How can millions of Chinese food delivery riders be managed in an orderly way: Based on the labor process theory

Ordering food through smartphones brings millions of laborers into a new occupation -food delivery rider. To date, insufficient research has focused on this group of population in platform economy. This paper examines the management mechanism of Chinese food delivery industry based on Marxist labor process theory and its extensions. Three main findings are revealed. First, the food delivery platform strictly set online and off-line institutions to manage food delivery riders; second, riders are involved in an illusion of flexitime but indeed provide more labor forces; third, riders are not free as they are constantly monitored by platform’s algorithm driven by big data. Given this, the conclusion suggests that all platform enterprises should abide professional ethnics and undertake social responsibility and to liberate food delivery riders’ nature.

Collective Health Nursing: desires and practices

ABSTRACT Objective: To discuss and reflect on collective health nursing practices, presenting the work-related experience of nurses. Method: This was a reflection paper based on the labor process theory. Results: Studies conducted in research groups, discussions at scientific events, and professional experiences point to the importance of recognizing the intentionality of health work. Furthermore, it is essential t understand the health-illness-care process adopted and advocated by health professionals, and the role of social determinants and the entire historical, political, economic and social context of professional training, healthcare service organization and society. Conclusion: Collective health nursing practices play an important role in the health care provided to the population. Nurses are reference professionals in health care in all stages of life; however, further reflection is required on professional training, politicization, and the concepts of health and illness that guide professional practices.

Identity and Meaningful/Meaningless Work

This chapter draws on labor process theory to argue that the discourse of meaningfulness in the context of neoliberal capitalism may represent a means for organizations to control and manipulate individual identities. A “politics of meaningful work” is proposed that demonstrates how individuals move between abject alienation on the one hand and the proud identity associated with meaningful work on the other. Drawing on Marx’s notions of the alienated self, the chapter argues that meaningless work is alienated work since it is associated with the production of a commoditized self. Both meaningful and meaningless work can coexist through the notion of emplacements. Where the individual is subject to the managerial gaze and work is routinized and controlled, alienation is the outcome. In other emplacements, meaningfulness and a non-alienated self arise outside formal organizational constraints. A sense of meaningfulness may arise even in the face of neoliberalist attempts to quash it.

Work and Exploitation in Capitalism

Labor process theory has produced important typologies of managerial control and a rich body of empirical case studies. However, it has struggled to deal with genuine cases of upskilling and worker empowerment. This chapter revisits Marx to show that he theorized economic development, technological change and the capitalist labor process as contradictory processes evolving across distinct stages. While Marx saw deskilling as dominant in the earliest stages of capitalism, he also theorized tendencies for upskilling. The chapter then reviews the early debates within labor process theory over deskilling versus responsible autonomy and coercion versus consent. It highlights how labor process research has, with a few important exceptions, neglected to systematically consider the contradictory nature of labor process dynamics. Finally, the chapter proposes that a central contradiction within the labor process is between management-as-coordination versus management-as-discipline. It suggests that this contradiction has become intensified in the current stage of capitalism: post-Fordism.

Perceived Location Autonomy and Work Environment Choice: The Mediating Influence of Intrinsic Motivation

Building on the main tenets of labor process theory, this study introduces perceived location autonomy (PLA)—the autonomy to generate, evaluate, and choose where to perform one’s work tasks—and tests the relationships between PLA and worker productivity and well-being. Using a sample of academic knowledge workers ( n = 319), our results suggest that workers experiencing higher PLA choose work environments to enhance both their productivity and their well-being through increased intrinsic motivation. Consistent with labor process theory, PLA acts as a form of empowerment that aligns knowledge worker and organizational goals to realize productivity gains while simultaneously allowing workers to enhance well-being. Together, these results suggest that managers may wish to consider integrating PLA into job and organizational design, as an alternative to control, as an effective strategy for boosting knowledge worker productivity and well-being.