The hollowing of the manager: character in the age of algorithmic authority

Abstract

This paper theorizes the behavioural and moral consequences of algorithmic authority for managerial work. As organizations automate evaluative and decision-making functions, the conditions for exercising character-based judgment are being reconfigured. We advance an integrated conceptual model of managerial character under algorithmic authority with two interlocking components: (1) a triangulation model specifying how individual moral disposition, organizational culture, and algorithmic systems jointly constitute the conditions for character expression; and (2) a typology of four managerial role configurations positioned along dimensions of algorithmic mediation and character expression. Together, these mechanisms theorize algorithmic systems as forms of organizational control that can displace, suppress, sustain, or amplify managers’ moral presence. Building on Simon’s notion of bounded rationality, we introduce bounded agency to describe how managerial discretion is systematically delimited by algorithmic systems and institutional procedures. A design-oriented extension specifies organizational and technological levers through which managerial character may be enacted and preserved. This mid-range theorization reconceptualizes character as a structurally conditioned capacity, offers a diagnostic for discretion and moral presence in technologically mediated work, and outlines implications for organizational design, leadership development, and training.