E-PANOPTICON OF FACE-TO-DISPLAY WORKERS: FROM THE OFFICE TO THE HOME

Abstract

Electronic Monitoring (EM) is becoming prevalent, enabling varied and pervasive monitoring of workplaces. The research design was a set of e-mail surveys. Quantitative data were analyzed using cross-tabulation of data, descriptive and chi-square tests statistics. The study provides an overview of e-worker monitoring in five countries. Twenty percent of respondents believe that their organization uses employee monitoring software to track their activities. Almost half of the e-workers believe that their activities are not being tracked by software. Nearby 1/10 of the face-to-display workers surveyed would trust their employer more using EM. Four-fifths of e-workers state that EM affects their productivity. Presented data emphasizes that companies using face-to-display workers monitoring software can negatively affect morale and productivity instead of producing better work. Further, employees are often unfamiliar with whether or not there is monitoring software tracking their activities. The study recommends that organizations should inform its employees before implementation of EM system to facilitate their positive attitudes