Autonomy and new modes of control in digital work contexts – a mixed-methods study of driving professions in food logistics
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2021-0139 |
| Published date | 25 January 2022 |
| Date | 25 January 2022 |
| Pages | 890-912 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Caroline Ruiner,Matthias Klumpp |
Autonomy and new modes of
control in digital work contexts –
a mixed-methods study of driving
professions in food logistics
Caroline Ruiner
Chair for Sociology, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany, and
Matthias Klumpp
Georg-August-University of G€
ottingen, G€
ottingen, Germany
Abstract
Purpose –Digitalization is changing organizations with positive and negative impacts such as increased
autonomy on the one hand and increased surveillance andcontrol on the other hand. In this context, new modes
of control occur: in addition to managerial control, new modes of control are multi-directed, stemming from
colleagues, customers and underlying algorithms. This paper investigates the interrelation of autonomy and
new modes of control in digital work contexts from the workers’perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach –Empirical data are based on a mixed-methods approach combining
qualitative interviews with 25 and a quantitative questionnaire with 127 workers from urban food logistics
organizations in Germany.
Findings –The results show that new modes of control are relevant for work engagement in digital work
contexts: managerial and algorithm control are perceived as support. Peer and customer control are perceived
as coercion.
Originality/value –Besides investigating the interrelation of autonomy and control and differentiating new
modes of control, our study also makes important contributions to the perception of control as support and
coercion.
Keywords Autonomy, Control, Digitalization, Employee relations, Food logistics, Individual perception,
Mixed-methods study, Work engagement
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Digital technologies profoundly change established work practices and, thus, transform work
contexts in the sense that they are based on digital technologies for work organization and
processes (Zuboff, 1988). Digitalization is the sociotechnical process of applying technologies
to broader social and institutional contexts (Tilson et al., 2010;Wilkesmann and Wilkesmann,
2018), with current discussion topics directed in many cases at artificial intelligence
applications and their implications for autonomy and control perception of workers
(Lindebaum et al., 2020). It comes along with competitive advantages like cost and time to
market reductions for organizations (Wieland et al., 2016;Yu et al., 2017) or a greater
flexibility in terms of working time and place, therefore more autonomy for workers
(Feldman, 1989;Gregg, 2011;Symon and Pritchard, 2015). However, the implementation of
digital technologies also enables control of workers (Ball, 2010;Fairweather, 1999;Kallinikos,
2011;Walter et al., 2021) due to the collection, analysis and distribution of performance data.
This has already been investigated in previous studies (Curchod et al., 2020;Heiland, 2021a,
ER
44,4
890
The authors want to express their sincere gratitude for the important and constructive support and
feedback of all involved reviewers and editors regarding this paper.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 8 April 2021
Revised 10 October 2021
1 January 2022
Accepted 3 January 2022
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 44 No. 4, 2022
pp. 890-912
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-04-2021-0139
2021b;Ivanova et al., 2018;Shapiro, 2017). In this sense, it is important to understand the
interrelation of autonomy and different modes of control such as traditional managerial
control complemented with new modes of control from colleagues (peer control), customers
(customer control) and algorithms (algorithm control) and how this affects work since there
might be a threshold where control becomes unbearable, destroys motivation and work
engagement (Sewell et al., 2012).
It is the objective of this paper to investigate the interrelation of autonomy and new modes
of control in digital work contexts from the workers’perspectives in order to explain work
engagement. Referring to the autonomy-control paradox (Bader and Kaiser, 2017;Darr, 2003;
Ivanova et al., 2018;Mazmanian et al., 2013;Stohl et al., 2016), we discuss that digitalization
does both enable worker surveillance and control and allow for worker autonomy. However,
whether workers perceive autonomy and how they perceive new modes of control using
digital technologies has not been investigated thoroughly yet –although this is critical for
understanding work engagement in digital work contexts (Brey, 1999;Knight et al., 2017;
Lohmeyer et al., 2018;Sonnentag et al., 2018). Empirical data are based on a mixed-methods
approach (Creswell et al., 2003) combining a qualitative interview study (n525) and a
quantitative-empirical questionnaire (n5127). With the qualitative study, we intended to
collect the workers’perspectives to develop a better understanding of the interrelation of
autonomy and new modes of control in a first step. In a second step, we developed hypotheses
that were tested in the subsequent online survey on the basis of a larger sample. As an
empirical case, we used the food logistics sector in Germany since workers in this field have
traditionally a high degree of autonomy because they are dispersed in space but are
increasingly subjected to digital work organization with hybrid control regimes combining
technological and organizational measures (Heiland, 2021a;Levy, 2015). Thus, we use this
example for digital work contexts as work processes are based on the use of digital
technologies.
This paper provides three theoretical contributions: (1) We analyze how digital work
affects individuals and organizations by empirically investigating the interrelation of
autonomy and control from the workers’perspectives to estimate the impact on work
performance. (2) We emphasize the relevance of new modes of control in digital work contexts
differentiating managerial, peer, customer and algorithm control. (3) Finally, we discuss the
perception of control as support and coercion.
The paper is structured as follows. The next section is outlining the research framework
regarding autonomy and different modes of control in organizations. Then, we describe the
research methods applied and present the empirical findings obtained for the qualitative and
quantitative study parts. This is complemented by a discussion of conceptual contributions
and connections to other research areas, before we finally provide conclusions and directions
for further research.
Autonomy and new modes of control in paradoxical relation
Autonomy
Autonomy is defined as “the degree to which the job provides substantial freedom,
independence and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the
procedures to be used in carrying it out”(Hackman and Oldham, 1975, p. 162). However,
Breaugh (1985) emphasizes that this perspective is too narrow since a logistics worker like a
bike messenger would be expected to have little autonomy although she/he works largely on
her/his own and rarely sees her/his supervisor. Thus, he differentiates autonomy regarding
work criteria, methods and scheduling. Work criteria autonomy is the ability of workers to
choose or to modify the criteria used for evaluating performance; work method autonomy
refers to a worker’s freedom in selecting strategies related to tasks, and work schedule
autonomy is the workers’choice for choosing work timings and durations.
New modes of
control in
digital work
contexts
891
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