The System Sucks
Computer Programs and Technical Control in Entry-Level White-Collar Work
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6437433 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Corey Moss-Pech (0000-0003-1239-1531, Florida State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 351-375 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-13 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Organizational Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2752-2997 • E-ISSN: 2752-2997 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/joso-2024-0015 |
| OpenAlex | W4413182509 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 50 |
Researchers often examine how technology controls the labor of precarious workers while demonstrating the limits of technology on controlling professional workers. Drawing on a subset of 46 in-depth interviews pulled from a larger sample, I uncover how technical control operates in entry-level office work. Technical control takes one of two forms. First, workers conduct all their tasks in a computer program. I call this task-oriented technical control. Second, workers must log all their offline work into a computer program. I call this social-oriented technical control. The types of jobs controlled by the latter are often done by women and are jobs where control routinizes social interaction. Social-oriented technical control is also experienced more negatively than task-oriented technical control. I therefore show how technical control transforms gendered disparities in work tasks into gender inequality in workplace experiences. I also expose that work has become less autonomous higher up the occupational hierarchy than most researchers observe
Control (management · Economics · Hierarchy · Knowledge management · Management · Political science · Public relations · Social control · Social science · Sociology · Sociotechnical system · Task (project management · Work (physics · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Labor Movements and Unions · Artificial Intelligence
Paying for the Party
To Engage or Not to Engage with AI for Critical Judgments
Edwards Revisited
The Changing Nature of Work
Labor and Monopoly Capital
The Making of the “Good Bad” Job
The Invisible Cage
Fast Food, Fast Talk
Framed by Gender
Ideological Wage Inequalities? The Technical/Social Dualism and the Gender Wage Gap in Engineering
Gender Differences in the Early Career Outcomes of College Graduates
Gender segregation in culturally feminized work
Exploring the Consequences of Gender Ideology–Work Discrepancies
The Contexts of Control
Counting Clicks
What’s in an Occupation? Investigating Within-Occupation Variation and Gender Segregation Using Job Titles and Task Descriptions
Global Software and its Provenance
Between- and Within-Occupation Inequality
A Numbers Game
The Mark of a Woman's Record
Finding the beat
The Career Conveyor Belt
Using Numbers in Qualitative Research
Deskilling emotional labour
Cultures of ambiguity
Escalator or Step Stool? Gendered Labor and Token Processes in Tech Work
Prime Suspect
From Time Sheets to Tablets
Unpacking the Service Triangle
Educational Downgrading
What Do Platforms Do? Understanding the Gig Economy
The Demand Side of Hiring
STEM Education
Global Labor
The Extended Case Method
Engineering Inequality
Skill saturation
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |