Digitalizzazione del lavoro e cambiamenti del controllo manageriale

This paper contributes to the debate on the relationship between the digitalisation of work and managerial control, by highlighting the general directions in which this relationship has developed over time since the 1990s. While most existing studies “squeeze” the analysis into the present, our research examines whether the change in the modes of managerial control is developing along a general trend line across different sectors and activities, and whether digitalization is influencing it, and in which direction. Based on data from the 6th and 7th waves of the European Working Conditions Survey, the analysis provides empirical support for the thesis that digitalization is blurring the boundaries between industrial and service work, and to some extent also between manual and intellectual work, accentuating a general movement towards a form of managerial control based on the permanent dialectic between autonomy and control that has been affecting the world of work for several decades.