Graham Sewell

`Someone to Watch Over Me': Surveillance, Discipline and the Just-in-Time Labour Process

Theory and observations are used to argue that JIT/TQC regimes both create and demand systems of surveillance which improve on those of previous factory regimes by instilling discipline and thereby enhancing central control. For its theoretical inspiration this paper draws upon the work of Michel Foucault, especially his conception of Power/Knowledge as articulated in his book Discipline and Punish. This theoretical framework is extended to provide a means of analysis of the mechanisms of surveillance and control that operate in the contemporary work place. While there is a sense in which tactical responsibility is delegated in an organisation practising JIT/TQM, strategic control is simultaneously centralised - a form of devolutionism. Drawing on the work of Foucault we will argue that the JIT/TQM approach is both enabled and enhanced by the operation of two complementary disciplinary forces. The first of these is the discipline which derives from the scrutiny of ones peers in a manufacturing cell, quality circle, etc. - a horizontal process which is supported by the organisational structure associated with JIT/TQM. The second and key disciplinary force is that which derives from the use of increasingly powerful management information systems which provide extensive shop floor surveillance - a vertical process which provides an over-arching controlling mechanism. We demonstrate that the surveillance systems integral to JIT/TQM are deliberately designed such that discipline is established in a most efficient manner and the exercise of minute control is possible with a minimum of supervisors. The desired effect of harnessing these dual forces is to minimise negative divergences from expected behaviour and management defined norms whilst identifying positive divergencies and maximising their creative potential.

Looking for the Good Soldier, Švejk Alternative Modalities of Resistance in the Contemporary Workplace

This article continues the current trend in Sociology of exploring and re-evaluating concepts of workplace resistance. We agree with Thompson and Ackroyd (1995) that much of the critical literature investigating managerial controls like self-regulating teams and corporate culture management have placed far too much emphasis on ideological incorporation and ‘colonization’ of subjectivity and not enough on employee recalcitrance and resistance. Rather than hastily blaming the ‘Foucauldian turn’ for this oversight, however, we argue instead that resistance is indeed difficult to see if thought of in purely traditional terms (e.g. strikes, sabotage, picketing). In the age of team normalization and ‘cultural cleansing’ we must look in less obvious places to see practices of dissent. Our article introduces the concept of ‘švejkism’, after the character in Jaroslav Hašek’s novel, The Good Soldier, Švejk. Švejkism is presented as an example of a modality of employee opposition that may have been missed in earlier evaluations of new work forms. We discuss the practice of švejkism and the implications it has for contemporary workplace politics.

Applying critical discourse analysis in strategic management research

Critical discourse analysis has become an increasingly popular methodology in organization and management studies. In this article, the authors explore the potential for this methodology to be more widely used in strategic management research. They begin by identifying three research approaches that, to a greater or lesser extent, share a concern with the relationship between language and the formulation and implementation of strategy—strategy as a system of shared meaning, strategy as text and talk, and strategy as truth. They then discuss how critical discourse analysis can be used to extend and develop these approaches by exploiting their underlying complementarities. Finally, using the example of a recently completed case study of strategic change in a large banking and financial services institution, they explore the practical implications of applying critical discourse analysis in strategic management research.

Strategies for technological development in South Korea and Taiwan: the case of semiconductors

Abstract This article examines the national systems of technological development in South Korea and Taiwan with particular reference to their semiconductor industries. The article looks at the experiences of South Korea and Taiwan in turn, showing how each of their national approaches to technological development has shaped their indigenous semiconductor industries, leading to the emergence of unique characteristics in both countries. From this discussion, a number of similarities and contrasts are identified between the South Korean and Taiwanese semiconductor industries and the potential for the vigorous and continued development of this important sector in each country is assessed on the basis of their current technological capabilities.

Nice Work? Rethinking Managerial Control in an Era of Knowledge Work:

This article assesses the ability of labour process theory (LPT) to account for the persistence of managerial control under the apparent conditions of greater autonomy and discretion we have come to associate with ‘knowledge Work’. LPT has traditionally problematized control around the need to resolve ‘the indeterminacy of labour’—that is, how do managers ensure that workers’ actual labouring efforts approach their potential labour power? In contrast, I propose that it is more useful to problematize control around the ‘indeterminacy of knowledge’—that is, how do managers ensure that workers’ cognitive efforts approach their full cognitive potential? A common response to the problem of the indeterminacy of knowledge has been to cede discretion to workers so that they can exercise their mental capabilities in order to provide their organizations with solutions to workplace problems. I will show, however, that this still requires the operation of disciplinary mechanisms that perpetuate managerial control under conditions that ostensibly reverse the separation of the conception and the execution of work tasks inherent in the logic of Taylorism.

From National Service to Global Player: Transforming the Organizational Logic of a Public Broadcaster

We present organizational logics as a meso-level construct that lies between institutional theorys field-level logics and the sense-making activities of individual agents in organizations. We argue that an institutional logic can be operationalized empirically using the concept of a discourse – that is, a coherent symbolic system articulating what constitutes legitimate, reasonable, and effective conduct in, around, and by organizations. An organization may, moreover, be simultaneously exposed to several institutional logics that make up its broader ideational environment. Taking these three observations together enables us to consider an organizational logic as a spatially and temporally localized configuration of diverse discourses. We go on to show how organizational logics were transformed in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 1953 and 1999 by examining the changing discourses that appeared in the Corporations annual reports. We argue that these discourses were modified through three main forms of discursive agency: (1) undertaking acts of ironic accommodation between competing discourses; (2) building chains of equivalence between the potentially contradictory discourses; and (3) reconciling new and old discourses through pragmatic acts of ‘bricolage’. We found that, using these forms of discursive agency, a powerful coalition of actors was able to transform the dominant organizational logic of the ABC from one where the Corporations initial mission was to serve national interests through public service to one that was ultimately focused on participating in a globalized media market. Finally, we note that discursive resources could be used as the basis for resistance by less powerful agents, although further research is necessary to determine exactly how more powerful and less powerful agents interact around the establishment of an organizational logic.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing: getting below the surface of the growth of 'knowledge work' in Australia

This article critically addresses the claim that there has been a striking growth in ‘knowledge work’ in advanced economies. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey, we examine occupational change from 1986 to 2000 to evaluate the support for this claim. Researchers have usually relied on aggregate level data to justify the presence of a burgeoning knowledge-based workforce, but we contend that we must ‘get below the surface’ of the major occupational groups by disaggregating the data. This enables us to demonstrate that a substantial component of the apparent growth in knowledge work is accounted for by an increase in low-level information handling occupations rather than by a growth in knowledge work as it is commonly conceived. The article then develops an interpretive framework that makes sense of the data in a manner that avoids both over-estimating the prevalence of the ‘knowledge worker’ and underestimating the knowledge-related activities in jobs commonly considered to be low-skilled and bereft of important competencies.

Working under intensive surveillance: When does ‘measuring everything that moves’ become intolerable?

We examine how call-center employees draw on opposed discourses to understand the purpose and consequences of performance measurement as workplace surveillance. Sometimes the workers saw performance measurement as a legitimate and impartial managerial tool serving the interests of everyone in the organization (e.g. by exposing free-riding, etc.). Other times, they saw performance measurement as intrusive and oppressive; imposed on them by managers who, as agents of employers, used it to serve a narrow set of interests (e.g. by intensifying work, etc.). Our analysis depicts how employees used an ironical process of predicate logic to develop flexible meaning-making strategies to cope with the apparent conflicts in meaning that arose from the two opposed discourses. We conclude by developing a three step method for the practical analysis of such ironical situations of competing discourses that facilitates our ability to reconsider and reconfigure meaning in more useful ways.

Neither good, nor bad, but dangerous: Surveillance as an ethical paradox

We argue for a discursive ethic of surveillancethat accounts for the paradoxes that thephenomenon presents to todays organisationalmembers. We first we develop a genealogy ofprivacy and illustrate its relation tosurveillance, focusing on the antinomianrelationship between the “public” and “private.” Then we review the common ethicaltensions that arise in todays technologicallyintensive workplace. Lastly, we develop acritical approach to the ethical status ofprivacy and surveillance – a “micro-ethics” – that remains open todiscursively-based negotiation by those whofind themselves at the verypoint of scrutiny.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind in a New World of Work? Autonomy, Control, and Spatiotemporal Scaling in Telework

We draw on the geographical concepts of social space, territoriality, and distantiation to examine an apparent tension inherent in telework: i.e., using information and communication technologies to work away from traditional workplaces can give employees a greater sense of autonomy while simultaneously placing new constraints on the way they conduct themselves in settings that were previously beyond the reach of managerial control. We draw on a longitudinal case study of a Belgian biopharmaceutical company to show how technical and professional teleworkers developed broadly similar strategies of spatiotemporal scaling to cope with this tension. We conclude by considering how these scaling strategies allowed employees to cope with the demands of ‘hybrid’ work that is conducted both at home and in traditional settings.