Reading gig workers’ minds – psychological contracts in the context of the gig economy
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2022
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Management and International Business (MIB)
Language
en
Pages
73
Series
Abstract
The concept of psychological contracts is created to capture the reciprocal relationships existing in the workplace. The studies of psychological contracts aimed to obtain a deep understanding of the employee-employer relationship from two respective perspectives, i.e., employee perspectives and employer perspectives in the traditional organizational settings. Since the emergence of the gig economy, it has become a heated research field for many researchers. The gig economy creates a new hybrid employment relationship where gig workers have limited contact with the gig organization, which brings up a new direction for investigating psychological contracts. This study follows this new path in combing psychological contracts and the gig economy with the adoption of multiple psychological contract concepts. This thesis utilizes a qualitative approach in conducting interviews with gig workers working in Finland in order to figure out who is considered as the partners, and what are the obligations gig workers perceive themselves and others obligated. In other words, this study aims to extend the existing literature by providing a general understanding of how gig workers perceive psychological contracts in Finland. In total, 15 gig workers working via 4 different gig organizations have been interviewed. The findings indicate that multiple psychological contracts do exist in the gig economy. Gig workers consider the merchants (restaurants or shops), the customers, the clients, and the support from the organizations as their counterparties. In addition, the thesis summarized Flexibility, Honesty, Initiative, Moderation, Prevention, Safety, Self-presentation, and Work as 8 types of gig workers' obligations and Benefits, Commitment, Communication, Discretion, Equality, Improvement, Pay, Presentation, Recognition, Safety, and Training as 11 types of the counterparties’ obligations.Description
Thesis advisor
Diehl, Marjo-RiittaKeywords
psychological contract, multiple psychological contracts, the gig economy, gig workers