Manufacturing Managerial Compliance: How Firms Align Managers with Corporate Interest

Devika Narayan

Work, Employment & Society, 2023, vol. 37, issue 6, 1443-1461

Abstract: Although the domain of labour process research is vast, few studies analyse compliance among managers. This article advances a neglected strand of analysis, focusing on how firms shape managerial actions. Organizational goals, such as downsizing, intensification, and reskilling, demand that professional managers cooperate and act in accordance with firm objectives, at times even at personal cost to themselves. To theorize this, I use the case of information technology (IT) firms in India that recently shed a large number of managerial jobs, fostering an environment of insecurity. Those who lost their jobs were positioned between lower-level employees and top management. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, I contribute a two-part framing that theorizes the dualities of the managerial subject position and how it is instrumentalized. The article foregrounds the intersection of managerial insecurity and managerial hierarchy, emphasizing how firms utilize these to meet organizational goals.

Keywords: control; digital economy; downsizing; labour process theory; management work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170221083109 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:6:p:1443-1461

DOI: 10.1177/09500170221083109

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Work, Employment & Society from British Sociological Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().