Abstract
Studies of meaningful work have proposed that work that holds personal significance and meaning can transcend pay. But how can workers who do not want, or cannot afford to, sacrifice pay for meaning commercialise their work to realise its market worth? We explore this question in the context of social media influencers who participated in the InfluencerPayGap community (an Instagram profile established in 2020 to expose pay disparities in the influencer industry). Combining concepts of worth from the meaningful work literature with a sociological theory of valuation, we identify three enrichment narratives engaged with by influencers to circumvent expectations of performing free labour.
Besides illuminating how influencers construct and connect the personal worth of their work with its market worth, we show how these narratives of authenticity, relationality, and quantification involve a ‘double loop of enrichment’. Consisting in the interplay between influencers’ own sense of the worth of their work and feedback from their followers and the algorithms of social media platforms, this loop can reinforce and transform but also undermine influencers’ perceptions of the worth and meaning of their work. Our findings contribute to a greater understanding of meaningful work and the valuation of work in nontraditional work contexts.
Besides illuminating how influencers construct and connect the personal worth of their work with its market worth, we show how these narratives of authenticity, relationality, and quantification involve a ‘double loop of enrichment’. Consisting in the interplay between influencers’ own sense of the worth of their work and feedback from their followers and the algorithms of social media platforms, this loop can reinforce and transform but also undermine influencers’ perceptions of the worth and meaning of their work. Our findings contribute to a greater understanding of meaningful work and the valuation of work in nontraditional work contexts.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Human Relations |
| Early online date | 29 Jan 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 29 Jan 2024 |
Acknowledgements
This project has been a labour of love. We want to extend our heartfelt appreciation to everyone who played a part in bringing this project to fruition. We are grateful for the guidance and comments provided by the handling editor Karan Sonpar and the three anonymous reviewers. Our deepest gratitude goes out to the IPG community and our interviewees for sharing their stories with us. To Ana Alacovska, Andrew Brown, Itziar Castelló-Molina, Andrew Crane, Luke Fletcher, Jean-Pascal Gond, Christopher W Michaelson, Dennis Schoeneborn, Elke Schüßler, the ETHOS research centre, Sub-theme 02 on New Actors, Responsibilities and Forms of Organizing in the Age of Digital Transformations at the 37th EGOS Colloquium (Amsterdam 2021) and the LOST group: your support, expertise and feedback have been invaluable. Thank you! We also wish to express our profound thanks to Leuphana University of Lüneburg and the University of Bath that generously provided the resources and facilities essential to this study. Finally, we thank Nicolas Markert, Mira Linzenmeier, Lena Kostuj and Oyinkansola Ige for their support in the data collection process and Matt Jones for language editing. We dedicate this publication to Arie Glozer in loving memory.Keywords
- enrichment
- meaningful work
- narrative analysis
- social media influencer
- valuation
- worth
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Social Sciences
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Management of Technology and Innovation
- Strategy and Management