Micromanagement: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Although micromanagement commonly characterized with excessive control and negative impacts is theoretically expected to decline, it is still a major workplace concern in contemporary organizational life especially when numerous digital solutions are developed and adopted by organizations. By reviewing 94 papers systematically selected from organizational studies, the study aims to clarify how micromanagement is understood and measured, and identify what are underlying theories and nomological network of the current research. The review found that explicitly or implicitly drawing upon different leadership, management and social-based theories, micromanagement is manifested through various individual qualities but lacks a clear and formal definition and validated measurement scale. Its occurrence and consequences vary over time across individual factors such as personality trait, leaders’ competence or perception and contextual factors such as task characteristics, organizational culture or organizational structure. The findings are structured into an integrative framework that can enrich current literature, direct future research, and enhance managers’ awareness of causes, manifestations and positive sides of micromanagement. As a result, managers can be more flexible in deploying micromanagement to achieve organizational goals but not at the expense of individual well-being.