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The Return of the Machine Bureaucracy? - Management Control in the Work Settings of Professionals

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  • Dan Kärreman
  • Stefan Sveningsson
  • Mats Alvesson

Abstract

Knowledge-intensive firms are frequently believed to operate under conditions that invalidate industrial-bureaucratic forms of managerial control. The nature of work, the professionalism of the workers makes traditional organizational structures and managerial techniques archaic and inefficient. However, empirical material from recent studies in two major knowledge-intensive firms indicates that traditional managerial forms of control have maintained and even reclaimed a seemingly vital space in organizational practice. The two cases belong to different branches, thus possibly prefiguring an emergent trend toward the industrialization of at least parts of knowledge work, involving standardization of tasks and methods of working, reinforcing the exchangeability of individuals and units, and increased efforts to manage by numbers and other criteria from the past.

Suggested Citation

  • Dan Kärreman & Stefan Sveningsson & Mats Alvesson, 2002. "The Return of the Machine Bureaucracy? - Management Control in the Work Settings of Professionals," International Studies of Management & Organization, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 70-92, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:mimoxx:v:32:y:2002:i:2:p:70-92
    DOI: 10.1080/00208825.2002.11043661
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Carlos Martin-Rios, 2016. "Innovative management control systems in knowledge work: a middle manager perspective," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 181-204, May.
    2. Ellen Haustein & Robert Luther & Peter Schuster, 2014. "Management control systems in innovation companies: a literature based framework," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 343-382, February.
    3. Staccioli, Jacopo & Napoletano, Mauro, 2021. "An agent-based model of intra-day financial markets dynamics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 331-348.
    4. Cirillo, Valeria & Rinaldini, Matteo & Staccioli, Jacopo & Virgillito, Maria Enrica, 2018. "Workers’ awareness context in Italian 4.0 factories," GLO Discussion Paper Series 240, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5mqflt6amg8gab4rlqn6sbko4b is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Valeria Cirillo & José Molero Zayas, 2019. "Digitalizing industry? Labor, technology and work organization: an introduction to the Forum," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 46(3), pages 313-321, September.
    7. Florian, Mona, 2018. "Unlikely allies: Bureaucracy as a cultural trope in a grassroots volunteer organization," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 151-161.
    8. Royston Greenwood & Stan X. Li & Rajshree Prakash & David L. Deephouse, 2005. "Reputation, Diversification, and Organizational Explanations of Performance in Professional Service Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(6), pages 661-673, December.
    9. Sébastien Gand & Jean-Claude Sardas & Annika Schilling, & Andreas Werr,, 2009. "Professional identities at stake in strategic change - on the formation of professional selves in changing PSFs," Post-Print hal-00818098, HAL.
    10. Angelo Moro & Matteo Rinaldini & Jacopo Staccioli & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2019. "Control in the era of surveillance capitalism: an empirical investigation of Italian Industry 4.0 factories," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 46(3), pages 347-360, September.
    11. Spanò, Rosanna & Grossi, Giuseppe & Landi, Giovanni Catello, 2022. "Academic entrepreneurial hybrids: Accounting and accountability in the case of MegaRide," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(5).
    12. Valeria Cirillo & Matteo Rinaldini & Jacopo Staccioli & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2018. "Workers' intervention authority in Italian 4.0 factories: autonomy and discretion," LEM Papers Series 2018/13, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.

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