Organizational Control: New Perspectives and Future Directions

Abstract

Control is “management’s most fundamental problem” (Van Maanen and Barley 1984: 290), and issues relating to control are apparent in many facets of organizational life such as organizational design, organizational culture, and everyday organizational routines. However, theory on organizational control has not kept pace with changes in both organizations and their environments. This may partially reflect the segmentation of control research from research on related theoretical concepts. Therefore, to advance our understanding of organizational control, this symposium aims to integrate a variety of theoretical perspectives — such as organizational learning, organizational change, and technology in the workplace – with more traditional organizational control theory. By integrating a variety of theoretical perspectives, we hope to both move forward current theory on organizational control while also encouraging scholars to broaden their understanding of what comprises and constitutes organizational control research. Co-Creation of Organizational Control Mechanisms as a Learning Process Presenter: Jillian Chown; Northwestern Kellogg School of Management When Change Agents Change Their Minds: Network Diffusion and the Failure of Organizational Change Presenter: Julien Clement; Stanford U. Presenter: Vibha Gaba; INSEAD Bringing Workers Back In: Employees’ Varied Responses to Strategic Change and Accompanying Controls Presenter: Vanessa Conzon; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Resistance in the Age of Algorithms: A Comparative Ethnography of Workers’ Resistance Presenter: Lindsey Cameron; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Presenter: Hatim A. Rahman; Northwestern Kellogg School of Management