Connectivity and Surveillance: The Role of Communication Visibility in the Era of Digitalization and Remote Work

Management Communication Quarterly · 2025-07-30

In the era of digitalization and remote work, employee surveillance has surged, and many workers feel tethered to their work through various technological devices. This study explores how communication visibility mediates the relationship between remote work and computer-mediated communication (CMC) frequency, supervisors’ surveillance practices, and employees’ connectivity to work. Analyzing data from 539 employees and supervisors at a multinational company, we found that remote work alone did not lead to increased supervisors’ surveillance ability. However, CMC frequency was positively associated with surveillance, both directly and indirectly, through enhanced communication visibility. Additionally, workplace flexibility and CMC frequency contributed to constant connectivity, regardless of communication visibility. These results contribute to theoretical understandings of visibility management and surveillance by highlighting how communication visibility provides opportunities for surveillance in flexible work environments. Practically, these findings emphasize the need to develop policies that balance the benefits of connectivity and flexibility with increased opportunities for surveillance.

Algorithmic control and work frustration in crowdwork: A case of autonomy suppression and connectivity compulsion

European Management Journal · 2025-05-01 · 11 citations

Online crowdwork is often cited as a transformative force in the labor market, providing millions of individuals greater flexibility in selecting the timing and location of work. However, the algorithmic management practices on which online labor platforms rely are widely criticized for structuring work opportunities in ways that constrain the agency of individual workers. This research uses a two-wave survey of 590 European crowdworkers to examine the relationship between perceived algorithmic control and work frustration through autonomy and technological connectivity. The findings indicate how perceived algorithmic control affects crowdworkers’ emotions, intensifying frustration by eroding autonomy and making it difficult for workers to detach from the platform during work episodes. This research sheds light on the evolving aspects of algorithmic control in emerging work structures, providing insights that can shape theory and practices to promote sustainable work in the digital era.

Pushing the Boundaries of Interdisciplinary Collaboration

2024-02-06 · 1 citations

This study examines the way participants of knowledge-intensive, interdisciplinary, project-based work in academic settings described the kinds of expertise that were valued by their groups.We found tensions in these descriptions, which suggest that an understanding of the kinds and value of expertise in these settings may benefit from broadening.We found that these labs served as spaces for members to socialize new students to the field, share norms and expectations, and distribute resources.Domain expertise was largely downplayed, while more intangible qualities such as curiosity and perseverance were amplified.Participants described their groups as sites of application and significantly, sites of learning the culture of practice that is expected.Implications of these findings are discussed, including theoretical and practical, and potential insights for engineering educators are surfaced.

Contents

2024-06-17

Chapter 22 Artificial Intelligence and Organizational Communication

2024-06-17 · 1 citations

This chapter explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and organizational communication. It distinguishes AI from traditional tools by highlighting its ability to learn from data patterns rather than relying on explicit programming. Such a workplace is viewed as a sociomaterial network comprising humans, processors, data, and algorithms. Within this framework, the chapter examines how AI disrupts three communicative processes traditionally performed by humans: (1) communication displacement (i.e., decision-making), (2) communication augmentation (i.e., pattern identification), and (3) communication representation (i.e., speaking on the behalf of). Drawing on recent research examples, the chapter prompts a reconsideration of several core concepts in organizational communication, such as agency, trust, power/bias, and visibility. Overall, the chapter provides a framework for scholars to investigate how the design, use, and consequences of AI can alter or reinforce communicative processes. Considering that communication is fundamental to the organizing process, it is crucial for organizational scholars to understand how AI shapes and expands our understanding of communication in the era of intelligent technologies.

Complex Technologies and Ignorant Expertise: The Communicative Value of Not Knowing but Figuring it Out

Management Communication Quarterly · 2024-09-21 · 1 citations

Workplaces are increasingly full of complex technologies embedded in dynamic infrastructures demanding workers to assess and understand unanticipated problems. In order to comprehensively appraise the role of technological complexity and the uncertainties it affords in a complex, high-stakes setting, we interviewed and observed members of three interdisciplinary STEM laboratories. Findings revealed that organizational members navigated uncertainty by cultivating ignorant expertise (i.e., not knowing but figuring it out ). This form of expertise emerged as a combination of two practices: the practice of emergent troubleshooting and the practice of negotiating new practices. In discussing these findings, we offer three key takeaways. We demonstrate that ignorant expertise: (a) operates as a dialectic of hesitancy and boldness and is mobilized through ignorant yet knowledgeable actions; (b) is communicatively performed through think-out-loud and storytelling techniques, and developing interpersonal rapport with organizational members; and (c) establishes technological complexity as a catalyst for organizing processes.

Past, Present, and Future Analysis of Digital Work in Qualitative Organizational Communication Research

2024-01-01

Organizational Metrics of Technology Use and the Transparency Paradox

Management Communication Quarterly · 2024-12-16 · 2 citations

Metrics are increasingly used by organizations to communicate and evaluate how employees’ actions align with organizational goals. In practice, metrics provide a mechanism for making some work visible, but in doing so can create a paradox whereby it is more difficult to understand what behaviors are contributing to outcomes. This study focused on the use of TechMetric, a composite score reflecting online behaviors at Beta Corp., a large multinational technology-consulting organization. Ethnographic research captured the communication surrounding the introduction of TechMetric. Our findings showed that the implementation of TechMetric created situations in which the use of metrics communicated a shift in what managers prioritized and ultimately discouraged desired behaviors and undermined optimal work routines. This research makes an important contribution to the study of organizational metrics by illustrating how the measurement of workers’ behaviors can enact distinct tensions. Further, the communicative efforts to navigate those tensions can produce paradoxical outcomes.

Friendly skies and unfriendly workplace communication: Examining emotion displays on enterprise social media in the aviation industry

Communication Monographs · 2024-07-19 · 4 citations

Researchers studying communication platforms in organizations (i.e., enterprise social media (ESM)) primarily focus on the implications of these technologies for knowledge sharing. In privileging task-based communication we risk overlooking the emotional aspects of communication inherent in worker interactions. This study investigates employees’ communication on ESM in two aviation companies. Interviews with employees (N = 39) revealed that they perceived ESM communication as mainly negative, focusing on venting and accusations, and that employees differed in their likelihood of expressing consonant or opposing emotions. Additionally, moderators’ presence on the ESM at one organization did not result in fewer emotional displays than on the unmoderated ESM. This research highlights the role of visibility in emotional workplace communication and in emotion cycles among organizational members.

Collaborating Alone: The Role of Technology Infrastructure in Scientific Problem-Solving Practices

2024-02-07

Science (MSIS, School of Information, UT Austin