Ihl, Andreas, Kim Simon Strunk, and Marina Fiedler. "The mediated effects of social support in professional online communities on crowdworker engagement in micro-task crowdworking." Computers in Human Behavior 113 (2020): 106482.

This paper explores the impact of social support within professional crowdworking online communities on worker engagement in micro-task crowdworking (MTCW). It highlights that, unlike traditional organizational settings where social support from colleagues and supervisors is a known driver for work engagement, the dispersed nature of MTCW offers limited direct social support from requesters or the platforms themselves. Instead, crowdworkers turn to online communities related to their work for social support. Through a two-wave survey involving 181 micro-workers, the study finds that affective social support from these online communities boosts crowdworkers' sense of identification with the group and enhances the meaningfulness they perceive in their work, which in turn, promotes greater engagement in MTCW activities. The findings underline the significance of these professional online communities in creating positive work experiences on virtual platforms, suggesting that they play a crucial role in fostering a sense of belonging and purpose among crowdworkers.