| Betreff: | [AISWorld] CFP: EGOS 2014 Mobile work and Mobile technologies |
|---|---|
| Datum: | Wed, 4 Dec 2013 18:02:25 +0100 |
| Von: | Marleen Huysman <m.h.huysman@vu.nl> |
| An: | <aisworld@lists.aisnet.org> |
Call for papers: EGOS 2014 Rotterdam, Subtheme 52, Mobile work, mobile technologies and issues of control;
Sponsored by the Organizational Communication and Information Systems (OCIS) division of the Academy of Management
The advent of compact, mobile technologies and a concurrent cultural change regarding the locus of work has led to significant changes in the way in which work is conducted and organized today. Likewise organizations have changed their expectations regarding desired – and possible - outcomes through modern mobile work activities. Whether by design or by chance, organizations are increasingly capitalizing on the mobility of their employees creating products and services that are closer to the customers needs and more aligned with today’s mobile lifestyle.
Accepting
and riding the wave of mobile work, organizations and
managers have either to relinquish control on the employees’
activities or
change the objects of control itself.
Mobility,
and its supporting technologies, are somehow at odds
with the traditional view of control. The consequences of
mobile technologies –
whether owned by the organization or by the individual – on
work practices are
varied and habits, routines, and norms around technology use
in practice are
very fluid (Lyytinen & Yoo, 2002). On the other side
normative control
seems to play an important role leading to crackberrian
behaviors like always
feeling at work (Mazmanian, Orlikwoski & Yates, 2005) and
behaviors to cope
with the connectivity paradox (Leonardi, Treem, & Jackson,
2010). Mobile
technologies seem also to provide the tools for constant and
universal control
establishing – in theory – an electronic panopticon (O'Neill,
1996; Zuboff,
1988). However the possibility of control does not imply that
control is
actually performed nor that deviation is sanctioned.
Is
technology-mediated control of people on the move something
that people have or something that they do? In functional
models of
organizational control, it appears as something that managers
have over
employees (Das, 1993). In contrast, other models specify
control as a joint
accomplishment, such that managers assess compliance using
representations of
work that employees produce (e.g., Anteby, 2008; Hislop and
Axtell, 2010).
Control
differs from other attempts to shape the behavior of
others, because it focuses on monitoring the very actions it
seeks to affect.
Most research on control indicates that managers enforce
compliance by turning
organizations into a theatrical stage, such that everything
employees do is open
to scrutiny (Zuboff, 1988). Such studies explain control as
processes of
compliance and resistance. Thus the effects on employees’
compliance with
prescribed procedures stem from the orders that managers issue
(e.g. Kohli
& Kettinger, 2004). Such exposure also influences
employees’ resistance to
company procedures or managers’ orders (Ball & Wilson,
2000).
However,
research on information technology (IT) and change
(Orlikowski, 1996), street-level bureaucracy (Lipsky, 1980),
and workplace
deviance (Lawrence & Robinson, 2007) also reveals that
control can affect
how employees present their work, not just how they do their
everyday work.
These studies note that employees might present an image of
compliance, even if
they do not follow prescribed procedures or obey managers’
orders.
Mobile
technologies and mobile work provide the perfect setting to
upset the balance between front stage and back stage (Goffman,
1959) and the
perfect occasion both for managers to perform control and
employees to display
compliance through technology.
The
nexus between mobile technology, mobile work, and control
appears to be a very promising ground for research, that
remains largely
unexplored.
Overall,
this sub-theme seeks to explore the relationships between
mobile work, the technologies that make the mobile work
possible, and how
organizations perform and enact control over mobile work.
Topics relevant to
this sub-theme include (but are not restricted to):
·
How do
organizations implement
mobile technologies and how do these processes differ from the
implementation
of other information and communication technologies?
·
How do
organizations monitor and
control of employees who use mobile technologies for work?
·
How do employees
appropriate
prescribed mobile technologies into their everyday work?
·
How do employees
incorporate
their own devices at work?
·
How do
organizations cope with
the challenges that ‘bring your own mobile device’ creates?
·
How does
employees’ use of mobile
technologies affect organizational processes?
· How does mobile technology influence the (in)visibility of work?
In order to advance the state of research on these issues and more generally on the interplay between mobile work, mobile technology, and control we call for original contributions, both empirical and theoretical, that rely on a variety of methods and theories.
Convenors
Joao Vieira da Cunha,
Department of Business
Administration, Aarhus University and ISLA Campus Lisboa, joao.cunha@lx.isla.pt
Marleen Huysman, Department of Economics and Business Administration, VU University Amsterdam, m.h.huysman@vu.nl
Andrea Carugati, Department of Business Administration, Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences, andreac@asb.dk