Location independent working in academia: Enabling employees or supporting managerial control?

Journal article


Lee, Amanda, Di Domenico, Marialaura and Saunders, Mark N. K. 2014. Location independent working in academia: Enabling employees or supporting managerial control? Journal of Workplace Rights. https://doi.org/10.2190/WR.17.3-4.k
AuthorsLee, Amanda, Di Domenico, Marialaura and Saunders, Mark N. K.
Abstract

In this article, we consider the extent to which the practice of location independent working (LIW) enables academic employees to make choices and have agency in their life-work balance, and the extent to which it may support (or potentially be used as a form of resistance to) increased managerial control. Set within the context of an increasingly performanceled, managerialist public sector landscape, the impact and implications of these working practices are examined through the lens of labour process theory. Drawing on findings from an ongoing in-depth ethnographic study set in a post-1992 university business school in central England, we suggest that the practice of LIW is being used both to enable employees and to support managerial control.

In this article, we consider the extent to which the practice of location
independent working (LIW) enables academic employees to make choices
and have agency in their life-work balance, and the extent to which it may
support (or potentially be used as a form of resistance to) increased
managerial control. Set within the context of an increasingly performanceled,
managerialist public sector landscape, the impact and implications of
these working practices are examined through the lens of labour process
theory. Drawing on findings from an ongoing in-depth ethnographic study
set in a post-1992 university business school in central England, we
suggest that the practice of LIW is being used both to enable employees
and to support managerial control.

KeywordsLocation independent working; Labour process theory; Work-life balance; Public sector
Year2014
JournalJournal of Workplace Rights
PublisherBaywood Press
ISSN19384998
19385005
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.2190/WR.17.3-4.k
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10545/621994
hdl:10545/621994
Publication datesOct 2014
Publication process dates
Deposited28 Nov 2017, 16:49
ContributorsCoventry University, The Open University and University of Surrey
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