Dealing with Critical IS Research: Artifacts, Drifts, Electronic Panopticon and Illusions of Empowerment

Marcello Martinez () and Mario Pezzillo Iacono ()
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Marcello Martinez: Second University of Naples
Mario Pezzillo Iacono: Second University of Naples

A chapter in Designing Organizational Systems, 2013, pp 83-102 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The chapter explores the diversity of topics, views and perspectives focused on the relationship between information systems (IS) and control, from a critical perspective. The work reflects upon the framework of Critical IS Research and its relation to Foucaultian approach and IS practice, informing the discussion on the ways IS and managerial Discourses framing the organizational reality. For this purpose, a case study of call centre outsourced industry is presented. We have explained how the overlapping between “electronic panopticon” and “commitment practices” used by management becomes a powerful tool for exerting influence and control in the sense of self-discipline and self-regulation. From this point of view, these tools are merely illusions of empowerment, representing only an apparent departure from traditional form of control, reiterating the idea of technological Discourse as a means of manipulation.

Keywords: Artifacts; Drifts; Control; Electronic panopticon; Critical; Call centre (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:lnichp:978-3-642-33371-2_5

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-33371-2_5

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