{"title":"Remote Work and Post-Bureaucracy: Unintended Consequences of Work Design for Gender Inequality.","authors":"Kim de Laat","doi":"10.1177/00197939221076134","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In-depth interviews with IT employees (<i>N</i> = 84) working under two types of work design-a post-bureaucratic work design labeled \"agile,\" and a bureaucratic work design labeled \"waterfall\"-are used to examine gendered patterns in the adoption of remote work. Interviews reveal an unintended consequence of the agile model: It promotes a physical orientation that induces on-site work. Agile is gender-inegalitarian, with more women than men working remotely despite its perceived unacceptability, and low numbers of employees working remotely overall. By contrast, workers within a waterfall work design express a digital orientation to work and feel empowered to work remotely. The waterfall model is associated with gender egalitarianism; most employees opt to work remotely, and men and women do so in even numbers. Findings suggest that when compared to the post-bureaucratic work design, the bureaucratic work design provides more flexibility. This article refines our understanding of barriers to remote work and provides a lens on the gender dynamics underlying work design.</p>","PeriodicalId":13504,"journal":{"name":"ILR Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/15/82/10.1177_00197939221076134.PMC9693892.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ILR Review","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00197939221076134","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2022/2/14 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & LABOR","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In-depth interviews with IT employees (N = 84) working under two types of work design-a post-bureaucratic work design labeled "agile," and a bureaucratic work design labeled "waterfall"-are used to examine gendered patterns in the adoption of remote work. Interviews reveal an unintended consequence of the agile model: It promotes a physical orientation that induces on-site work. Agile is gender-inegalitarian, with more women than men working remotely despite its perceived unacceptability, and low numbers of employees working remotely overall. By contrast, workers within a waterfall work design express a digital orientation to work and feel empowered to work remotely. The waterfall model is associated with gender egalitarianism; most employees opt to work remotely, and men and women do so in even numbers. Findings suggest that when compared to the post-bureaucratic work design, the bureaucratic work design provides more flexibility. This article refines our understanding of barriers to remote work and provides a lens on the gender dynamics underlying work design.
期刊介绍:
Issued quarterly since October 1947, the Industrial and Labor Relations Review is a leading interdisciplinary journal publishing original research on all aspects of the employment relationship. The journal also publishes reviews of some 30 books per year. This site offers an index of all articles and book reviews published since 1947, abstracts of all articles, and information about upcoming issues. At the "All Articles" and "All Book Reviews" pages, visitors can search on titles and authors. Use this site, too, to learn about upcoming articles and book reviews.