Cooperation In Control:A Research Of Food-Delivery Platform Couriers’ Human Agency Under The Control Of Digital Technology

The intervention of digital technology has had an impact on the forms of labor control.During the industrial era,in order to transform purchased labor into effective labor,management introduced technology to appropriate workers’ control over the labor process,thereby diminishing human agency.However,In the digital age,the intervention of digital technology instead preserves human agency,i.e.,in this form of labor control,the digital technology that exerts control and human agency coexist as one.This is particularly evident in the labor-intensive service industry.In order to explore this phenomenon,this paper focuses on food-delivery platform couriers,the platform workers in the digital era,and takes the relationship between human and technology as an entry point.The research investigates the mechanisms of their coexistence and integration by examining the interactions between platform couriers and digital technology.The research findings indicate that digital technology utilized in the delivery industry not only empowers the manager but also operates with its own logic,providing platform couriers with instructions that may not accurately given consideration to real-world conditions.Instead of rigidly adhering to these instructions generated by the technology,platform couriers are able to adapt their actions on various situations.Their responses to the control exerted by digital technology can be categorized into three main groups: order transfers and receipts,time extensions and plug-in utilization,and switching on busy state and muscle memory formation.These actions are mainly manifested in the form of mutual assistance and cooperation.How can control and cooperation coexist within workforce control when digital technology is involved? Through the analytical framework of Actor-Network-Theory,this paper concludes that the associations between various actors translate meanings at different levels: the technical level,the organizational level,and the individual level.This translation process includes the expansion of technical capabilities,the reinforcement of organizational solidarity,and the enhancement of individual benefits.These translations reveal the complementary nature of human and digital technologies,where the practical logic of human beings can expand the potential of technology,and the mathematical logic of technology fosters human organizational solidarity.This characteristic represents the form of labor control under the influence of digital technology and serves as the key mechanism through which human cooperation and technological control can coexist harmoniously.This paper introduces several innovations based on existing research.Firstly,it shifts the focus towards human agency,which complements previous studies that predominantly examined the control exerted by digital technology.Secondly,while traditional form of labor control primarily target human agency,this paper reveals that human agency and digital technology complement each other in the control system.Lastly,by examining the relationship between human and intelligent technology in the context of the platform couriers,this paper extends Wanda J.Orlikowski’s structurational model of technology.It introduces a new component called "Technology Supporters" to supplement the original framework,which consists of "Technology Designers" and "Technology Users".