The Significance of Suffering in Organizations: Understanding Variation in Workers’ Responses to Multiple Modes of Control

Abstract

I develop a framework to explain workers’ diverse responses to similar combinations of control modes across organizations. The framework highlights the importance of two conceptual dimensions that draw together insights from studies of control and resistance in the workplace. The dimension of compatibility considers workers’ subjective experiences of the fit between their personhood and modes of control, where alignment can inspire fulfillment and misalignment can prompt suffering. The dimension of coherence considers workers’ perception of the consistency between modes, which can be fragmented or unified to reinforce organizationally prescribed goals and processes. The framework yields four ideal types of interaction between modes of control: complementing, coexisting, competing and clashing. I illustrate how workers experience each ideal type through empirical examples. In doing so, I identify how workers’ experiences can trigger processes that generate different intensities of compliance and resistance to control.