Digital Control in Employment Relationships
Digital Control in Employment Relationships
(Third Party Funds Group – Overall project)
Overall project:
Project leader:
Project members: ,
Start date: December 1, 2020
End date: November 30, 2023
Acronym:
Funding source: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
URL: https://digitalisierung-der-arbeitswelten.de/digitale-kontrolle
Abstract
Digitalization transforms the nature of work and employment relationships. New technologies like body-worn sensors, GPS tracking, and real-time data analysis by artificial intelligence allow to control employees to a greater extent than previously possible. This project focuses on digital control, which refers to the monitoring and controlling not only of workers but also of employers and managers (via works councils). Since digital control has advantages and disadvantages for all actors involved, it will be subject to a complex negotiation process that may yield new social and legal norms how to handle digitalization.
This interdisciplinary project (sociology, psychology, economics) investigates how the core stakeholders of the employment relationship, i.e. employers and managers on the one side and employees and their representatives (works councils) on the other, deal with the new possibilities of digital control. On the employer side, we examine the conditions and factors that affect whether and how organizations choose to implement specific forms of digital control. In an experimental design, we investigate under which circumstances employers and managers will have an interest in implementing digital control and how they anticipate and take account of workers’ interests and reactions.
On the employee side, we look at workers’ interests and at their affective, cognitive, and behavioural reactions to the implementation of digital control with different degrees of invasiveness. In an experimental and a longitudinal field study, we investigate under which circumstances workers will accept specific technologies for digital control and if they get used to certain technologies. We focus on privacy concerns and individuals’ reluctance to get their performance measured. We also analyse if potentially moderating factors like the existence of a works council, higher compensation, and technology characteristics play a role.
Bringing together both sides, we analyse relations between the actors and potential trade-offs between various aspects of digital control when negotiating its assignment. We study whether, when, and how conflicts about the implementation of digital control can be solved. Among others, we ask whether the actors are willing to grant and accept some monetary or non-monetary compensation in exchange for a more intensive or invasive monitoring of workers.
Methodologically, we employ a mainly experimental design which allows us to gather knowledge also on the interests of employees and firms that are not confronted with a specific technology yet. We use factorial designs (also called vignette studies) where we present and randomly vary hypothetical situations to employees, managers and works councils and enquire the conditions under which specific devices and procedures enabling digital control are accepted. The experimental vignette studies are complemented by a longitudinal field study to capture real-world experiences with digital control.