Mobile Computing Technologies and Organizational Control: A Disciplinary Power Perspective

Upon the use of mobile computing technologies, organizations will realize expected benefits and encounter unintended consequences. This paper focuses on the potential impact of the use of mobile computing technologies on organizational controls. Drawing on the notion of disciplinary power, we argue that mobile computing devices can potentially act as a constant “invisible gaze” on the users. Under the invisible gaze, organization members consciously or unconsciously discipline themselves using social control and self-control, which are even harder to resist than formal organizational controls. In addition, the organizational controls in mobile virtual work environment operate in broader temporal and spatial range than those in traditional work environment.