Oral Presentation by Hanh Doan¹
¹ Aalto University School of Business, Finland
TIME: Wednesday, 15 July, 10:30 – 12:00
Location: Room 3
Session: 11
Abstract
In traditional organizations, organizational values and ethical infrastructure play an essential role in guiding employees’ behavior. However, within platform work—work facilitated through digital labor platforms - moral values are open to interpretations among workers for two reasons. First, these workers often have loose ties with organizations, typically being classified as independent contractors. Thus, organizational behavioral guidelines may not be fully adopted by workers, leading to differing perceptions of right and wrong compared to traditional work contexts. Second, the remote nature of platform work complicates the monitoring of unethical behavior, and the lack of strong ethical infrastructure may promote such conduct. While research on behavioral ethics is robust within traditional organizational settings, limited knowledge exists in platform work context. For the aforementioned reasons, this paper aims to shed light on moral perception and justification among platform workers by examining how they perceive and justify morally questionable behavior in their work environment. Through a qualitative study of 26 app-based food delivery workers in Finland, I find that these workers hold various perspectives on the morality of account subleasing—a prominent morally questionable practice in Finland. This involves workers with their own accounts (account holders) renting out their accounts to others (substitutes) for a fee. Substitutes pay for access to accounts due to limited work opportunities and a lack of new accounts. Account holders, therefore, gain financial benefits through subleasing, without the initial cost of obtaining an account. Account subleasing is not regulated by law while accepted by platform organizations, possibly to ensure a consistent workforce of delivery workers. Moral perception varies depending on the workers’ status as account holders or substitutes, impacting their justification of the practice. Some embrace the capitalist logic of subleasing accounts, while others condemn it as unethical and exploitative, especially toward less empowered substitutes. These findings advance our understanding of moral decision-making by exploring moral perception and justification beyond traditional organizations. This study identifies different justification modes, explaining how these workers justify their engagement in morally questionable practice. Additionally, this study highlights situational factors that exacerbate such behavior.