Year
2023
Authors
LECA Bernard, LAGUECIR Aziza
Abstract
Research suggesting that digitization entails a rupture in MCSs towards rhizomic forms remains focused on MCSs’ formal aspects, and is speculative about related managerial control practices. We examine how digital surveillance systems are enacted in practice, focusing on their potential complexities, ambiguities, and shortcomings in contemporary organizational settings. We conceptualize our empirical inquiry using Foucault’s approach of the exercise of power, distinguishing surveillance systems (observation and norms) from control practices (examination). Our analysis provides a nuanced account of the evolution of MCSs and suggests that organizational surveillance digitization remains part of the disciplinary episteme. Although digital surveillance systems exhibit some rhizomic characteristics, we found contradictions within the norms (i.e., risk control and profit), outlining the importance of control practices in managing these contradictions. We question whether these contradictions are unintentional or deliberately designed to reduce control efficiency in digitized contexts and preserve certain operational practices.
LAGUECIR, A. et LECA, B. (2023). Rhizomic digitized surveillance, contradictions, and managerial control practice: Insights from the Société Générale scandal. Accounting Auditing Control, 29(1), pp. 7-38.