Lecture 1: Introduction
Organizations
Organization — a deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish a goal (that individuals
independently could not accomplish alone)
● We consume organizations on a day-to-day basis
● They must be moving forward, going-concern
The formal and informal organization (iceberg)
● Organizations are like an iceberg: there is the part that we see (the formal organization) and the
part that we don’t see (the informal organization)
○ Formal organization elements: mission statements, policies and procedures
○ Informal organization elements: relationships between managers and subordinates,
emotions, feelings, needs and desires of workers
Example: Steve Jobs at Apple Inc
● Walter Isaacson, the author behind Steve Jobs’ autobiography wrote that there is “good Steve” and
“bad Steve”
● While he was mostly seen as an icon by the outside would and the consumers of Apple products, this
was not always the case with Apple employees
● Examples of when he was “bad Steve” includes:
○ Lashing out at employees for no reason
○ Being rude in general to people who weren’t just his employees
○ Firing employees without notice
○ Denying being the father of his daughter Lisa for the first few years of her childhood and not
paying child support
Organizing
● There are a multitude of definitions…
Organizing — the process of arranging people and other resources to work together and accomplish a goal
1
,Organizing — the degree to which disorder is tolerated
● It reduces ambiguity
● Bad organization isn’t completely negative — it is a valuable learning experience!
Examples of organization
● Prioritizing tasks
● Making a timeline
● Figuring out the people you need to contact or work with to reach your goal
● Getting rid of or managing interruptions
Organizing and sensemaking
● Sensemaking and organizing go hand-in-hand
● It implies three things:
○ Occurs when a situation is turned into words or categories
○ It is shaped by what and how we attribute to situations
○ Values, beliefs and ideologies serve as the frame of reference
Systems
System — a collection of parts that operate interdependently to achieve a common goal
● Systems are classified as open or closed
○ A closed system is one that is self-sufficient, often rigid and has a bureaucratic system with
very little interaction with its external environment — e.g. machines
○ An open system is flexible, often organic, and depends on its environment for survival —
e.g. organisms
Lecture 2: Digital labour
Summary
1. The sharing & gig economy
2. Quantification
3. Platform entrepreneurship (Youtube)
The sharing and gig economy
Sharing economy — a type of consumption whereby goods and services are not owned by a single
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, person, but rather accessed temporarily by members of a network, usually for a fee
● Examples
○ Airbnb — homes
● Evolution / reason
○ Evolved as a response to technological innovation and customer rating systems enabling
people to make more efficient use of their underused assets by renting them out
Gig economy — when individuals offer their services on a part-time basis to a company,
● Exampes:
○ Uber & Lyft — transportation
○ Deliveroo, Ubereats, Foodora in Sweden — food
● Evolution / reason
○ Evolved as a response to technological innovation and customer rating systems enabling the
present generation to live more fast-paced and flexible lives
New feudalism
● The gig economy may be thought of as a new system of feudalism
● Platform owners are compared to the owners of land
● And gig workers who are doing the work are compared to farmers
For both the sharing and gig economy…
Need for trust
● Customer ratings
○ Have become the proxy for trust
○ Before you rent a home on Airbnb you can see ratings for landlords, and before renting an
Uber you can see ratings for drivers
Disadvantages / CONSEQUENCES of the sharing and gig economy
Because of many of such disadvantages, gig economy workers have been protesting…
● Emotional labor
○ It is involved because they need to make sure that customers are happy and give them
highest rating, rather than being their true selves
● Workers have to work harder for less money
3
Organizations
Organization — a deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish a goal (that individuals
independently could not accomplish alone)
● We consume organizations on a day-to-day basis
● They must be moving forward, going-concern
The formal and informal organization (iceberg)
● Organizations are like an iceberg: there is the part that we see (the formal organization) and the
part that we don’t see (the informal organization)
○ Formal organization elements: mission statements, policies and procedures
○ Informal organization elements: relationships between managers and subordinates,
emotions, feelings, needs and desires of workers
Example: Steve Jobs at Apple Inc
● Walter Isaacson, the author behind Steve Jobs’ autobiography wrote that there is “good Steve” and
“bad Steve”
● While he was mostly seen as an icon by the outside would and the consumers of Apple products, this
was not always the case with Apple employees
● Examples of when he was “bad Steve” includes:
○ Lashing out at employees for no reason
○ Being rude in general to people who weren’t just his employees
○ Firing employees without notice
○ Denying being the father of his daughter Lisa for the first few years of her childhood and not
paying child support
Organizing
● There are a multitude of definitions…
Organizing — the process of arranging people and other resources to work together and accomplish a goal
1
,Organizing — the degree to which disorder is tolerated
● It reduces ambiguity
● Bad organization isn’t completely negative — it is a valuable learning experience!
Examples of organization
● Prioritizing tasks
● Making a timeline
● Figuring out the people you need to contact or work with to reach your goal
● Getting rid of or managing interruptions
Organizing and sensemaking
● Sensemaking and organizing go hand-in-hand
● It implies three things:
○ Occurs when a situation is turned into words or categories
○ It is shaped by what and how we attribute to situations
○ Values, beliefs and ideologies serve as the frame of reference
Systems
System — a collection of parts that operate interdependently to achieve a common goal
● Systems are classified as open or closed
○ A closed system is one that is self-sufficient, often rigid and has a bureaucratic system with
very little interaction with its external environment — e.g. machines
○ An open system is flexible, often organic, and depends on its environment for survival —
e.g. organisms
Lecture 2: Digital labour
Summary
1. The sharing & gig economy
2. Quantification
3. Platform entrepreneurship (Youtube)
The sharing and gig economy
Sharing economy — a type of consumption whereby goods and services are not owned by a single
2
, person, but rather accessed temporarily by members of a network, usually for a fee
● Examples
○ Airbnb — homes
● Evolution / reason
○ Evolved as a response to technological innovation and customer rating systems enabling
people to make more efficient use of their underused assets by renting them out
Gig economy — when individuals offer their services on a part-time basis to a company,
● Exampes:
○ Uber & Lyft — transportation
○ Deliveroo, Ubereats, Foodora in Sweden — food
● Evolution / reason
○ Evolved as a response to technological innovation and customer rating systems enabling the
present generation to live more fast-paced and flexible lives
New feudalism
● The gig economy may be thought of as a new system of feudalism
● Platform owners are compared to the owners of land
● And gig workers who are doing the work are compared to farmers
For both the sharing and gig economy…
Need for trust
● Customer ratings
○ Have become the proxy for trust
○ Before you rent a home on Airbnb you can see ratings for landlords, and before renting an
Uber you can see ratings for drivers
Disadvantages / CONSEQUENCES of the sharing and gig economy
Because of many of such disadvantages, gig economy workers have been protesting…
● Emotional labor
○ It is involved because they need to make sure that customers are happy and give them
highest rating, rather than being their true selves
● Workers have to work harder for less money
3
