Bother me only if the client complains: control and resistance in home-based telework in India

Pages90-106
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/ER-09-2018-0241
Published date06 January 2020
Date06 January 2020
AuthorDharma Raju Bathini,George Mathew Kandathil
Subject MatterHr & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law
Bother me only if the client
complains: control and resistance
in home-based telework in India
Dharma Raju Bathini
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, India, and
George Mathew Kandathil
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between operations of organization control and
workersresponse to them in case of telework, a technology-embedded new way of working.
Design/methodology/approach The authors adopted an interpretive approach to explore control and
home-basedteleworkersresponsein the Indianinformation technologyindustry.Interviews and non-participant
observationswere analysed using constructivistgrounded theory.
Findings The discourse of telew ork as a privilegeserved as a basis for normative control, helping
managers exercise incr eased technocratic c ontrol. Combined with t he discourse of self-responsibility to
client, it led teleworkers to self -subjugate to long/unsocia l work hours. However, the simulta neous exercise
of technocratic and no rmative controls resu lted in an inconsisten cy, creating space fo r teleworkers
resistance to technocr atic control. Noneth eless, resistance to t echnocratic control ir onically reinforce d
normative control.
Originality/value The authors contribute to the recent discussion on compatibility and coherence of
multiple control modes, and their relationship to resistance. The authors show how workersselves can be
compatible with one control mode while being incompatible with other modes. The authors argue that when
workersexperience incoherence between control modes, they can appropriate the logic underlying
compatible control mode(s) to resist incompatible control mode(s). Further, the authors demonstrate how
resistance to incompatible control mode(s) can ironically reinforce compatible control mode(s), and thus
explicate the micro-processes of control-resistance dialectic. Advancing the emergent understanding of
resistance, the authors show that resistance is an exercise of strategic counter-power that seeks to exploit
incoherence between control modes and inconsistencies between actions and rhetoric.
Keywords India, Work intensification, Employee resistance, Control-resistance dialectic, Home-based telework,
Organization control
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
There is a consistent rise in remote forms of work, mainly home-based telework[1]
(Eurofound and ILO, 2017; Felstead and Henseke, 2017), which reflects the trend of new
ways of working that aim to provide flexibility in terms of time, space and nature of work
(Taskin et al., 2017). This trend is more prominent in knowledge work as it is not bound to a
specific location. Scholars argue that such technologically embedded new ways of working
necessitate reconstitution of organization control modes (Felstead et al., 2003; Sewell and
Taskin, 2015; Taskin and Edwards, 2007). Extant telework literature implicitly assumes
that the reconstituted modes of control are highly effective. However, the reconstitution may
invoke new kinds of employee response to control, particularly resistance to the extent
control and resistance are mutually constitutive (Mumby, 2005). Telework literature has
underexplored this possibility. Using an interpretive case study, we explore the link
between organization control of home-based teleworkers and their response to it in the
Indian information technology (IT)[2] industry.
Many studies on organization control argue for the effectiveness of a combination
of control modes (e.g. Alvesson and Kärreman, 2004) which minimizes the potential
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 42 No. 1, 2020
pp. 90-106
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-09-2018-0241
Received 10 September 2018
Revised 26 March 2019
Accepted 28 May 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
90
ER
42,1
for resistance. However, others point to the contradictions in the simultaneous use of
multiple control modes (e.g. Korczynski et al., 2000). Taking this conversation forward, we
show how the potential for the contradiction between technocratic and normative control
modes can create space for employee resistance. In doing so, we extend the ongoing
discussion on coherence between multiple control modes, compatibility between self and a
combination of control modes, and their relationship with resistance (Gill, 2019). Expanding
the notion of compatibility, we show how workersselves can be compatible with one control
mode, while simultaneously being incompatible with other modes. We further show that
workers appropriate the logic underlying normative control mode to resist increased
technocratic control. Thus, we extend the argument that incoherence between control modes
creates space for resistance. We explicate the dialectical nature of the control-resistance
(Mumby, 2005; Mumby et al., 2017) wherein the resistance to technocratic control
aids normative control. Thus, we argue that workersuse of the logic underlying compatible
control mode to resist the incompatible ones ironically reinforces the compatible mode,
rendering it even harder to resist. Further, contributing to the emergent understanding
of resistance to organization control (Alcadipani et al., 2018; Thomas and Hardy, 2011), we
show that resistance is not just a response to organization control, but an exercise of
strategic counter-power that seeks to exploit incoherence between control modes and
inconsistencies between actions and rhetoric.
The paper progresses the following way. After reviewing studies on different modes of
organization control and their interaction, we discuss the reconstitution of existing control
modes in telework. We then review telework-related literature on employee response to
organization control, highlighting the consistent focus on self-regulation and
internalization, overlooking resistance. Subsequently, we present the methodology
and findings highlighting control-resistance intertwinement in a mutually implicativeand
co-productive manner. To conclude, we discuss the implications of our findings and areas
for future research.
Theoretical background
While mapping the evolution of organization control literature, Delbridge and Ezzamel
(2005) discuss two broad approaches, mainstreaman d critical. Ouchis (1979)
classification of control modes into market, bureaucracy and clan, for example, is
considered mainstream. Within critical realm (e.g. Edwards, 1979), broadly two modes of
control are discussed using various labels, for example, technocratic and ideological
(Kärreman and Alvesson, 2004), or rational and normative (Barley and Kunda, 1992).
Technocratic (or rational) controls focus on direct control of employees through formal
means. They encompass behaviour-based controls expressed as rules and procedures, and
output-based controls, for example, performance measures such as productivity, profit, sales
and quality. On the other hand, normative (or socio-ideological) controls target worker
behaviour and performance indirectly by targeting ideational elements such as employee
mindset and belief system. By acting internally on employee values, beliefs, norms and
ideas, they shape employeesunderstandings of what is appropriate at the workplace.
In a post-bureaucratic knowledge economy, one set of studies argues that the iron cage
of technocratic control is loosened and compensated by the mental cage of normative
controls (Adler, 2001; Kärreman and Alvesson, 2004). Others, however, are sceptical of
normative controlseffectiveness and consider normative controls as an appendage to
technocratic control. Contesting the notion of post-bureaucracy, for example, they argue
that enhanced apparatus of monitoring, measurement and audit has become an
ever-present dimension of working life(Thompson and van den Broek, 2010, p. 7). Such
measurement allows managers to set and impose stringent performance targets.
Normative controls then supplement technocratic control mechanisms by emphasizing the
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Home-based
telework
in India

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