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Organizations often depend on experts to carry out complex tasks that require specialized or tacit knowledge. Yet, organizations often want to increase their control over how tasks are performed and thus reduce the autonomy of experts. In the past, scholars have argued that experts had the ability to rebuff organizational attempts to control them. However, in an era with increased digitalization and centralization in organizations, experts risk losing control. How experts react when facing this increased centralization and digitalization is not well understood. Thus, this study seeks to improve knowledge on how experts react as organizations digitalize and centralize control over tasks. To do so, we studied a large energy company, which sought to increase its control over tasks and reduce the autonomy of its expert engineers by implementing an organizational change that included centralization and digital control. Using in-depth interviews, we portray how the expert workers reclaimed control using three micro-level tactics – strategic compliance and workaround, using legacy to reclaim control and concealing expert control. Based on these findings, our paper makes three contributions to the literature on experts and control. First, we provide the concept of 'stealth work', outlining how experts can reclaim control when centralization and digitalization have otherwise stripped them of status and power. Second, we highlight how expert control may be nested in organizations as a legacy, which experts can use when facing centralization and digitalization, and finally, we highlight how experts can engage in small hacks that curb the usefulness of digital control systems.

PurposePrevious studies on non-standard employment relations have analyzed how firms' use of non-standard work arrangements are explained by variables related to numerical flexibility. Here, the purpose of this paper is to explore how firms respond to changes in the external environment through reduction in staffing. Since the firms combine employees and external consultants, they are confronted with a dilemma between laying off employees or terminating consultant contracts.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical context is the petroleum sector in Norway. The data consists of 11 interviews with managers at different levels in three firms.FindingsThe authors found that firms terminated over 80 percent of the consultant contracts, while around a forth of employees were downsized. A core-periphery strategy and union power are vital drivers of the prioritization of employees. However, some consultants were retained due to their knowledge of unique aspects of the firm and their role in development and innovation. The authors also found that the firms differed in their emphasis on seniority vs competencies criteria in deciding "survival" among employees.Research limitations/implicationsA main contribution of the study is thus the identification of variables and mechanisms that influence the two interrelated choices of downsizing in such multi-employment contexts. The main limitation is the number of firms analyzed (three), which restricts statistical generalization.Practical implicationsBetter understanding of circumstances and criteria of downsizing choices in employees/external consultants' constellations.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to analyze two interrelated issues of downsizing in such constellations lying off employees vs terminating consulting contracts, and whether seniority or competence criteria were prioritized when laying off employees. A main contribution of the study is the identification of variables and mechanisms that influence the two interrelated choices of downsizing in such multi-employment contexts.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between networking ability, autonomy and work performance.


Design/methodology/approach
The data, collected from a sample of 510 employees in a professional service firm, were analysed using regression analysis.


Findings
First, networking ability and autonomy are positively associated with in-role and extra-role performance. Second, the greater the job autonomy, the stronger the effect of networking ability on in-role performance.


Originality/value
This paper adds to the growing body of literature on demand for social and interpersonal skills in organisations. The authors combine the literature on work design with the literature on networking ability and complexity in employment relations. The authors' findings show the importance of networking ability and autonomy for work performance, as well as pointing to factors such as age and work experience.

Research on the consequences for employees of opportunities to participate in decision-making (defined here as having autonomy and being able to consult in organizational decisions and to work in teams) has produced inconsistent results. Some writers argue that worker participation is a good thing for workers, since they are able to make decisions and develop skills. Others, especially those in the critical management tradition, regard workers' opportunities to participate in decisions as another form of exploitation that results in increased work intensity, more ambiguity and greater stress. In this article, we examine the consequences of Norwegian workers' participation in decisions on job stress — both directly and through their effect on skill development, workload, support and ambiguity. We find that autonomy and consultation in decisions reduce job stress, while teamwork increases job stress.