Work

Digital Surveillance in Organizations

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: The increasing digitalization and datafication of all aspects of our private and professional lives have led to widespread digital surveillance (e.g., Zorina et al. 2021 ). The roots of digital surveillance lie in the growing share of our everyday behavior that can be turned into quantifiable data objects, thus making it visible to and analyzable by others (Leonardi and Treem 2020 ). Recent research focuses attention on the implications of digital surveillance in organizations , as an increasingly large part of employee behavior is tracked and monitored as they use a variety of digital technologies to perform their work (Bernstein 2017 ; De Vaujany et al. 2021 ; Mettler 2023 ; Zorina et al. 2021 ). For instance, Gartner Inc. ( 2019 ) reports that in a survey of 239 large corporations, more than 50% use some type of nontraditional monitoring techniques, including the analysis of emails and social-media messages, or the collection of biometric data to determine how employees use their workspace (also see e.g., Ball 2021 ). Digital surveillance in organizations is tied to the assumption that scientific management can be embraced at new levels because the increasing amount of information also increases the means to monitor and improve efficiency and effectiveness (Bernstein 2017 ; Zorina et al. 2021 ).

Source: Business & Information Systems Engineering

DOI: 10.1007/s12599-024-00866-7

Authors: Thomas Grisold, Stefan Seidel, Markus Heck, Nicholas Berente

Institutions: University of St.Gallen, University of Cologne, Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing (Germany), University of Notre Dame

Language: English

Topic: Legal and Labor Studies

Subfield: Industrial relations

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,790