BUSM1100: This Case Study Focuses on the Interests and lived Experiences of the “Non-Employed”, Gig-app Driver workforce, Versus the Interests and Strategies: Organisational Analysis Case Study, RMIT, Singapore

This case study focuses on the interests and lived experiences of the “non-employed”, gig-app driver workforce, versus the interests and strategies of the companies (e.g. Uber, Amazon) that use the services of these workers.

In this case study, you will critically analyze the employment relationship between the gig-app driver workforce and the companies that use the services of these workers, and you will weigh the merits of both parties’ claims.

You will identify the implications of this relationship, and you will consider the merits of radical change to the status quo. You will also reflect on the contemporary relevance and value of the two conflict / radical change paradigms, which you will be drawing on throughout your report.

For each section of your entire report, you must draw explicitly on: the two conflict / radical change paradigms – that is, radical structuralism and radical humanism/neo-humanism; and at least one concept/theory discussed between Weeks 6 to 11.

See this worksheet Download See this worksheet for an overview of relevant concepts/theories. This assignment is important and authentic because it will help you to understand the origins of conflict affecting organizations, and the relevance and importance of radical change movements to contemporary organizational life.

This assignment will round out your ability to look at organizational problems from multiple perspectives. With this more rounded knowledge, you will be better placed to tackle organizational problems thoughtfully, and with regard to multiple stakeholders. You will also be better able to anticipate conflict and how this might impact organizations and their legitimacy.

ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS

1. Listen to the podcast (in its entirety), “My boss is an app”, available on The Uncertain Hour, Season 5, Episode 8, March 24, 2021, Marketplace: https://www.marketplace.org/shows/the-uncertain-hour/my-boss-is-an-app/ (Links to an external site.) This link is also available in the Assignments section of the Reading List.

2. You must draw on radical structuralism, radical humanism/neo-humanism, and at least one other concept/theory from Weeks 6 through to 11 throughout each section of your report, which is to fulfill the following requirements: Describe the conflict of interest between gig-app workers and the companies that use their services.

You must articulate this conflict of interest in theoretical terms – that is, you must explicitly draw on the stated theories to help you understand and express the nature of this conflict. Please develop your own sub-heading for this part of the report.

Word count guideline:  Identify the implications of the current conditions of gig-app work for workers, their families, and communities. Please develop your own sub-heading for this part of the report.

Word count guideline: Discuss and weigh the merits of the claims made by companies in support of laws such as Proposition 22* (do not forget to draw explicitly on the relevant theories). Please develop your own sub-heading for this part of the report.

Word count guideline:  Proposition 22 is a law passed in California which designates gig-app drivers as independent contractors, rather than as employees of the companies that use their services, thereby denying gig-app drivers the rights and protections that are usually available to employees.

Discuss and weigh the merits of dismantling the status quo (by status quo, what is meant is the current societal, political, and economic order, which includes, for example, a power imbalance between large corporations and gig-app workers).

We are asking you, here, to consider the merits of ‘radical change’. Endeavor to construct an argument as to why it might be in the interests of the companies who use the services of gig-app workers to respond meaningfully to their concerns and claims. Do not forget to draw explicitly on the relevant theories. Please develop your own sub-heading for this part of the report.

Word count guideline: 660 What kind of insights have the two conflict paradigms and your chosen theories/concepts allowed you to see in this case study? In what ways are these insights valuable? Please develop your own sub-heading for this part of the report. Word count guideline: 330

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS, IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE REQUIREMENTS

Use connected prose (no bullet points). You must explicitly draw on both the Burrell and Morgan text and the Hirschheim and Klein paper to help you analyze the case and respond to the assessment brief.

Both texts are located in the Reading List. For the Hirschheim and Klein paper, focus on the “two stories” told by the authors: Story 3 (a depiction of radical structuralism in action) and Story 4 (a depiction of radical humanism/neo-humanism in action).