Public defence in Organization & Management, DI Joona Koistinen

Title of thesis: Managing responsible selves: Situated perspectives on identities and control at work

Doctoral student: Joona Koistinen

Opponent: Associate Professor Zahira Jaser, University of Sussex

Custos (Chairperson): Professor Nina Granqvist, Aalto University School of Business

Organizational control aims at guiding and constraining people’s actions and aspirations to align with particular goals. As the diverse interests of individuals and groups are often in conflict, control appears as a prerequisite for coordinating and achieving collective activities and purposes. However, control also has a dark side. Control, in the guise of ‘common good’, tends to serve the interests of the few at the expense of others. One-dimensional control limits the freedom and diversity of human and non-human actors, often excessively. Such control, while potentially effective, can also be harmful to organizations themselves, for example, by preventing organizational transformation and adaptation in the face of changing or uncertain circumstances.

This dissertation examines control as a culturally and historically embedded social process, requiring extensive contributions, consent, and maintenance also from those who are controlled. Control is not merely given from above. Furthermore, the so-called controllers, such as business managers, are often themselves also subject to control. 

From this outlook, the dissertation explores the emergence of control in the context of everyday work practices. It explains how the enactment of managerial and professional identities, framed by hegemonic discourses, motivates the exercise of control and discipline. The analysis is based on a synthesis of dramaturgical and narrative conceptions of identity found in previous literature. 

The findings emphasize the central role of societal and organizational discourses that frame the meanings around 'responsibility'. These meanings shape the identity constructions of leaders and professionals as well as contribute to the emergence of control. Conceptions of responsibility that exaggerate individual actors’ influence on events and outcomes can encourage organizational members to actively construct and maintain one-dimensional control. This can help actors to perform and defend desired or ‘appropriate’ identities. Deepening our understanding of control processes in organizations can support the construction of more balanced, purposeful, and ethical control practices.

Thesis available for public display 10 days prior to the defence at: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/doc_public/eonly/riiputus/

Contact information:
joona.koistinen@hamk.fi

www.linkedin.com/in/joona-koistinen-19054782

Doctoral theses in the School of Business: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/50