Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

Sammanfattning

Research question: How do employees adapt to, negotiate, and work around digital monitoring systems in their everyday work practices? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how hourly employees within a fitness organization perceive and respond to digital surveillance and algorithmic management, specifically analyzing how these systems shape experiences of autonomy, stress, and control while contributing to research on digital control and employee agency. Method: This study adopts a qualitative approach rooted in interpretivist and social constructionist perspectives to explore how employees experience and navigate digital monitoring. The empirical material consists of nine semi-structured interviews conducted via Zoom with employees across three distinct gym centers within a single fitness organization. Theoretical perspective: The study applies an integrated framework that connects organizational structures of control, employees’ experience of digital surveillance, and the adaptive practices through which monitoring is negotiated in everyday work. Result: The findings reveal that employees develop strategies to circumvent system logic, such as reporting tasks prematurely to maintain positive metrics. This 'gaming' functions as a protective mechanism against managerial demands for data-driven control. Ultimately, a misalignment is highlighted between centralized system design expectations and the staff's need for operational flexibility. Conclusion: This study contributes to organization theory by conceptualizing digital surveillance not as a static mechanism of control, but as a dynamic process of continuous sociomaterial negotiation. It theorizes a novel organizational paradox where employees must actively perform digital visibility to secure the algorithmic compliance necessary to reclaim operational autonomy in their physical execution of labor.