My Job Is a Game, and I Am the Owner: How Gamification Facilitates Self-Leadership for Gig Workers

Abstract

Newswise — Previous research has explored antecedents of employee self-leadership in traditional organizational contexts. However, considering the recent emergence of the gig economy, one important question that remains unanswered is: How can self-leadership be facilitated among gig workers who lack traditional organizational structures to promote it? This study aims to examine gameful experience as a malleable antecedent of self-leadership among gig workers. To further expand our understanding of how and when gameful experiences facilitate self-leadership, we draw on the extended self-theory to explore the mediating role of job-based psychological ownership and the moderating role of perceptions of algorithmic transparency. Results from a time-lagged field study with N = 404 gig drivers in China suggest that gameful experiences have an indirect positive relationship with gig workers’ self-leadership through job-based psychological ownership. This relationship is stronger when gig workers have high perceptions of algorithmic transparency. Subsequently, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.