When gig workers become essential: Leveraging customer moral self-awareness beyond COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic intensified economic reliance on gig workers that perform essential tasks such as health care, personal transport, food and package delivery, and ad-hoc tasking services within the developed and developing world. As a result, workers who provide such services are no longer perceived as low-skilled laborers but as essential workers who fulfill a crucial role in society. These workers' newly elevated moral and economic status increases consumer demand for corporate social responsibility toward this stakeholder group, specifically for practices that increase worker freedom and rewards. We provide algorithmic tools for online labor platforms to meet this demand, bolstering their social purpose and ethical branding while better protecting themselves against potential reputational crises. To do this, we propose a managerial strategy rooted in moral self-awareness theory that leverages customers' self-perceived virtuosity to increase gig-worker freedom.

The demotivating impact of absenteeism in nursing homes.

AIM: The study explores how prevailing absenteeism frustrates or thwarts nurses' and nursing assistants' basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness), using self-determination theory. BACKGROUND: Our study responds to the call to investigate how organisational characteristics influence employees' psychological need, satisfaction and their attitudes and behaviours. METHOD: We conducted a semantic analysis of the discourse of 42 nurses and nursing assistants working in nursing homes for older dependent people in France. RESULTS: The analysis subdivides participants' discourse into four themes: short-term absenteeism, lack of competence, lack of recognition and work overload. These themes are all linked to participants' perceived deficits or threats concerning their psychological needs. CONCLUSIONS: The prevailing absenteeism has a harmful spiral impact on nurses' and nursing assistants' attitudes and behaviours, and, ultimately, on the quality of care received by the patients. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Our study confirms the need to adopt various managerial actions to address the following interrelated issues: controlling short-term absences, reducing work overload and giving training and recognition.