Contested Transparency: Digital Monitoring Technologies and Worker Voice *
57 Pages Posted: 3 Aug 2023 Last revised: 25 Oct 2023
There are 2 versions of this paper
Contested Transparency: Digital Monitoring Technologies and Worker Voice *
Leeds University Business School Working Paper
Number of pages: 57
Posted: 03 Aug 2023
Last Revised: 10 Aug 2024
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Contested Transparency: Digital Monitoring Technologies and Worker Voice
IZA Discussion Paper No. 16362
Number of pages: 46
Posted: 11 Aug 2023
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22
Date Written: October 15, 2023
Abstract
Advances in artificial intelligence and data analytics have notably expanded employers’ monitoring and surveillance capabilities. While new digital monitoring (DM) technologies facilitate the accurate observability of work effort, their productivity and broader welfare implications remain subject of debate. In this context, many countries confer information, consultation and co-determination rights to employee representation (ER) bodies on matters related to workplace organization and the introduction of new technologies, which could potentially discourage employers from making DM investments.
Using a cross-sectional sample of more than 21000 European establishments, we find instead that establishments with ER are more likely to utilize DM technologies than establishments without ER. We also document a positive effect of ER on DM utilization in the context of a local-randomization regression discontinuity analysis that exploits size-contingent policy rules governing the operation of ER bodies in Europe. We rationalize this unexpected finding through the lens of a theoretical model
in which shared governance via ER creates organizational safeguards that mitigate workers' control-averse responses to monitoring.
Keywords: Digital-based monitoring, technology, control aversion, worker voice, employee representation JEL: J5, M54, 032
JEL Classification: M5, J50, O32, O33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Belloc, Filippo and Burdin, Gabriel and Dughera, Stefano and Landini, Fabio, Contested Transparency: Digital Monitoring Technologies and Worker Voice * (October 15, 2023). Leeds University Business School Working Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4528975 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4528975
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