Social Control in Organizations

Millham, Spencer; Bullock, Roger; Cherrett, Paul Francis

doi:10.2307/588321

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…The effectiveness of imposing social control is directly determined by environmental conditions. In different sets of conditions, similar methods of control may lead to opposite effects [14]. Attempts to modernize China during the late 19th century had similar goals to the aforementioned Meiji Restoration, as both were social elites' reactions to oppressions from Western imperialism and intended to improve the domestic industrial base by westernizing and overturning old regimes.…”

Section: Leaders' Influence Upon Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Discussion on How Events Make Leaders

Gao¹

2023

Proceedings of the 2022 4th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2022)

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Section: Leaders' Influence Upon Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Discussion on How Events Make Leaders

Gao¹

2023

Proceedings of the 2022 4th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2022)

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“…Initially, having so many people ask ''what [they] did wrong'' (C24, V) made transgressors feel ''embarrassed'' (C6, NV), ''judged'' (C20, V), and generally disapproved of. Because expressions of disapproval are an element of social control-attempts to influence individuals through informal sanctions (Millham, Bullock, and Cherrett, 1972)-such questions could be seen as others' attempts at social control.…”

Section: Transgressors' Individual and Interpersonal Reactions To Tra...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Scarlet Letters: Rehabilitation Through Transgression Transparency and Personal Narrative Control

Frey

Bernstein²,

Rekenthaler

2022

Administrative Science Quarterly

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When employees commit transgressions, organizations often use tools of organizational control to prevent them from transgressing again. We investigate whether organizations can use transgression transparency to rehabilitate transgressors. Although making transgressions transparent—which may result in stigmatization or public shaming—is generally assumed to be purely punitive, we show when and how it can foster rehabilitation. We draw on a longitudinal, qualitative dataset of 23 similarly situated transgressors at a military academy that added transparency to traditional punishment by requiring transgressors to wear a pin that signaled their transgression. Data from transgressors and from other organizational members revealed that instead of prompting persistent stigmatization, social awareness of the transgression prompted others’ inquiry, gradually engaging transgressors in a coactive process to develop a mutually acceptable narrative of their transgression through a mechanism we call personal narrative control. For that personal narrative to endure, transgressors needed to exercise self-control and avoid further transgressions, as they did in our study even after the pin was removed, signaling rehabilitation. We induce four contextual conditions for transgression transparency to trigger personal narrative control and theorize how they might generalize to other organizations seeking to rehabilitate transgressors.

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“…Organizational control refers specifically to any arrangement that regulates and manages members’ attitudes and behaviours so that they are functional – or at least not detrimental – to the organization's goals (Ouchi, ; Tannenbaum, ). These formal arrangements can include direct supervision, standardization of skills and work processes, output monitoring, and the organization's punitive systems and reward structures (Millham et al, ; Mintzberg, ; Thompson, ). All of these formal arrangements are imposed, generally non‐negotiable, and mostly impersonal.…”

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociometric Status and Peer Control Attempts: A Multiple Status Hierarchies Approach

Klepper

Labianca

Sleebos

et al. 2016

J Management Studies

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We study a population of first year midshipmen within an elite military academy to explore the relationship between individuals’ sociometric status (e.g., status conferrals based on positive interpersonal affect and perceived competence, and status degradations based on negative interpersonal affect) and their attempts to directly control their peers’ behaviour over a year's time. Results show that multiple informal sociometric status hierarchies develop early in the organization's life and remain remarkably stable. Control attempts are driven by these status hierarchies: Lower competence status individuals and those who attract negative status degradations are targeted for control by more people early in the group's life, those relatively free of negative status degradations attempt to control greater numbers of others throughout the group's existence, while higher positive status is generally unrelated to control attempts. However, control attempts do not lead to higher future sociometric status, suggesting they are not status signals. Findings also show that individuals targeted for control by many others leave the organization entirely.

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Social Control in Organizations

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Historical Discussion on How Events Make Leaders

Historical Discussion on How Events Make Leaders

Scarlet Letters: Rehabilitation Through Transgression Transparency and Personal Narrative Control

Sociometric Status and Peer Control Attempts: A Multiple Status Hierarchies Approach

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