Caring with Algorithms: How Managers Reconstruct Homecare Entangled with Algorithmic Management

Abstract

Algorithmic management, the use of software algorithms and institutional systems to automate managerial practices, has attracted increasing research interest. This dissertation examines how algorithmic management is reshaping the organisation and delivery of homecare services in Australia, focusing on the often-inaccessible managerial perspective. The thesis comprises three interconnected manuscripts. The first offers a hermeneutic analysis of the algorithmic management literature, critically unpacking assumptions about “the algorithm,” organisational control, and humanin- the-loop systems. It frames algorithmic management as a complex, multidimensional phenomenon with technological, social, performative, and existential implications. The second manuscript presents an empirical study of “elite” actors in the Australian homecare sector, using neo-sociotechnical theory and institutional logics. It explores organisational objectives and sociotechnical tensions arising from algorithmic management, highlighting differences between software developers, homecare providers, and platforms. The study situates these dynamics within market, state, corporation, and community tensions in Australian homecare, showing how managers justify algorithmic management in terms of efficiency, workforce management, and care quality. It discusses the implications of routinising algorithmic systems in traditionally interpersonal care work. The third manuscript examines how algorithmic management reconfigures managerial responsibilities around “risk.” Drawing on care theory and the sociology of risk, it shows how managers engage with risk algorithms under regulatory and labour pressures. It explores how algorithmic management shapes care by making risk visible and actionable through co-design and human-in-the-loop practices. Collectively the thesis reveals insights into how algorithmic management as a system of control and organisation is shaping the interpersonal world of homecare.