<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is an online crowdsourcing platform that is part of the digital gig economy, where MTurkers perform fast and repetitive gigs or microwork like taking surveys and performing data transcriptions, and are compensated for each completed task. The purpose of this research is to understand the work- and life-related implications for MTurkers. Drawing from the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT), we examined the role that income and volition play in determining satisfaction and stress among MTurkers. Results revealed that high volition MTurkers had higher job satisfaction, higher life satisfaction, and lower stress than low volition MTurkers. These findings help extend PWT to this contemporary and evolving form of working in the digital gig economy. Management scholars view gig work as an emerging trend and an addition to the list of notable research and practice gaps in organisational behaviour.</p>
</abstract>

Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is an online crowdsourcing platform that is part of the digital gig economy, where MTurkers perform fast and repetitive gigs or microwork like taking surveys and performing data transcriptions, and are compensated for each completed task. The purpose of this research is to understand the work- and life-related implications for MTurkers. Drawing from the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT), we examined the role that income and volition play in determining satisfaction and stress among MTurkers. Results revealed that high volition MTurkers had higher job satisfaction, higher life satisfaction, and lower stress than low volition MTurkers. These findings help extend PWT to this contemporary and evolving form of working in the digital gig economy. Management scholars view gig work as an emerging trend and an addition to the list of notable research and practice gaps in organisational behaviour.

Presenting Amazon's Mechanical Turk as more than just a data sample – A study of MTurker experiences

University of New Haven College of Business

The Irish Journal of Management

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is an online crowdsourcing platform that is part of the digital gig economy, where MTurkers perform fast and repetitive gigs...

Predictor	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	p
(Intercept)	1473.80	1	1473.80	3014.88	0.000
Income Category	1.95	1	1.95	3.99	0.047
Work Volition	13.44	1	13.44	27.50	0.000
Error	179.89	368	0.49

	Mean	S.D.	1	2	3	4	5	6
1. Work Volition	3.97	1.07	-
2. Job Satisfaction	3.7	0.87	0.32^**	-
3. Life Satisfaction	3.27	1.11	0.32^**	0.29^**	-
4. Stress	2.71	0.77	−0.41^**	−0.25^*	−0.38^**	-
5. Age (years)	46.16	142.61	−0.01	−0.03	0.07	−0.01	-
6. Race^a	1.40	0.85	−1.07	0.04	−0.08	0.16^**	−0.01	-
7. Overall Salary	45551.79	72208.4	0.06	−0.02	0.18^**	0.01	0.01	−0.02

Predictor	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	p
(Intercept)	4119.42	1	4119.42	5835.57	0.000
Income Category	5.25	1	5.25	7.43	0.007
Work Volition	8.84	1	8.84	12.52	0.000
Income Category × Work Volition	0.04	1	0.04	0.06	0.815
Error	260.48	369	0.71

Predictor	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	p
(Intercept)	3113.44	1	3113.44	2612.76	0.000
Income Category	0.02	1	0.02	0.02	0.889
Work Volition	5.98	1	5.98	5.02	0.026
Income Category × Work Volition	13.51	1	13.51	11.34	0.001
Error	439.71	369	1.19

Presenting Amazon's Mechanical Turk as more than just a data sample – A study of MTurker experiences

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Apr 10, 2021

Page range: 85 - 98

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijm-2020-0006

Keywords
Mechanical Turk, work volition, job satisfaction, stress

© 2020 Jestine Philip et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

ANOVA results for stress

Overall descriptive statistics and correlations

ANOVA results for job satisfaction

ANOVA results for life satisfaction

Presenting Amazon's Mechanical Turk as more than just a data sample – A study of MTurker experiences

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Apr 10, 2021

Page range: 85 - 98

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijm-2020-0006

KeywordsMechanical Turk, work volition, job satisfaction, stress

© 2020 Jestine Philip et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

ANOVA results for stress

Overall descriptive statistics and correlations

ANOVA results for job satisfaction

ANOVA results for life satisfaction

Keywords
Mechanical Turk, work volition, job satisfaction, stress