Work

The Social Structuring of Digital Monitoring: How Resource‐Rich Employees Are Shielded From More Invasive Levels of Digital Monitoring

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Digital monitoring represents a new dimension of external control. We focus on variation in the experiences and perceptions of digital monitoring among employees with differing access to resources due to their embeddedness in differentially resource‐rich organizations and jobs. Based on German linked employer–employee survey data, our results suggest that employees in resource‐rich organizations that are able and willing to pay relatively high wages to secure work performance are less likely to experience the use of automatically stored data on work steps for performance evaluation and to perceive digital monitoring as constant surveillance. The same is true of employees in resource‐rich jobs with high task complexity. These patterns did not emerge for the mere automatic storage of data about work steps, which suggests that—in contrast to more invasive levels of digital monitoring—employees' experiences of this basic level are less likely structured by their embeddedness in organizational inequality regimes.

Source: New Technology Work and Employment

DOI: 10.1111/ntwe.70019

Authors: Anja‐Kristin Abendroth, Charlotte Katharina Schröder, Sophie‐Charlotte Meyer

Institutions: Bielefeld University, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Language: English

Topic: Legal and Labor Studies

Subfield: Industrial relations

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Reduced inequalities, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,980