Between control and participation
The politics of algorithmic management
Publication date
2024-04-13
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Organisational unit
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Series or journal
New technology, work and employment
ISSN
Periodical volume
40
Periodical issue
1
First page
60
Last page
80
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Language
English
Keyword
Algorithmic management
Engineers
Industrial relations
Labour control
Labour process
Logistics
Manufacturing
Abstract
Understanding the role of human management is crucial for the debate over algorithmic management—to date limited to studies on the platform economy. This qualitative case study in logistics reconstructs the actor constellations (managers, engineers, data scientists and workers) and negotiation processes in different phases of algorithmic management. It offers two major contributions to the literature: (1) a process model distinguishing three phases: goal formation, data production and data analysis, which is used to analyse (2) the politics of algorithmic management in conventional workplaces, which differ significantly from platform companies. The article goes beyond surveillance to elucidate the role of the regulatory framework, various actors' knowledge contributions to the algorithmic management system, and the power relations resulting therefrom. While the managerial goals in the examined case were not oriented towards a surveillance regime, the outcome was nevertheless a centralisation of knowledge and disempowerment of workers.
Description
Special issue paper
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Version
Published version
Access right on openHSU
Metadata only access