The Proximity Paradox: How Distributed Work Affects Relationships and Control

Abstract

Interview data is used to examine how managers enact organizational control when separated from their direct reports by geographic distance. Findings suggest that a need for additional context drives managers to cultivate deeper relationships with their staff, creating an unexpected outcome: working at a distance means managers feel closer to their staff. A theoretical framework demonstrating how context and relationships are related to organizational control is presented and implications for distributed work and organizational control research are discussed.