an insightful review, Thompson and McHugh (2002, p. 1(4)^36 comment that,
'control is not an end in itself, but a means to transform the capacity to work
established by the wage relation into production'.
What alternative HR strategies have managers used to render employees and
their behaviour predictable and measurable'? Edwards identified successive
dominant modes of control that reflect changing competitive conditions and
worker resistance. An early system of individual control by employers
exercising direct authority was replaced by more complex structural forms of
control: bureaucratic control and technical control. Bureaucratic control
includes written rules and procedures covering work. Technical control
includes machinery or systems - assembly line, surveillance cameras - that
set the pace of work or monitor employees' behaviour in the workplace.
Edwards also argued that managers use a 'divide and rule' strategy, using
gender and race, to foster managerial control.
Friedman (1977)^37 structured his typology of HR strategies - direct control and
responsible autonomy - around the notion of differing logics of control
depending upon the nature of the product and labour markets. Another
organizational theorist, Burawoy (1979)^38 , categorized the development of HR
strategies in terms of the transition from despotic to hegemonic regimes. The
former was dominated by coercive manager subordinate relations; the latter
provided an 'industrial citizenship' that regulated employment relations
through grievance and bargaining processes. The growth of employment in
new call centers has recently given rise to a renewed focus of interest on the
use of technical control systems: the electronic surveillance of the operator's
role performance (Callaghan & Thompson, 2001)^39
The choice of HR strategy is governed by variations in organizational form (for
example size, structure and age), competitive pressures on management and
the stability of labour markets, mediated by the interplay of manager-
subordinate relations and worker resistance (Thompson & McHugh, 2002)^40.
Moreover, the variations in HR strategy are not random but reflect two
management logics (Bamberger & Meshoulam, 2 0 00).