Preserving Tillit in the Automated Workplace: A Sociological and Organizational Psychology Analysis of Algorithmic Management in Scandinavian Enterprises
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The expansion of algorithmic management is fundamentally changing how organisations allocate tasks, monitor performance, evaluate employees, and exercise managerial authority. While existing research extensively examines algorithmic control, worker autonomy, and trust in automated systems, a critical conceptual question remains under-theorised: how should trust be conceptualised when managerial authority is increasingly exercised through algorithmically mediated organisational arrangements? This paper addresses this gap through an integrative conceptual analysis bridging algorithmic management, institutional trust theory, organizational psychology, and Nordic employment relations. We argue that employee trust in an automated workplace cannot be reduced to confidence in the technical accuracy or reliability of an algorithm. Employees may acknowledge the operational utility of a system while simultaneously questioning the legitimacy, accountability, and institutional frameworks governing its deployment. To clarify this distinction, this paper introduces the construct of Institutional Trust Congruence (ITC), defined as the degree to which algorithmically mediated managerial authority aligns with institutionally grounded expectations of justification, participation, reciprocity, contestability, and accountability. Building upon this construct, we develop the Trust-Preserving Digital Leadership Model (TPDLM) a governance framework structured around four core pillars: intelligible transparency, participatory co-design, contextualised human judgement, and proportionate monitoring. Drawing on institutional trust theory, social capital theory, organizational justice, self-determination theory, psychological safety, and leader-member exchange (LMX), the paper formulates six theoretical propositions and maps out a rigorous empirical research agenda. Norway serves as the primary institutional reference point, with Sweden and Denmark treated as distinct comparative contexts. Ultimately, this paper contributes a novel conceptual demarcation between technical and institutional trust in automated workplaces, identifying institutional governance as the primary condition for the legitimacy of digital managerial authority
Author: WAMBUE, PETER KAGIRI
Language: English
Topic: Legal and Labor Studies
Subfield: Industrial relations
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225339124