Journal Facts

Journal
Journal of Workplace Rights
ISSN
1938-4998 (print) 1938-5005 (electronic)
Volume
17
Issue
3
Date
1/1/2013

Article Facts

Title
Location Independent Working in Academia: Enabling Employees or Supporting Managerial Control?
DOI
10.2190/WR.17.3-4.k
Authors
  • Amanda Lee
  • Marialaura Di Domenico
  • Mark N. K. Saunders
Pages
425-442
Online Date
10/16/2014

Article Links

Location Independent Working in Academia: Enabling Employees or Supporting Managerial Control?

Amanda Lee
Marialaura Di Domenico
Mark N. K. Saunders

DOI: 10.2190/WR.17.3-4.k

Abstract

In this article, we consider the extent to which the practice of location independent working (LIW) enables academic employees to make choices and have agency in their life-work balance, and the extent to which it may support (or potentially be used as a form of resistance to) increased managerial control. Set within the context of an increasingly performance-led, managerialist public sector landscape, the impact and implications of these working practices are examined through the lens of labour process theory. Drawing on findings from an ongoing in-depth ethnographic study set in a post-1992 university business school in central England, we suggest that the practice of LIW is being used both to enable employees and to support managerial control.

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