We'd appreciate your feedback. Send feedback Subscribe to our newsletters and alerts


Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior

2024 Volume 4 Issue 1

How Employees Respond to Digital Monitoring and Datafied Control


, , ,
  1. Department of Digital Monitoring and Employee Responses, Faculty of Business, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
  2. Department of Datafied Control and Resistance, Faculty of Management, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
  3. Department of Workplace Surveillance, Faculty of Psychology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Abstract

Digital monitoring increasingly converts work activity into observable, comparable, and actionable data. Yet employees do not respond uniformly to such control, and prevailing accounts often isolate acceptance, privacy concern, workarounds, voice, or resistance rather than explaining their relationship. This Original Typology Article develops a proposed Employee-Response Typology for organizing employee agency under digital monitoring and datafied control. Drawing on organizational behavior, work design, workplace privacy, algorithmic management, labor-process, and employment-relations scholarship, the article distinguishes four ideal-typical responses: compliance, concealment, negotiation, and collective resistance. The typology classifies responses by their visibility to organizational authorities, locus of agency, orientation toward the monitoring regime, rule engagement, and temporal stability. It further proposes that employee responses may coexist or change as perceived legitimacy, evaluative opacity, economic dependence, appeal efficacy, managerial reaction, and collective capacity shift. Compliance is separated from consent and performance; concealment from misconduct; negotiation from merely formal voice; and collective resistance from aggregated dissatisfaction. The framework implies that monitoring design should be evaluated not only by data accuracy or observable conformity but also by the response patterns it elicits and the authority relations it institutionalizes. The contribution remains conceptual: the categories are not validated employee classes, the transition paths are not causal estimates, and evidence from platform work cannot be transferred automatically to conventional employment. Longitudinal, multilevel, comparative, and field-experimental research is required to test, revise, combine, or reject the proposed categories and relationships.


How to cite this article
Vancouver
Costa G, Ribeiro L, Alves R, Lopes M. How Employees Respond to Digital Monitoring and Datafied Control. J Appl Organ Syst Behav. 2024;4(1):60-7. https://doi.org/10.51847/IX7KD03EqB
APA
Costa, G., Ribeiro, L., Alves, R., & Lopes, M. (2024). How Employees Respond to Digital Monitoring and Datafied Control. Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior, 4(1), 60-67. https://doi.org/10.51847/IX7KD03EqB
Articles
Navigating the Mind of Gen Z Investors: Behavioral Factors and Stock Decision-Making in Vietnam
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 4 Issue 2, 2024 | Beatrice Mwangi
Forming Family Concepts in Pre-Adolescents Living in Orphanages
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025 | Sanne Bakker
Understanding and Regulating Irrationality in Economic Decision-Making
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 5 Issue 1, 2025 | Isabelle Laurent
The Interplay of Spiritual Insight, Self-Actualization, and Educational Excellence
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025 | Natalia Petrova
Faith, Work, and Obligation: Factors Shaping Zakat Compliance in Indonesia’s Professional Class
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 3 Issue 1, 2023 | Sophie Lambert
Enhancing Attention in Girls with Behavioral Disabilities Through Self-Instruction in Rafha, KSA
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 5 Issue 1, 2025 | Daniel Morales
Human Dignity, Recognition, and Autonomy in Contemporary Work Systems
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 6 Issue 1, 2026 | Thabo Nkosi
Safety and Dissent Rights in Algorithmic Work Systems
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 6 Issue 1, 2026 | Ivan Petrov
Emotional Lag, Change Speed, and Adaptive Breakdown in Organizations
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 6 Issue 1, 2026 | Omar Khalid
How Organizational Decision Systems Automate and Amplify Workplace Inequality
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 6 Issue 1, 2026 | Luis Herrera
Who Receives Credit for Effort in Technology-Mediated Organizational Work?
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 6 Issue 1, 2026 | Peter Novak
Behavioral Autonomy, Cognitive Offloading, and Responsibility in Artificial Intelligence–Assisted Work
Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
Vol 6 Issue 1, 2026 | Siti Rahman

About APSSHS