Can the Most Awful Part of Leadership Get Any Worse? Managing Visibility in Remote Employee Terminations
Type: article
Abstract: Employee terminations are among the most fraught interactions in organizational life and one of the most difficult tasks managers perform. Once confined to physical rooms, terminations are increasingly conducted remotely and reshaped by digital technologies, making them a distinct organizational phenomenon with consequences that remain largely unknown. This paper argues that studying the management of visibility in these consequential interactions should be a central concern, given how little is known about what technology mediation does to interactions where employee well-being and dignity are at stake. Drawing on in-depth interviews with managers, the paper extends digital visibility scholarship by reframing it from worker self-presentation to managerial conduct, showing how managers control what is hidden from and what is shown to terminated employees, and how psychological distance is actively produced by the practices managers adopt to make terminations bearable. The paper concludes with a research agenda for further scholarship in this area.
Author: Nordlander, Jessica
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7222909757