are for workers.

    Understandings about impact of algorithms on all forms of work is still in its infancy. It demands greater scrutiny and research. Without human oversight based on agreed principles we risk inviting HAL into our workplaces.

    • Tom Barratt is a Lecturer, School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University
    • Alex Veen is a Lecturer (Academic Fellow) in Work and Organisational Studies, University of Sydney
    • Caleb Goods is Lecturer – Management and Organisations, UWA Business School, University of Western Australia
    • This article first appeared on The Conversation

    algorithm control featured people The Conversation work workplace
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Tumblr Email
    The Conversation

    Related Posts

    petrol prices

    September could see massive petrol price cuts for South Africa

    August 12, 2022
    Xiaomi CyberOne

    CyberOne is Xiaomi’s new humanoid robot, because reasons

    August 12, 2022
    Eskom Strike electricity

    Higher electricity connection fees in South Africa? A good, and necessary, next step

    August 12, 2022

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    In The Mag
    Stuff August-September 2022 Latest Issue

    In This Issue – The Women in Tech (August-September 2022) Issue

    By Brett VenterAugust 1, 20220

    August is a pretty special month. It’s the host of International Women’s Day and is…

    2021 Wish List
    wish list Stuff Wish List 2021

    Stuff Wish List: for the tech impaired

    By Duncan PikeDecember 22, 20210

    Are you from the time before being glued to a smartphone was considered normal? Here’s…

    Wishlist DIY Stuff tech

    Stuff Wish List: for the DIY Diehard

    December 21, 2021
    Wish List Gearhead

    Stuff Wish List: For the petrol-soaked gearhead

    December 20, 2021
    outsiders

    Stuff Wish List: for the Outsiders

    December 17, 2021

    Latest Video

    Sonos

    SONOS Roam SL unboxing by Toby Shapshak

    Mini Cooper

    The Mini Cooper SE Electric with Toby Shapshak

    MSI Crosshair 15 Rainbox Six Extraction Edition unboxing

    MSI Crosshair 15 Rainbox Six Extraction Edition unboxing

    Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Unboxing

    Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra unboxing with Toby Shapshak

    Contact

    South Africa's Consumer Tech News Hub

    General: stuff@stuff.co.za
    Subscriptions: stuff@onthedot.co.za or 087 353 1291
    Editorial: 072 735 2614
    Sales: 083 375 2418

    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube SoundCloud

    Subscribe to Updates

    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy & POPI
    • My account
    © 2022 Stuff Group. Designed by Chronon.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.