Business as Usual: Working from Home During the Pandemic Did Not Lead to Large Changes in Employee-Level Management Control
57 Pages Posted: 24 Aug 2021 Last revised: 2 Jan 2023
Date Written: December 1, 2021
Abstract
We investigate whether the switch to working from home during the corona pandemic has affected employee-level management control system design and use. Organizational and economic theory suggests that more working from home will lead to more emphasis on results. Alternatively, to support employees in doing their job at a distance, supervisors may use rules and procedures to a larger extent. Using a sample of 227 employee-supervisor dyads in The Netherlands, we find very limited differences in how employees and supervisors experience the control system when working from home, with no evidence of a substantial increase in use of results controls. The frequency of individual and team communication remains mostly similar through a shift towards online channels. Thus, the shift to working from home did not lead to substantial changes in employee-level management control system design and use.
Keywords: management control mechanisms; action controls; results controls; performance measurement; working from home.
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