Full Title
STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI
Publisher
FrancoAngeli
ISSN
0391-8769 (Printed Journal)
1972-4969 (Online Journal)
Journal Issue Number
1
Journal Issue Designation
1
Journal Issue Date
2021
Full Title
The intricacies of power relations and digital technologies in organizational processes
By (author)
First Page
7
Last Page
24
Language of text
English
Publication Date
2021/06
Copyright
2021 FrancoAngeli srl
Introduction or preface
The relationship between power, technology and organizing is a longstanding theme in organization studies, typically articulated along two polarized positions: a pessimistic and an optimistic one. Both positions assume a deterministic view in which technology "impacts" society and organizations, thus missing the intricate and often ambiguous dynamics that surround power and technology. Accordingly, this Special Issue focuses on the intricacies of power, digital technologies and organizational processes. Presenting the rationale of the papers that compose the Special Issue, we suggest five themes arising when empirically and theoretically approaching these intricacies: 1) digital technologies and power relationships in organizational structure and processes; 2) relationships between technology, power and workers' participation; 3) digital technologies, algorithmic control and power renegotiation; 4) digital technologies, practices of human resources management and the joint design of technology, work, and organization; 5) hyper-industrialization as a critical lens to approach technology, work, and organizing. Taken all together, the papers help overcoming simplifications as well as polarized representations of the relationship between power, digital technologies and organizing.
Unstructured Citation
Aldrich, H., Herker, D. (1977), “Boundary spanning roles and organization structure”, Academy of management review, 2(2):
217-230.
https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1977.4409044
Unstructured Citation
Bruni, A., Esposito, F.M. (2019), “It obliges you to do things you normally wouldn’t”: Organizing and consuming private life in the age of AirBnB, Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(3): 265-290,
Unstructured Citation
Burns, T., Stalker, G. (1961), The Management of Innovation. London, Tavinstock.
Unstructured Citation
Castells, M. (2007), “Communication, power and counter-power in the network society”, International journal of communication, 1(29): 238-266.
Unstructured Citation
Cheng, M.M., Hackett, R.D. (2021), “A critical review of algorithms in HRM: definition, theory, and practice”, Human Resource
Management Review, 31(1): 100698,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100698
Unstructured Citation
Connelly, C.E., Černe, M., Dysvik, A., Škerlavaj, M. (2019), “Understanding knowledge hiding in organizations”, Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 40(7): 779-782,
https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2407
Unstructured Citation
Constantinides, P., Henfridsson, O., Parker, G. (2018), “Introduction – Platforms and infrastructures in the digital age”,
Information Systems Research, 29: 3-6,
https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2018.0794
Unstructured Citation
De Stefano, V. (2016), The rise of the «just-in-time workforce»: On-demand work, crowdwork and labour protection in the «gig-economy».
Geneva: ILO Working Paper,
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2682602
Unstructured Citation
Eubanks, V. (2018), Automating inequality: How high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor, New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Unstructured Citation
Frey, C.B, Osborne, M.A. (2017), “The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?”, Technological forecasting
and social change, 114: 254–280,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019
Unstructured Citation
Genin, E. (2016), “Proposal for a theoretical framework for the analysis of time porosity”, International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, 32(3): 280–300.
Unstructured Citation
Giardullo, P., Miele, F. (2020), “L’organizzazione algoritmica: tecnologia, performance, automazione. In: Marini, D., Setiffi, F. (eds.)”, Una grammatica della digitalizzazione. Interpretare la metamorfosi di società, economia e organizzazioni. Milano: Guerini Scientifica.
Unstructured Citation
Gouldner, A.W. (1954), Patterns of industrial bureaucracy. Glencoe, IL: Free.
Unstructured Citation
Hackman, J.R., Oldham G.R. (1976), “Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory”, Organizational behavior and
human performance, 16(2): 250-279.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7
Unstructured Citation
Hall, J.V., Horton, J.J., Knoepfle, D.T. (2019), “Pricing efficiently in designed markets: The case of ride-sharing”, available at https://john-joseph-horton.com/papers/uber_price.pdf.
Unstructured Citation
Hallett, T., Ventresca, M.J. (2007), “Inhabited institutions: Social interactions and organizational forms in Gouldner’s Patterns
of Industrial Bureaucracy”, Theory and Society, 35(2): 213-236,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-006-9003-z
Unstructured Citation
Ivanova, M., Bronowicka, J., Kocher, E., Degner, A. (2018), Foodora and Deliveroo: The app as a boss? Control and autonomy in app-based management: The case of food delivery riders, Dusseldorf, Germany: Hans Bockler Stiftung.
Unstructured Citation
Jarrahi, M.H., Sutherland, W., Nelson, S.B., Sawyer, S. (2019), “Platformic Management, Boundary Resources for Gig Work, and
Worker Autonomy”, Computer Supported Cooperative Work-the Journal of Collaborative Computing and Work Practices, 29: 153–189,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-019-09368-7
Unstructured Citation
Kellogg, K.C., Valentine, M.A., Christin, A. (2020), “Algorithms at work: The new contested terrain of control”, Academy of
Management Annals, 14(1): 366-410,
https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2018.0174
Unstructured Citation
Kemmer, L., Kühn, A., Otto, B., Weber, V. (2021), “Standby: Organizing modes of in| activity”, Ephemera: theory & politics in organization, 21: 1-20.
Unstructured Citation
Kost, D., Fieseler, C., Wong, S.I. (2018), “Finding meaning in a hopeless place? The construction of meaningfulness in digital
microwork”, Computers in Human Behavior, 82: 101-110,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.01.002
Unstructured Citation
Kunda, G. (2009), Engineering culture: Control and commitment in a high-tech corporation. PA: Temple University Press.
Unstructured Citation
Lawrence, P.R., Lorsch, J.W. (1967), Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and integration. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Unstructured Citation
Leonardi, D., Murgia, A., Armano, E. (2020), “Piattaforme digitali e forme di resistenza della soggettività precaria: un’inchiesta sul lavoro gratuito e la mobilitazione dei riders di Foodora a Torino”. In: Armano, E. (ed.) Pratiche di inchiesta e conricerca oggi. Verona: Ombre Corte.
Unstructured Citation
Liu, M., Brynjolfsson, E., Dowlatabadi, J. (2018). Do digital platforms reduce moral hazard? The case of Uber and taxis, Cambridge,
MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
https://doi.org/10.3386/w25015
Unstructured Citation
Meyer, U., Shaupp, S., Seibt, D. (2019), “Toward an Analytical Understanding of Domination and Emancipation in Digitalizing
Industries”. In Meyer U., Shaupp S., Seibt D. (eds.), Digitalization in Industry: Between Domination and Emancipation. London
and New York, Palgrave, p. 1-25.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28258-5_1
Unstructured Citation
Miele, F., Tirabeni, L. (2020), “Digital technologies and power dynamics in the organization: A conceptual review of remote
working and wearable technologies at work”, Sociology Compass, 14(6): e12795,
https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12795
Unstructured Citation
Mintzberg, H. (1993). Structure in fives: Designing effective organizations. NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Unstructured Citation
Mollick, E., Werbach, K. (2015), “Gamification and the enterprise”. In: Walz, S.P., Deterding, S. (eds.) The gameful world: Approaches, issues, applications, 439.
Unstructured Citation
Mokyr, J., Vickers, C., Ziebarth, N.L. (2015), “The history of technological anxiety and the future of economic growth: Is
this time different?”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29: 31–50.
https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.29.3.31
Unstructured Citation
Noble, S.U. (2018). Algorithms of oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. New York: NYU Press.
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1pwt9w5
Unstructured Citation
Nylén, D., Holmström, J. (2015), “Digital innovation strategy: A framework for diagnosing and improving digital product
and service innovation”, Business Horizons, 58 (1): 57–67,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2014.09.001
Unstructured Citation
O’Neil, C. (2016). Weapons of math destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. New York: Broadway Books.
Unstructured Citation
Orlikowski, W.J., Scott, S.V. (2008), “Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization”, The
Academy of Management Annals, 2(1): 433-474.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520802211644
Unstructured Citation
Perrow, C. (1967), “A framework for the comparative analysis of organizations”, American sociological review: 194-208.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2091811
Unstructured Citation
Pickering, A. (1993), “The Mangle of Practice: Agency and Emergence in the Sociology of Science”, American Journal of Sociology,
99(3): 559-589.
https://doi.org/10.1086/230316
Unstructured Citation
Plesner, U., Husted, E. (2020), Digital organizing: Revisiting themes in organization studies. Red Globe Press.
Unstructured Citation
Plesner, U., Raviola, E. (2016), “Digital technologies and a changing profession”, Journal of Organizational Change Management,
29(7): 1044-1065.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-09-2015-0159
Unstructured Citation
Sadowski, J. (2015), “From mega-machines to mega-algorithms”. Available at the website: thenewinquiry.com/from-mega-machines-to-mega-algorithms.
Unstructured Citation
Scholz, T., Schneider, N. (eds.) (2017), Ours to hack and to own: The rise of platform cooperativism, a new vision for the
future of work and a fairer internet. NY: OR books.
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv62hfq7
Unstructured Citation
Spencer, D.A. (2018), “Fear and hope in an age of mass automation: debating the future of work”, New Technology, Work and
Employment, 33: 1-12,
https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12105
Unstructured Citation
Susskind, R., Susskind, D. (2015), The future of the professions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198713395.001.0001
Unstructured Citation
Thompson, J.D. (1967), Organizations in action, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Unstructured Citation
Tipping, S., Chanfreau, J., Perry, J., Tait, C. (2012), “The fourth work–life balance employee survey”. In Employment relations research series. London, England: Department for Business Innovation and Skills.
Unstructured Citation
Woodward, J. (1958), Management and technology, London: H.M.S.O.
Unstructured Citation
Zuboff, S. (2019), The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power, London: Profile Books.