Mutual Control in the Newly Integrated Work Environments

How does an increase in the availability of detailed electronic information about behavior change organizations, and what kinds of choices influence those changes? This paper presents a model of mutual control, derived from studies of detailed information sharing in manufacturing, that describes one set of likely changes. According to the mutual control model, increasing pressures for tighter monitoring and control come from a mutual access to, and dependence on, shared electronic information that can be linked to the behavior of identifiable individuals and groups. That the demands for greater monitoring and control come from all directions in organizations, not simply upper management, is a finding that contrasts sharply with the traditional view of electronic surveillance and its concern with regulating managerial excess. The mutual control model also highlights how current systems design ideals, uncritically followed, contribute to the widespread demand for monitoring and tighter control within organi...

[1]  Charles J. Petrie.  Enterprise integration modeling : proceedings of the first international conference , 1992 .

[2]  Wanda J. Orlikowski.  Learning from Notes: Organizational Issues in Groupware Implementation , 1993, Inf. Soc..

[3]  R. Kling,et al.  Computing as an Occasion for Social Control. , 1984 .

[4]  Elihu M. Gerson,et al.  Analyzing due process in the workplace , 1986, COCS '86.

[5]  Clarence A. Ellis,et al.  Office Information Systems and Computer Science , 1980, CSUR.

[6]  James B. Rule,et al.  Private Lives and Public Surveillance , 1974 .

[7]  P. Adler.  Time-and-motion regained , 1993 .

[8]  James B. Rule,et al.  Private Lives and Public Surveillance. , 1975 .

[9]  J. Klein,et al.  The human costs of manufacturing reform , 1989 .

[10]  J. Klein.  A Reexamination of Autonomy in Light of New Manufacturing Practices , 1991 .

[11]  M. Morton,et al.  The corporation of the 1990s: Information technology and organizational transformation , 1993 .

[12]  Timothy Warner,et al.  Information technology as a competitive burden , 1989 .

[13]  Shoshana Zuboff,et al.  In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power , 1989 .

[14]  Joey F. George,et al.  Examining the computing and centralization debate , 1991, CACM.

[15]  Terry Winograd,et al.  The Action Workflow Approach to Workflow Management Technology , 1993, Inf. Soc..

[16]  William Kent,et al.  Data and Reality: Basic Assumptions in Data Processing Reconsidered , 1978 .

[17]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  The Impacts of Computer Technology on the Worklife of Information Workers , 1990 .

[18]  A. Majchrzak.  The Human Side of Factory Automation: Managerial and Human Resource Strategies for Making Automation Succeed , 1988 .

[19]  L. Suchman.  Do categories have politics? The language/action perspective reconsidered , 1993 .

[20]  Ina Wagner,et al.  A web of fuzzy problems: confronting the ethical issues , 1993, CACM.

[21]  Juhani Iivari,et al.  A paradigmatic analysis of contemporary schools of IS development , 1991 .

[22]  Paul Attewell,et al.  Computing and organizations: what we know and what we don't know , 1984, CACM.

[23]  Mark Weiser.  The computer for the 21st century , 1991 .

[24]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Information Technology and the Structuring of Organizations , 2011 .

[25]  R. Zmud,et al.  Information technology implementation research: a technological diffusion approach , 1990 .

[26]  Richard Schonberger,et al.  World class manufacturing : the lessons of simplicity applied , 1986 .

[27]  Joseph A. Orlicky,et al.  Material Requirements Planning: The New Way of Life in Production and Inventory Management , 1975 .

[28]  James B. Rule,et al.  Computerized surveillance in the workplace: Forms and distributions , 1992 .

[29]  Paul Attewell,et al.  Big brother and the sweatshop: computer surveillance in the automated office , 1987 .