Fifteen Eighty Four

The way we work has undergone a seismic shift over the past decade, with the COVID-19 pandemic acting as the latest catalyst for unprecedented change. Workplaces around the world are now defined by virtual collaboration, hybrid schedules, and algorithmic decision-making. At the same time, the gig economy has flourished, redefining what it means to be a worker. These trends have created a perfect storm of challenges for organizations grappling with organizational control, which is seeking to align workers’ skills, activities, and performance with organizational goals. In this evolving landscape, traditional approaches to organizational control are struggling to keep pace.

In our new book, Reconceptualizing Organizational Control: Managing in the Age of Hybrid Workplaces, Artificial Intelligence, and the Gig Economy, we draw from decades of research to explore these challenges and offer a fresh approach to organizational control that is both theoretically rigorous and practically relevant for managing 21st-century organizations.

What We’ve Learned From the Past

To address today’s challenges, it is essential to understand how organizational control has evolved over time. Our exploration of the history and intellectual roots of organizational control highlights its development across disciplines such as management, accounting, and information systems. These diverse perspectives have shaped the way control is conceptualized today and provide a rich foundation for rethinking how it should be applied in modern organizations.

By synthesizing this research, we have been able to identify key dimensions and mechanisms of organizational control as well as the outcomes they produce. However, the evolving nature of work—characterized by remote teams, flexible work arrangements, and technological disruptions, such as the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI)—requires a shift from traditional control approaches to more adaptive and nuanced solutions.

Why Now?

Organizational control has always been a balancing act—ensuring that individual aspirations align with collective objectives, while navigating the inherent tensions between autonomy and oversight. For years, researchers have discussed traditional control mechanisms, such as direct supervision or standardized procedures, that were designed for stable environments with predictable workflows, as well as their effectiveness in more dynamic, less predictable environments. Classic control mechanisms often feel outdated in a world where flexibility, adaptability, and innovation are paramount. What is different today, is that several additional and significant trends are together reshaping how control operates in organizations:

· Technological innovation: The growing use of AI, algorithms, and electronic monitoring technologies is revolutionizing the way organizations oversee behavior and performance. While these tools enhance efficiency, they also raise ethical questions around privacy, fairness, and bias.

· Workforce dynamics: With especially younger generations of workers seeking greater autonomy and flexibility, traditional command-and-control approaches often clash with worker expectations. Gig and platform work further complicate this relationship, as workers increasingly operate outside traditional employment structures.

· Blurring boundaries: Remote work and digital platform-mediated ecosystems challenge organizations to maintain alignment and accountability across decentralized teams and independent contractors.

These trends reshaping our workplaces are not temporary. More importantly, they expose the limitations of traditional control systems and demand innovative solutions that balance organizational needs with the expectations of a modern workforce.

A Way Forward

We propose a reconceptualization of organizational control that addresses these realities of today’s workplace. At its core, this approach recognizes the increasing complexity and interdependence of control mechanisms. Rather than relying on one-size-fits-all solutions, we advocate for a configurational perspective that considers the interplay between different forms of control (along the five dimensions of control—the target, formality, singularity, direction, and style) and adapts to specific organizational contexts.

Let’s look at the direction of control, which has traditionally been thought of as mainly top-down, in a hierarchical context, with a superior controlling a subordinate. Partly enabled by technology, we see a higher relevance of peer control, where employees at the same level control each other laterally; self-control, where employees set their own goals for a particular task and then monitor, evaluate, reward, and sanction themselves; and third-party control, where a party from outside the organization, typically a customer—e.g., a hotel guest, a patient in a hospital, a client on a freelance platform like Upwork—takes over the control function over workers.

Equally important is the style of control. Beyond many people’s initial perception of control as coercive, that is designed to prevent breakdowns in work processes, control can be designed in an enabling style, empowering workers by clarifying responsibilities and providing guidance.

Our framework shows how modern organizations can blend new and traditional control mechanisms to address contemporary challenges and opportunities. For example, algorithmic controls can be combined with classic top-down mechanisms to drive both efficiency and engagement. Examples from companies such as Amazon, Uber, and GitLab illustrate how these configurations can vary depending on organizational structure, technology, and workforce dynamics.

In addition to providing actionable insights, our framework highlights the ethical implications of control systems. Organizations must carefully consider how new control mechanisms affect workers’ autonomy, trust, and well-being, especially as algorithmic decision-making becomes more pervasive.

Implications for Research and Practice

Our book opens new doors for both scholars and practitioners. It challenges traditional assumptions, encourages innovative research, and offers practical guidance for leaders grappling with the complexities of the 21st-century workplace. From helping redesign control systems for traditional work environments, to fostering greater alignment in hybrid teams that are composed of full-time workers and freelancers or combining humans and non-human team members, these insights are essential for creating resilient, adaptive organizations.

Our goal is not only to equip readers with a deeper understanding of organizational control, but also to inspire them to think critically about how control systems can evolve. By addressing emerging trends and highlighting innovative practices, we hope to bridge the gap between theory and practice, offering a roadmap for effective organizational control in a rapidly changing world.

—

Reconceptualizing Organizational Control: Managing in the Age of Hybrid Workplaces, Artificial Intelligence, and the Gig Economy is coauthored by Markus Kreutzer and Jorge Walter and is available now from Cambridge University Press.