Out of the Panopticon and into Exile: Visibility and control in distributed new culture organizations

Hafermalz, Ella

doi:10.1177/0170840620909962

Cited by 78 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…It is necessary for leaders of remote workers to develop new skills to ensure they can achieve interpersonal connectivity in relation to those they are tasked with leading, even at a geographic distance (Kolb et al, 2009). As a feeling of alienation and disconnection can be distressing for remote workers (Hafermalz, 2020) managers may be advised to invest in reflective practice regarding their balancing of the dualities of freedom/control and nearness/farness in relation to each individual they manage remotely.…”

Section: Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Interpersonal Connectivity Work: Being there with and for geographically distant others

Hafermalz

Riemer

2020

Organization Studies

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In this paper we ask how interpersonal connectivity can be achieved at a geographic distance. This is in contrast with extant literature that focuses on states of connectivity rather than the work needed to achieve it. We draw on phenomenological ideas of embodiment, presence, and distance, in combination with empirical material from an extreme remote work context - telenursing in Australia. The nurses we interviewed triage patients entirely by telephone. We argue that even with low social and technical connectivity, interpersonal connectivity is achievable through skilful work with technology. We explore the work that goes into ‘being there with and for distant others’ by combining the phenomenological concepts of ‘maximal grip’ and ‘intentional arc’ with empirical examples. We propose that interpersonal connectivity is oriented empathetically towards both the other person and agentically towards the joint situation. We thereby develop a conceptual model of interpersonal connectivity work, which argues that distributed workers need to skilfully balance the dualities of freedom/control and nearness/farness to achieve interpersonal connectivity. Achieving and maintaining interpersonal connectivity is an important skill, particularly for leaders who operate in work contexts that are increasingly distributed, flexible, and temporary.

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Section: Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Interpersonal Connectivity Work: Being there with and for geographically distant others

Hafermalz

Riemer

2020

Organization Studies

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“…Remote working is not new (Hafermalz, 2020), but never before were so many organizations simultaneously forced to let their employees work from home as in 2020, when the COVID-19 crisis surfaced globally. This had significant implications for organizations, including how they could exercise management control (MC), i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our primary data consist of semi-structured interviews with employees working in large PSFs in the first half of 2020. We draw on self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci, 2000) and Hafermalz's (2020) notion of voluntary visibilizing practices to theorize our findings related to employee responses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote working, management control changes and employee responses during the COVID-19 crisis

Delfino

Kolk

2021

AAAJ

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PurposeThe authors examine the impact of the sudden shift to remote working, triggered by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis, on management control (MC) practices in professional service firms (PSFs). In addition, employee responses to these changes are explored.Design/methodology/approachThe authors carried out a field study of MC changes in PSFs in Italy, the first country in Europe that was severely impacted by COVID-19. Interviews with PSF employees form the primary data source. Pattern matching was used to identify similarities and differences and investigate how employees respond to the MC changes.FindingsAs a response to the shift to remote working, managers at PSFs made various MC-related changes. For instance, they increased the number of online meetings and made use of technologies to monitor employees from a distance. Employees reacted to this by engaging in “voluntary visibilizing practices”, i.e. by trying to make sure they got noted by their superiors, for instance by doing overtime. In addition, collected evidence suggests increased stress levels among employees, changes to employee autonomy, changed perceptions of hierarchies and a weakened sense of relatedness with others in the organization.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to examine the impact of the sudden shift to remote working on MC. In addition, this paper contributes by exploring employee responses to the MC-related changes. The findings add to the growing literature on MC and motivation, and the notion of voluntary visibilizing practices is mobilized to warn against over-commitment and self-exploitation.

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“…The ubiquitous connectivity creates a contradiction in that workers express greater feelings of autonomy in how they conduct their tasks, but also greater expectations of commitment. Hafermalz (2020) found similar dynamics, showing that as people became more physically distanced from others in their offices, they used the very technologies that enabled them to work remotely in order to try and build stronger connections with those colleagues, thus undermining many of the benefits of working remotely.…”

Section: The Consequences: Three Paradoxes Of Behavioral Visibility Fmentioning

confidence: 87%

Behavioral Visibility: A new paradigm for organization studies in the age of digitization, digitalization, and datafication

Leonardi

Treem

2020

Organization Studies

193

119

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The digitization, digitalization, and datafication of work and communication, coupled with social and technical infrastructures that enable connectivity, are making it increasingly easy for the behaviors of people, collectives, and technological devices to see and be seen. Such digital connectivity gives rise to the important phenomenon of behavioral visibility. We argue that studying the antecedents, processes, and consequences of behavioral visibility should be a central concern for scholars of organizing. We attempt to set the cornerstones for the study of behavioral visibility by considering the social and technological contexts that are enabling behavioral visibility, developing the concept of behavioral visibility by defining its various components, considering the conditions through which it is commonly produced, and outlining potential consequences of behavioral visibility in the form of three paradoxes. We conclude with some conjectures about the kinds of research questions, empirical foci, and methodological strategies that scholars will need to embrace in order to understand how behavioral visibility shapes and is shaped by the process of organizing as we catapult, swiftly, into an era where artificial intelligence, learning algorithms, and social tools are changing the way people work.

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Out of the Panopticon and into Exile: Visibility and control in distributed new culture organizations

Cited by 78 publications

References 84 publications

Interpersonal Connectivity Work: Being there with and for geographically distant others

Interpersonal Connectivity Work: Being there with and for geographically distant others

Remote working, management control changes and employee responses during the COVID-19 crisis

Behavioral Visibility: A new paradigm for organization studies in the age of digitization, digitalization, and datafication

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