| Abstrakt: |
Drawing from an in-depth case study of an online labor platform within the U.S. federal government, this article introduces and defines a technology affordance model for a new work experience in organizations. Through employees' interaction with distinct platform features, four mechanisms arise that support employees in their quest for self-actualization. Opportunity and autonomy affordances, bundled as growth affordance, allow employees to craft and seek out internal tasks or projects through which they could grow and utilize their skills and abilities in generic, multi-core areas. Reinvention and feedback affordances, bundled together as impression affordance, then allow employees to experiment with different work identities, and construct an aspirational online image of their selves at work. Besides exposing the action potential arising from human-platform interactions, this article also describes how employees become aware of and interpret this potential, as well as how organizational forces promote or constrain its enactment. It emphasizes the applicability of the model to knowledge-intensive work, wherein workers are increasingly under pressure to engage in life-long learning and upskilling, and to continuously shift and reinvent their work identities. This article suggests the framework's wider implications and relevance for research into the future of work and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
