About

Hatim Rahman is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Sociology (by courtesy) at Northwestern University. His research investigates how artificial intelligence impacts the nature of work and employment relationships within organizations and labor markets. His work explores the role of digital platforms, algorithms, and artificial intelligence in shaping employment dynamics, with a particular focus on algorithmic management and evaluations. Rahman's award-winning book, Inside the Invisible Cage: How Algorithms Control Workers, examines how organizations use algorithms to control workers' job opportunities and has received multiple prestigious awards, including the George R. Terry Book Award and the Responsible Research in Management Award. His research has been published in leading academic journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, and Organization Science, and has been recognized for its theoretical and empirical impact by numerous organizations and conferences. Rahman's work has garnered coverage from major news outlets including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. He holds a PhD and Masters in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include the impact of technology on organizations, digital platforms, employment relationships, and the sociology of work and occupations.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Business
• Artificial Intelligence
• Public relations
• Marketing
• Law
• Knowledge management
• Sociology
• Economics
• Psychology
• Internet privacy
• Management
• Engineering
• Process management

Selected publications

• Exploring the Creator Economy: New Lenses on Entrepreneurship and Strategy

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  articleSenior author

  The creator economy consists of “multisided platforms that connect contributors (or creators or developers), viewers (or consumers), and advertisers” (Bhargava, 2022), facilitating the monetization of digital content as a form of work. Such platforms, and those who use them, are generating increasing interest among industry professionals and scholars. In 2023, Goldman Sachs projected that the creator economy would double in size by 2027 to nearly $480 billion globally, and that the number of creators would grow 10-20% annually over the next five years (Sheridan, 2023). An estimated 40 million

  PublisherDOI

• The Ordinal Society

  Journal of Cultural Economy · 2025-08-05

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Artificial Intelligence at Work: An Integrative Perspective on the Impact of AI on Workplace Inequality

  Academy of Management Annals · 2025-06-25 · 19 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Artificial Intelligence: Disrupting Work and Destabilizing Social Processes

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  This presenter symposium advances our scholarly understanding of the unintended consequences of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in and around organizations. Through five papers, we unpack several emergent concerns of AI use: how Large Language Models could create labor market inequalities, AI's paradoxical undermining of professional decision-making, the deterioration of grievance authenticity in AI-based social activism, AI's homogenizing effects on entrepreneurial ideation, and how corporate control of AI systems compromises scholarly independence. Together, these papers demonstrate how AI is disrupting work and destabilizing social processes. The Uneven Impact of Large Language Models on Labor Market Dynamics Author: Paul Merritt; Cornell University Author: Ben A Rissing; Cornell University Generative AI as a Power Persuader: How GenAI Disrupts Professionals’ Ability to Interrogate it Author: Steven Randazzo; Author: Akshita Joshi; Author: Katherine C. Kellogg; Author: Hila Lifshitz-Assaf; Author: Fabrizio Dell'Acqua; Harvard Business School Author: Francois Candelon; Author: Karim R. Lakhani; Harvard Business School Authenticity in Social Activism: The Case of AI-Based Social Media Bots Author: Luis Hillebrand; University of Geneva Author: Forrest Briscoe; Cornell University The Effects of Generative AI on Entrepreneurial Theorizing Author: Sung Ho Park; University of Oregon Author: Alex Michael Murray; University of Oregon Corporate Empiricism: How Controlling AI Reshapes Knowledge Production Author: Christine Moser; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Author: Gazi Islam; Grenoble Ecole de Management

  PublisherDOI

• Annual Review of Storage Resources: Governance, Data Standards and Strategic Enhancements

  2025-08-25

  article

  Abstract The strategic development of storage resources is a foundational enabler for the effective deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies, particularly in high-emission sectors. In response to this imperative, PETRONAS has institutionalised the PETRONAS Storage Resources Management System (PSRMS), a structured framework designed to classify and evaluate CO2 storage potential across its Upstream portfolio. Adapted from the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Storage Resources Management System (SPE SRMS), PSRMS categorises storage resources into Capacity (PS), Contingent Storage Resources (CS), and Prospective Storage Resources (US), incorporating both technical feasibility and commercial viability dimensions in the context of a project. The PSRMS methodology highlights the importance of robust data stewardship, quantification of uncertainties, and the integration of fiscal and contractual considerations into project maturation. Externally, CCS is increasingly recognised as a cost-effective climate mitigation strategy, with geological storage offering long-term sequestration potential. However, widespread deployment continues to face challenges, including public perception, land-use constraints, and policy inertia. Additionally, CCS presents an opportunity to extend the lifecycle of natural assets by repurposing depleted reservoirs as viable CO2 sinks. A critical first step in advancing CCS is the consolidation of available storage resources to support strategic planning and investment decisions. This paper discusses the strategic integration of PSRMS with the PRrMS (PETRONAS Reserves and Resources Management System), aiming to establish a unified governance framework that links emissions sources through Separate Line Item (SLI) to CO2 sinks. This paper also discusses how the governance framework and data requirements are designed to support this approach. The integration has enhanced the data quality and improved consistency in reporting to support the long-term business planning aligned with PETRONAS’ Net Zero Carbon Emissions 2050 ambition.

  PublisherDOI

• Artificial Intelligence at Work: An Integrative Perspective on the Impact of AI on Workplace Inequality

  2025-06-27 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  The nexus between technology and workplace inequality has long been a focal point of scholarly discourse, now heightened by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI). Our review moves beyond dystopian/utopian views of AI by identifying four perspectives— normative, cognitive, structural, and relational— espoused by scholars examining the impact of AI on workplace inequality. Our review surfaces the respective strengths, limitations, and underlying assumptions of these perspectives and highlights how each perspective speaks to a particular facet of workplace inequality, either encoded, evaluative, wage, or relational inequality. A key insight from our review is that integrating these four perspectives would enable a stronger understanding of how, when, and in what direction AI can impact workplace inequality. Toward that end, we provide an integrative framework that espouses a “lifecycle approach” to examine AI technology development, deployment, and use as an ongoing, iterative process, as opposed to studying them in isolation. Our framework foregrounds the role of normative ideologies, materiality, cognitive frames, and organizational structures/processes that together impact workplace inequality in the wake of AI. Our integrative review seeks to equip and motivate management and organizational scholars to examine the lifecycle of AI and its multifaceted impact on workplace inequality.

  PublisherDOI

• Inside the Invisible Cage

  2024-08-26 · 2 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  In a world increasingly run by algorithms and artificial intelligence, Hatim Rahman traces how organizations are using algorithms to control workers in an “invisible cage.” Inside the Invisible Cage uses unique longitudinal data to investigate how digital labor platforms use algorithms to dictate the actions of high-skilled workers by determining accepted behaviors, work opportunities, and even success. As Hatim Rahman explains, employers can use algorithms to shift rules and guidelines without notice, explanation, or recourse for workers. The invisible cage signals a profound shift in the way markets and organizations categorize and ultimately control people. Unlike previous forms of labor control, the invisible cage is ubiquitous, yet it is also opaque and shifting, which makes breaking free from it difficult for workers. This book traces how the invisible cage was developed over time and the implications it has for the spread of new technology, such as generative artificial intelligence. Inside the Invisible Cage also provides organizations, workers, and policymakers with insights on how to ensure the future of work has truly equitable, mutually beneficial outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

• Technology: Democratizing Access or Exacerbating Inequality

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09

  article

  The goal of this symposium is to bring together scholars studying the distributional effects of technology to address three questions: (1) For whom can technology democratize access? (2) Can technology exacerbate inequalities? (3) What can managers and policymakers do to facilitate the equitable distribution of technology-enabled opportunities? To this purpose, the symposium consists of four unique papers that study questions around equity and equality related to the diffusion and adoption of various technologies (i.e., sound synchronization technology in movies, mobile money, AI, and crowdfunding platforms). With diverse theoretical perspectives (i.e., organizational technology adoption, industry emergence, labor employment, and social exchange), different levels of analysis (i.e., individual, organizational, market, and country levels) and various methods (i.e., historical and archival, abductive, survey experiments, and matching in large samples), these four studies together represent a thoughtful inquiry into the issue of technology and inequality and shed light on when and under what conditions technology may be more or less likely to foster (in)equity. Beyond the Decibels: U.S. Movie Theaters’ Adoption of Sound Synchronization Technology, 1927-1931 Author: Ying Li; Hong Kong U. of Science and Technology Author: Laura E. Dupin; Amsterdam Business School, U. of Amsterdam Regulatory Uncertainty, State Fragility, and Emergence of the African Mobile Money Industry Author: Audra Wormald; Kenan-Flagler Business School, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Who Needs College? Employers Value Adults with Training Certificates Author: Hatim A. Rahman; Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Author: Nicole Kreisberg; - Does Equity Crowdfunding Provide Better Funding Opportunities for Underrepresented Founders? Author: Melody Chang; USC Marshall School of Business

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• The Future of Research in an Artificial Intelligence-Driven World

  Journal of Management Inquiry · 2024-02-22 · 53 citations

  articleOpen access

  Current and future developments in artificial intelligence (AI) systems have the capacity to revolutionize the research process for better or worse. On the one hand, AI systems can serve as collaborators as they help streamline and conduct our research. On the other hand, such systems can also become our adversaries when they impoverish our ability to learn as theorists, or when they lead us astray through inaccurate, biased, or fake information. No matter which angle is considered, and whether we like it or not, AI systems are here to stay. In this curated discussion, we raise questions about human centrality and agency in the research process, and about the multiple philosophical and practical challenges we are facing now and ones we will face in the future.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Taming Platform Power: Taking Accountability into Account in the Management of Platforms

  Academy of Management Annals · 2024 · 91 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Business

  Research on multisided platforms has emphasized how platform owners accumulate significant power over other platform actors, such as producers and customers, arguing for the need to balance such power with accountability. We review two perspectives on platform accountability: (a) a bottom-up, emergent perspective that focuses on the collective action taken by lower-powered platform actors such as producers (e.g., gig workers, app developers) to enhance rule adequacy and push back against platform owners’ power; and (b) a top-down, institutional perspective that emphasizes preventing extractive opportunism and maintaining a level playing field among different platform actors by enabling legal, regulatory, and governance changes. The bottom-up perspective’s overarching focus is on procedural (rule-focused) fairness, while the top-down perspective’s focus is largely on distributive (outcome-focused) fairness. While both perspectives are important, they have limitations regarding platform accountability, especially given the power and informational asymmetries inherent among platform actors. Therefore, synthesizing across literatures, we provide a framework for platform accountability that accounts for both procedural and distributive fairness, and is based on a fundamental premise: multisided platforms require multisided accountability systems. Thus, our review proposes an approach for enforcing platform accountability that has the potential to rebalance the power between high-powered and low-powered platform actors.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Lindsey Cameron

  University of Pennsylvania

  12 shared

• Arvind Karunakaran

  Stanford University

  8 shared

• Melissa Valentine

  5 shared

• Stephen R. Barley

  2 shared

• Sophie Romay

  United States Air Force

  2 shared

• Andrew Deregla

  U.S. Air Force Test Center

  2 shared

• Jillian Chown

  Kellogg's (Canada)

  2 shared

• Thomas R. Carretta

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• George R. Terry Book Award, Academy of Management (2025)
• Responsible Research in Management Award (Distinguished Winn…
• McGannon Book Award (2025)
• Axiom Business Book Award's Silver Medal in the 'Independent…
• Stanford Humanities and Science Fellowship