Remote working, management control changes and employee responses during the COVID-19 crisis
Remote working, management control changes and employee responses during the COVID-19 crisis
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DOI：
10.1108/aaaj-06-2020-4657
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发表时间：
2021-04-29
影响因子：
4.2
通讯作者：
van der Kolk, Berend
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Delfino, Gianluca F.;van der Kolk, Berend
目的研究由2019年冠状病毒病(新冠肺炎)危机引发的突然转向远程工作对专业服务公司(PSF)管理控制(MC)实践的影响。此外，还探讨了员工对这些变化的反应。设计/方法/方法作者在意大利开展了一项关于PSFs MC变化的现场研究，意大利是欧洲第一个受到新冠肺炎严重影响的国家。对PSF员工的采访构成了主要数据来源。模式匹配被用来识别相似和不同之处，并调查员工对MC变化的反应。作为对远程工作转变的回应，PSFs的经理们做出了各种与MC相关的改变。例如，他们增加了在线会议的数量，并利用技术远程监控员工。员工对此的反应是进行“自愿的显露行为”，也就是试图确保他们得到上级的注意，比如加班。此外，收集的证据表明，员工的压力水平增加，员工自主权发生变化，等级观念发生变化，与组织中其他人的关联感减弱。原创性/价值这是研究突然转向远程工作对MC的影响的首批研究之一。此外，本文还通过探索员工对MC相关变化的反应做出了贡献。这些发现增加了关于MC和动机的不断增长的文献，并动员了自愿显性化实践的概念，以警告过度承诺和自我剥削。
Purpose The authors examine the impact of the sudden shift to remote working, triggered by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis, on management control (MC) practices in professional service firms (PSFs). In addition, employee responses to these changes are explored. Design/methodology/approach The authors carried out a field study of MC changes in PSFs in Italy, the first country in Europe that was severely impacted by COVID-19. Interviews with PSF employees form the primary data source. Pattern matching was used to identify similarities and differences and investigate how employees respond to the MC changes. Findings As a response to the shift to remote working, managers at PSFs made various MC-related changes. For instance, they increased the number of online meetings and made use of technologies to monitor employees from a distance. Employees reacted to this by engaging in "voluntary visibilizing practices", i.e. by trying to make sure they got noted by their superiors, for instance by doing overtime. In addition, collected evidence suggests increased stress levels among employees, changes to employee autonomy, changed perceptions of hierarchies and a weakened sense of relatedness with others in the organization. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to examine the impact of the sudden shift to remote working on MC. In addition, this paper contributes by exploring employee responses to the MC-related changes. The findings add to the growing literature on MC and motivation, and the notion of voluntary visibilizing practices is mobilized to warn against over-commitment and self-exploitation.