Vertical division of labour: a sociology of the work of remote organisers

Call for Papers: Hierarchies of domesticity – spatial and social boundaries. Deadline for submissions is 30^th September, 2024. Full details can be read here.

Articles to be no longer than 6,000 words (excluding footnotes and bibliography) and submitted in two forms: an anonymised version in which all references to the authors’ institution and publications are omitted; and a full version including the authors’ titles and institutional affiliations. For complete instructions on style, formatting, etc., please consult: https://www.plutojournals.com/wp-content/uploads/WOLG-Instructions-for-Authors2023.pdf

scite_

Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Volume 13, Issue 2

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

Vertical division of labour: a sociology of the work of remote organisers

research-article

Author(s): Marie-Anne Dujarier

Publication date (Print): 1 January 2019

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: remote organisers, work, vertical division of labour, game, play

Bookmark

Abstract

Contemporary work organisation is characterised by a persistent vertical division of labour between managers in charge of designing work at a distance and operational workers. This article focuses on the work of specific white collar workers called ‘remote organisers’, and how they face the challenge of performing a task that seems impossible and socially thankless. Results from a major qualitative and quantitative survey of large French organisations and consulting firms, show that the standardisation of methods, the Taylorisation of the implementation of tasks and resorting to abstraction are what makes their work sustainable and achievable. Finally, remote organisers build up a professional norm which consists in having a playful and game-like relationship with their work.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50010512

Journal ID (jcode): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 1745-641X

ISSN: 1745-6428

Publication date (Print): 1 January 2019

Volume: 13

Issue: 2 ( doiID: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.13.issue-2 )

Pages: 7-19

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.13.2.0007

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.13.2.0007

SO-VID: 6e7df8a6-8f15-49ab-9560-285fc6c58c25

License:

All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Custom metadata

lang eng

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

Keywords: game,vertical division of labour,play,remote organisers,work

REFERENCES

Abrahamson, E. (1996) ‘Management fashion’, Academy of Management Review, 21 (1):254-285.
Boltanski, C. & E. Chiapello (1999 [2018]), The New Spirit of Capitalism, New York: Verso.
Bourdieu, P. (2000) Pascalian Meditations, Cambridge: Polity.
Boussard, V. & M.-A. Dujarier (2017) ‘Up to the financial elites, or Out to the menial world: Figuring out companies as commodities: a key to stay in the M&A sector’, in V. Boussard (ed.), Finance At Work, London: Routledge: 29-41.
Braverman, H. (1974) Labour and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century, New York: Monthly Review Press.
Brint, S.G. (1994) In an Age of Experts: The Changing Role of Professionals in Politics and Public Life, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Brunsson, N., B. Jacobsson & associates (2000) A world of standards, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Burawoy, M. (1979) Manufacturing consent: Changes in the labor process under monopoly capitalism, Chicago, IL: University Of Chicago Press.
Carter, B., A. Danford & D. Howcroft (2011) ‘“All they lack is a chain”: lean and the new performance management in the British civil service’, New Technology, Work and Employment, 26 (2): 83-97.
Cohen, Y. (2001) Organiser à l'aube du taylorisme. La pratique d'Ernest Mattern chez Peugeot, 1906-1919. Besançon: Presses universitaires franc-comtoises.
Crawford, M. (2011) The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or, Why Office Work Is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good. London: Viking.
Di Maggio, P.J. & W.W. Powell (1983) ‘The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organisational fields’, American Sociological Review, 48:147-160.
Dujarier, M.-A. (2015a), Le management désincarné. Enquête sur les nouveaux cadres du travail, Paris: La Découverte.
Dujarier, M.-A. (2015b), Les cadres organisateurs à distance. Enquête quantitative et clinique, Paris: APEC Editions.
Ehrenreich, B. & J. Ehrenreich (1977) ‘The professional-Managerial Class’, Radical America, 11 (3):7-25.
Fincham, R. & M. Evans (1999) ‘The consultants’ offensive: Reengineering-from fad to technique', New Technology, Work & Employment, 14 (1):32-44.
Freyssenet, M. (1977) La division capitaliste du travail, Paris: Savelli.
Galbraith, J. K. (2010) The Affluent Society & Other Writings, 1952-1967, New York: Library of America.
Gekara, V.O. & P. Fairbrother (2013) ‘Managerial technologies and power relations: a study of the Australian waterfront’, New Technology, Work & Employment, 28 (1):51-65.
Hibou, B. (2015) The Bureaucratization of the World in the Neoliberal Era: An International and Comparative Perspective, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hood, C., O. James, G. Jones, C. Scott & T. Travers (1999) Regulation Inside Governement: Waste-Watchers, Quality Police, and Sleazebusters, London: Oxford University Press.
Huws, U. (2016) ‘Logged labour: A new paradigm of work organisation?‘, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 10 (1):7-26.
Jackall, R. (1988) Moral Mazes. The World of Corporate Managers, New York: Oxford University Press.
Kanter, R.M. (1995) World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global Economy, New York: Simon and Schuster.
Mallet, S. (1963) La Nouvelle Classe ouvrière, Paris: Le Seuil.
Marx, K. (1867 [2013]) Capital: Volumes One and Two, London: Wordsworth Editions.
Meyer, J.W. & B. Rowan (1977) ‘Institutional organisations: Formal structure as Myth and Ceremony’, American Journal of Sociology, 83 (2):340-363.
Miller, P. & N. Rose (1990) ‘Governing economic Life’, Economy and Society, 19 (1):1-31.
Murgia, A., L. Maestripieri & E. Armano (2016) ‘The precariousness of knowledge workers: Hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 10 (2):1-8.
Muzio, D., Hodgson, J. Faulconbridge, J. Beaverstock & S. Hall (2011) ‘Towards corporate professionalization: The case of project management, management consultancy and executive search’, Current Sociology, 59 (4):443-464.
Pérez-Zapata, O., A. Serrano Pascual, G. Álvarez-Hernández & C. Castaño Collado (2016) ‘Knowledge work intensification and self-management: The autonomy paradox’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 10 (2):27-49.
Reed, M.I. (1996) ‘Expert power and control in late modernity: An empirical review and theoretical synthesis’, Organisation Studies, 17 (4):573-597.
Roy, D. (1959) ‘“Banana Time”: job satisfaction and informal interaction’, Human Organisations, 18 (4):158-168.
Sennett, R. (2007) The Culture of the New Capitalism, New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
Stinchcombe, A.L. (1965) ‘Social structure and organisations’, in J.G. March (ed.), Handbook of Organisations, Chicago, IL: Rand McNally:142-193.
Weber, M. (1904/1905 [2013]) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Weber, M. (1922/1978) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretative Sociology, Roth, Guenther R. & C. Wittish (Eds), Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Wright, C., A. Sturdy & N. Wylie (2012) ‘Management innovation through standardization: Consultants as standardizers of organisational practice’, Research Policy, 41 (3):652-662.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Abrahamson, E. (1996) ‘Management fashion’, Academy of Management Review, 21 (1):254-285.

[2] Boltanski, C. & E. Chiapello (1999 [2018]), The New Spirit of Capitalism, New York: Verso.

[3] Bourdieu, P. (2000) Pascalian Meditations, Cambridge: Polity.

[4] Boussard, V. & M.-A. Dujarier (2017) ‘Up to the financial elites, or Out to the menial world: Figuring out companies as commodities: a key to stay in the M&A sector’, in V. Boussard (ed.), Finance At Work, London: Routledge: 29-41.

[5] Braverman, H. (1974) Labour and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century, New York: Monthly Review Press.

[6] Brint, S.G. (1994) In an Age of Experts: The Changing Role of Professionals in Politics and Public Life, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

[7] Brunsson, N., B. Jacobsson & associates (2000) A world of standards, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[8] Burawoy, M. (1979) Manufacturing consent: Changes in the labor process under monopoly capitalism, Chicago, IL: University Of Chicago Press.

[9] Carter, B., A. Danford & D. Howcroft (2011) ‘“All they lack is a chain”: lean and the new performance management in the British civil service’, New Technology, Work and Employment, 26 (2): 83-97.

[10] Cohen, Y. (2001) Organiser à l'aube du taylorisme. La pratique d'Ernest Mattern chez Peugeot, 1906-1919. Besançon: Presses universitaires franc-comtoises.

[11] Crawford, M. (2011) The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or, Why Office Work Is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good. London: Viking.

[12] Di Maggio, P.J. & W.W. Powell (1983) ‘The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organisational fields’, American Sociological Review, 48:147-160.

[13] Dujarier, M.-A. (2015a), Le management désincarné. Enquête sur les nouveaux cadres du travail, Paris: La Découverte.

[14] Dujarier, M.-A. (2015b), Les cadres organisateurs à distance. Enquête quantitative et clinique, Paris: APEC Editions.

[15] Ehrenreich, B. & J. Ehrenreich (1977) ‘The professional-Managerial Class’, Radical America, 11 (3):7-25.

[16] Fincham, R. & M. Evans (1999) ‘The consultants’ offensive: Reengineering-from fad to technique', New Technology, Work & Employment, 14 (1):32-44.

[17] Freyssenet, M. (1977) La division capitaliste du travail, Paris: Savelli.

[18] Galbraith, J. K. (2010) The Affluent Society & Other Writings, 1952-1967, New York: Library of America.

[19] Gekara, V.O. & P. Fairbrother (2013) ‘Managerial technologies and power relations: a study of the Australian waterfront’, New Technology, Work & Employment, 28 (1):51-65.

[20] Hibou, B. (2015) The Bureaucratization of the World in the Neoliberal Era: An International and Comparative Perspective, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[21] Hood, C., O. James, G. Jones, C. Scott & T. Travers (1999) Regulation Inside Governement: Waste-Watchers, Quality Police, and Sleazebusters, London: Oxford University Press.

[22] Huws, U. (2016) ‘Logged labour: A new paradigm of work organisation?‘, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 10 (1):7-26.

[23] Jackall, R. (1988) Moral Mazes. The World of Corporate Managers, New York: Oxford University Press.

[24] Kanter, R.M. (1995) World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global Economy, New York: Simon and Schuster.

[25] Mallet, S. (1963) La Nouvelle Classe ouvrière, Paris: Le Seuil.

[26] Marx, K. (1867 [2013]) Capital: Volumes One and Two, London: Wordsworth Editions.

[27] Meyer, J.W. & B. Rowan (1977) ‘Institutional organisations: Formal structure as Myth and Ceremony’, American Journal of Sociology, 83 (2):340-363.

[28] Miller, P. & N. Rose (1990) ‘Governing economic Life’, Economy and Society, 19 (1):1-31.

[29] Murgia, A., L. Maestripieri & E. Armano (2016) ‘The precariousness of knowledge workers: Hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 10 (2):1-8.

[30] Muzio, D., Hodgson, J. Faulconbridge, J. Beaverstock & S. Hall (2011) ‘Towards corporate professionalization: The case of project management, management consultancy and executive search’, Current Sociology, 59 (4):443-464.

[31] Pérez-Zapata, O., A. Serrano Pascual, G. Álvarez-Hernández & C. Castaño Collado (2016) ‘Knowledge work intensification and self-management: The autonomy paradox’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 10 (2):27-49.

[32] Reed, M.I. (1996) ‘Expert power and control in late modernity: An empirical review and theoretical synthesis’, Organisation Studies, 17 (4):573-597.

[33] Roy, D. (1959) ‘“Banana Time”: job satisfaction and informal interaction’, Human Organisations, 18 (4):158-168.

[34] Sennett, R. (2007) The Culture of the New Capitalism, New Haven & London: Yale University Press.

[35] Stinchcombe, A.L. (1965) ‘Social structure and organisations’, in J.G. March (ed.), Handbook of Organisations, Chicago, IL: Rand McNally:142-193.

[36] Weber, M. (1904/1905 [2013]) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

[37] Weber, M. (1922/1978) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretative Sociology, Roth, Guenther R. & C. Wittish (Eds), Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[38] Wright, C., A. Sturdy & N. Wylie (2012) ‘Management innovation through standardization: Consultants as standardizers of organisational practice’, Research Policy, 41 (3):652-662.