Pastoral control in remote work

Remote work presents managers with new and significant challenges. Work that occurs at distance limits managers’ abilities to observe staff behavior, raising concerns that managers may miss unspoken cues that indicate potential problems. Furthermore, in remote work contexts where observable behaviors and defined outcomes are elusive, and discretionary effort is essential, traditional behavior- and output-based controls may be insufficient. Drawing on Ouchi’s (1980) theorizing of social control mechanisms and Foucault’s (1982) notion of pastoral power, this research finds that when faced with limited observation, managers of remote teams engage pastoral control mechanisms to compensate for the lack of employee behavior oversight and to mitigate the risk of missing important cues. Practical, theoretical and ethical implications are discussed.