Working and organizing in the age of the learning algorithm

Learning algorithms, technologies that generate responses, classifications, or dynamic predictions that resemble those of a knowledge worker, raise important research questions for organizational scholars related to work and organizing. We suggest that such algorithms are distinguished by four consequential aspects: black-boxed performance, comprehensive digitization, anticipatory quantification, and hidden politics. These aspects are likely to alter work and organizing in qualitatively different ways beyond simply signaling an acceleration of long-term technology trends. Our analysis indicates that learning algorithms will transform expertise in organizations, reshape work and occupational boundaries, and offer novel forms of coordination and control. Thus, learning algorithms can be considered performative due to the extent to which their use can shape and alter work and organizational realities. Their rapid deployment requires scholarly attention to societal issues such as the extent to which the algorithm is authorized to make decisions, the need to incorporate morality in the technology, and their digital iron-cage potential.     

The Living Wage and the Effects of Real Minimum Wages on Part-Time and Teen Employment

In many parts of the country, campaigns are being carried out and laws are being passed whose aim is to establish, among other things, standards for contracting out public services and setting acceptable living wages that will provide employees decent living standards. Living wages have economic consequences on employment of different groups of workers such as part-time, teenagers, and women and detailed data are needed to measure those effects. In the absence of such data and because of the strong link between living and minimum wages, this study tests the potential impact of living wages by using the model of minimum wages. The study documents a negative and significant relationship between real minimum wages and the employment levels of the various groups. The study also recommends better training and education, free competition in the labor market, and fair compensation based on the workers productivity as justifiable means to achieve a sustainable level of living wages without causing an unemployment repercussion.