Can control enable creativity? Revisiting the role of algorithmic control in employee innovation

With the support of algorithmic technologies, organizational management has effectively evolved into a more comprehensive, thorough, and stringent form of control over employees, gradually reducing them to “programmable cogs in the machine.” The negative impact of such control on employee innovation behavior has seemingly become a consensus. However, we argue that standardized algorithmic environments can also serve as a source of innovation motivation for employees. To explore this potential benefit, we draw on cognitive appraisal theory to propose two pathways through which algorithmic control positively influences employee innovation behavior. By employing an online survey and a multi-wave field survey, the study reveals that algorithmic control promotes innovation behavior by enhancing perceptions of job gain while simultaneously stimulating innovative responses by reducing job insecurity. This study demonstrates the substantial potential of algorithmic control in fostering employee innovation, providing new theoretical insights and practical implications for developing a more comprehensive understanding of algorithmic control and advancing organizational digital transformation. • Reconceptualize algorithmic control as innovation-enhancing control. • Perception of job gain and job insecurity serve as two key psychological mechanisms • Show algorithmic control benefits innovation beyond gig work.