平台工作游戏化对网约配送员工作卷入的“双刃剑”影响——心流体验与过度劳动的作用

The Double-edged Effect of Job Gamification on Job Involvement of Gig Workers:The Role of Flow Experience and Overwork

近年来以网约配送员为代表的零工经济迅速崛起,在我国其因吸纳就业、便利生活的社会属性受到政府相对积极的政策支持得以迅速发展。其劳动组织新形式带来的灵活性特征,使得管理平台劳动者参与强度和增加平台黏性成为平台企业竞争的关键。实践中,平台企业希望通过算法设计出游戏情境感来增强网约配送员的体验感和认同感。本研究结合资源保存理论和认知评价理论,基于300份三波次数据,运用层次回归与Bootst rap方法,构建平台工作游戏化设计,通过提升网约配送员心流体验促进其工作卷入的理论模型,考察了过度劳动在这一过程中的情境作用。研究发现:平台基于算法的工作游戏化设计对网约配送员的工作卷入有倒U型影响,心流体验中介了二者关系。过度劳动负向调节工作游戏化对心流体验和工作卷入的倒U型影响,同时也负向调节心流体验和工作卷入之间的线性关系。本文验证了平台工作游戏化设计对网约配送员工作卷入的“双刃剑”影响和过度劳动的边界效应。在劳动标准、劳动监管、劳动法律政策缺失的零工经济新业态中,探讨数字经济中平台企业通过算法实现的游戏化设计对网约配送员工作卷入的作用机制和边界条件,有益于相关部门加强对新业态中劳动保护、工时标准的关注和监管,通过“沙盒式监管”优化营商环境,规范零工经济健康有序发展。

In recent years,the gig economy,represented by gig workers,has been rapidly emerging.In China,platform firms have been supported by government policies and are developing rapidly because of their potential to absorb employment and facilitate the lives of residents.However,due to the flexibility brought by the new form of labor,it has become crucial for platform enterprises to manage the participation intensity of gig workers and increase the stickiness of the platform.Gig workers are mostly engaged in high-intensity repetitive work and lack security,which lead to their lower work performance and work quality.All these will further influence the customer experience and cause customer satisfaction to slide,forming the“value co-destruction”of gig workers,customers,and platform enterprises.How to change this negative ecological cycle has become a practical problem that needs to be solved in the governance of platform firms.With the refinement of platform algorithms,many platform firms start to use algorithms to make the gamification design of work tasks,so as to enhance the experience and identity of gig workers.Combined with the conservation of resources theory and the cognitive appraisal theory,this paper,based on 300 data from three-time waves and the hierarchical regression and Bootstrap methods,constructed a theoretical model of job gamification to improve the flow experience of network contract deliverers and then promote their job involvement.Moreover,this paper investigated the situational role of overwork in this process.Research results showed that job gamification had an inverted U-shaped effect on the job involvement of gig workers,and flow experience mediated the inverted U-shaped relationship between job gamification and job involvement.Overwork negatively moderated the inverted U-shaped effect of job gamification on flow experience and job involvement,and also negatively moderated the linear relationship between flow experience and job involvement.This paper verified the double-edged in-fluence of job gamification on the job involvement of gig workers,as well as the boundary effect of overwork.The theoretical contributions of this paper are mainly in three aspects.Firstly,it explores the double-edged effect of algorithm-based platform job gamification on the job involvement of gig workers in gig economy through the lens of empirical research.This enriches existing literature on job gamification and job involvement and provides empirical data for subsequent studies on this topic.Secondly,by introducing flow experience into the theoretical model,this paper provides a novel explanation for the mechanism between job gamification and job involvement.Based on the conservation of resources theory and cognitive appraisal theory,the inverted U-shaped relationship between job gamification and flow experience and the partial mediating role of flow experience between platform gamification and gig workers’job involvement are explored and validated from a fictional combined theoretical perspective.Thirdly,by examining and verifying the regulation of overwork,this paper clarifies the boundaries of the mechanisms between job gamification and flow experience,and between flow experience and job involvement.This finding emphasizes the need to focus on the labor intensity of workers in the gig economy and the standard of working hours in the new employment pattern.Only by reducing the overwork of gig workers can we guarantee the healthy and sustainable development of the gig economy.For practical inspiration,regarding the gig economy without labor standards,labor regulation and labor laws,the research findings can help to guide the algorithm management of platform firms and give full play to the positive role of technology in improving work experience.This paper is also useful for relevant departments to pay more attention to and regulate labor protection and working hour standards in new employment.By means of“sandbox regulation,”we can optimize the business environment,facilitating the healthy and orderly development of the gig economy.