Open Access‘This Is the End’? An Ethnographic Study of Management Control and a New Management Initiative
Author(s) -
Darren McCabe,
Sylwia Ciuk,
Margaret Gilbert
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
work, employment and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.027
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1469-8722
pISSN - 0950-0170
DOI - 10.1177/09500170211022272
Subject(s) - management control system , control (management) , ethnography , process (computing) , sociology , critical management studies , public relations , process management , management , engineering ethics , epistemology , knowledge management , political science , business , computer science , social science , engineering , philosophy , economics , anthropology , operating system
Over recent decades, critical scholars have quite rightly warned of the control implications of new management initiatives. There is a danger, however, of treating control in a ‘distal’ way or as an ‘end’. Through drawing on proximal theorising, we make explicit what is often implicit in such accounts, which is that control is best understood as unfinished, in process, for it is inherently contingent and unpredictable. Viewed in this way, control becomes elusive as it always has to be achieved. The article draws on ethnographic research conducted in a back office of a manufacturing organisation to illustrate this understanding of management control. It highlights tensions between staff and management and between multiple layers of management that can thwart control.