How Power Shapes Knowledge-Intensive Work: Worker Ownership and Governance in the U.S. Automation Industry.

摘要

Even as knowledge-intensive firms adopt modes of work design that distribute authority across the workforce, the distribution of ownership and governance, termed "structural power", continues to vary in these companies. Extant research suggests competing views that, in a knowledge-intensive industry, structural power is (a) irrelevant, (b) less consequential than work design, or (c) reinforces work design. Given these competing views, this project seeks to explore the consequences of variation in the distribution of structural power for knowledge-intensive work. Data comes from a multi-method comparison of knowledge-intensive work practices at two competing automated manufacturing equipment firms with contrasting distributions of structural power.;The first empirical chapter examines the structure and performance of cross-functional project teams. While frequent cross-functional interaction within teams is thought to help solve complex and uncertain tasks, I show that greater cross-functional interaction lowers team performance in the context of distributed structural power. By lowering the costs of conflict resolution and increasing the information gaps between occupations, concentrated structural power actually makes cross-functional interactions within teams more valuable.;The second empirical chapter examines how structural power shapes the navigation between internal and external demands in the boundary spanning responsibilities of sales representatives and project managers. Though earlier literature posits that firms with distributed structural power more effectively manage boundary spanning roles, I find that distributed structural power also inhibits the internal coordination of these boundary spanning efforts. This highlights both the limits and advantages of distributed structural power for knowledge-intensive work.;The third empirical chapter examines decisions about compensation and task allocations at the two firms. It is commonly accepted that firms with distributed structural power will have a less heterogeneous workforce. I show that widely distributed structural power compresses pay differences, but enhances task specialization among workers. While task expertise is a threat to concentrated structural power, and thus restricted in that context, it is encouraged at the firm with distributed structural power to reduce monitoring costs and build worker capacity.;In sum, I argue that structural power continues to matter, even in the knowledge economy, shaping which work practices are adopted and which practices are more conducive to complex problem solving.