Algorithmic management and occupational health: A comparative case study of organizational practices in logistics

Background: Algorithmic management (AM), which refers to algorithmic technologies that manage workers, is increasingly being introduced across various workplaces. While previous research has focused on AM’s impact on job quality in platform work, its effects on workers' well-being in conventional work environments remain under explored.Aim: This paper aims to enhance our understanding of how AM affects occupational health in conventional work settings and to identify organizational practices that may influence this interplay.Method: We conducted a multiple-case study with two logistics companies in Sweden---a food producer and an e-commerce company. We triangulated and analyzed data gathered from observations and semi-structured interviews, focusing on organizational practices and workers’ experiences,Results: Workers at both sites reported they experienced a low sense of autonomy and task significance under AM, and AM's shortcomings and malfunctions heightened their workload at times. The physical and psychological strain attributed to AM was more pronounced in the e-commerce company than in the food producer. We identified four organizational practices that differed between the companies, which positively influenced workers’ experience with AM: i) worker involvement before, during and after new AM function implementations, ii) integration of, and focus on, AM in the occupational safety and health management, iii) AM applications that allows more worker control, and iv) managerial practices designed to add qualitative assessments to the purely quantitative ones generated by AM.Conclusion: Our research highlights the critical importance of designing organizational practices that incorporate AM in ways that promote occupational health alongside operational efficiency.