Autonomy and new modes of control in digital work contexts – a mixed-methods study of driving professions in food logistics

Abstract

Purpose

Digitalization is changing organizations with positive and negative impacts such as increased autonomy on the one hand and increased surveillance and control on the other hand. In this context, new modes of control occur: in addition to managerial control, new modes of control are multi-directed, stemming from colleagues, customers and underlying algorithms. This paper investigates the interrelation of autonomy and new modes of control in digital work contexts from the workers’ perspectives.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical data are based on a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative interviews with 25 and a quantitative questionnaire with 127 workers from urban food logistics organizations in Germany.

Findings

The results show that new modes of control are relevant for work engagement in digital work contexts: managerial and algorithm control are perceived as support. Peer and customer control are perceived as coercion.

Originality/value

Besides investigating the interrelation of autonomy and control and differentiating new modes of control, our study also makes important contributions to the perception of control as support and coercion.

Citation

Ruiner, C. and Klumpp, M. (2022), "Autonomy and new modes of control in digital work contexts – a mixed-methods study of driving professions in food logistics", Employee Relations, Vol. 44 No. 4, pp. 890-912. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2021-0139