Hosein Gharavi

Technologies of the self: virtual work and the inner panopticon

Purpose – This paper seeks to develop insights into control, power, consent and commitment with virtual knowledge workers who are removed from the immediate sphere of influence of management and co‐workers.Design/methodology/approach – This research is a detailed case study of a highly successful Scandinavian engineering company. A post‐structuralist approach is used to understand how the modes of influence on knowledge worker productivity within the organisation come into being and operate across boundaries of time, space and organisational structure. The notion of the panopticon is used to identify and characterise forms of control and undertake interpretive and critical analysis of interview data and staff behaviour.Findings – It was found that the totality of the modes of power relations operating upon virtual knowledge workers in this case study comprises a complex and sophisticated ensemble of control and constraint. Whilst initial observations indicate that control is restricted to a small set of d...

Information and communication technology in the stockbroking industry: an evolutionary approach to the diffusion of innovation

Stockbroking firms have openly adopted information and communication technology to improve their competitiveness and responsiveness in market conditions. Changes in business practices have resulted from the widespread adoption and diffusion of information and communication technology. Changes experienced by a firm can be viewed as a process of individual adaptations running parallel to the evolution of the business environment. To examine the diffusion of information and communication technology an ecological approach is used. This paper therefore develops a conceptual framework to explore the ICT diffusion in the stockbroking industry in the context of environmental evolution and selection. It is argued that the acceptance of an innovation is affected as much by the complexity of the interactions between the stockbroking firms and technology. The proposed framework can be used to provide an ameliorated understanding about the way in which ICT‐enabled innovation is diffused within a technology‐oriented industry.

Population ecology, institutionalism and the internet

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of organisational transformation in light of major perturbatory change agents such as the internet. This is carried out through analysing the dynamics of change in the Australian tourist industry and travel agents in particular.Design/methodology/approach – Population ecology posits that the macro environmental conditions that operate in an industry determine the limits within which industry members can operate. Institutionalism posits that management can make strategic choices. These two theories together suggest that while a major change event like the advent of the internet sets the conditions within which organisations operate, management still had “room to play” and make strategic choices. This paper views the advent of the internet through the filters of population ecology and institutionalism.Findings – Change becomes a combination of setting macro boundaries influencing the overall direction of change and evolution follows by a micro‐lev...

Monitoring, Control and the Performance of Virtual Work

When personnel are removed from the immediate sphere of their colleagues and managers and engage in virtual work, one of the most significant concerns of management becomes that of monitoring and controlling performance. There is a sense amongst many managers that without observation and correction, the performance and commitment of distributed staff will deteriorate. In this research we observed the constraints and rules which keep virtual workers delivering high performance in Unit 2. We applied the dual lenses of direct and indirect control to our observations and found that the range of constraints is actually more pronounced and pervasive than is initially obvious. Taken together, these controls suggest that the grip over performance is not as tenuous as managers might fear and, conversely, there is a range of managerial instruments available to monitor and control performance.