Algorithmic Management in the Labour Process - An Analysis of Labour-Algorithm Relationships

• Applicant: Dr. Heiner Heiland
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 559467691

The planned research project examines the algorithmic coordination and control of work processes - so-called algorithmic management. It follows the observation that, in previous academic discourse, algorithmic management has primarily been analysed from a top-down perspective as a technological fact. Instead, the project focuses on algorithms as technologies whose effects are only realised sociomaterially in practice. The aim of the project is to make fundamental a) theoretical, b) methodological and c) empirical contributions to algorithm-worker interactions: a) Theory: The project conceptualises algorithms both as an interest-driven use of technology for the purpose of coordinating and controlling the work process and as a socio-material practice and mode of appropriation. Accordingly, the effects of algorithms do not materialise immediately, but are shaped by the practice and the mental models that the workers develop about how the technologies function. Their orientation and content is also determined by the framing of the organisational and social context of the actors (technological frames). Workforce-algorithm relationships are thus conceptualised as an interplay of practices, mental models and technological frames, thereby establishing a realistic and expanded understanding of algorithms and their effects. In addition, the organisational level with its various operational actors is analysed as an influencing factor on the social construction of algorithms. b) Methodology: Additionally, the project asks how algorithms can be analysed. In contrast to the usual survey- and interview-based studies on algorithmic management, the research design focuses on an ethnographic approach that examines the practices and handling of algorithmic management in the context of longer field stays in situ. Specific situations are focussed on and observed in the sense of a ‘follow the algorithm’ approach. Interviews with members of the organisation and group discussions are also used to investigate the framing and mental models of the algorithms. c) Empirical research: To date, research has focussed primarily on the eye-catching use of algorithms in a niche area of platform work. The project broadens the view and examines the use of algorithms with intensive case studies in companies in three socially relevant fields: Logistics, medicine and public administration. This will provide knowledge about the broad use and relevance of algorithms in everyday working life. And through the socio-material perspective and, in connection with this, the multi-method research design and, in particular, participant observation, fundamentally new insights into the interactions of workers with algorithms and their negotiation in organisations are generated.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants