This year’s main colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies was hosted from July 4th-6th at the University of Edinburgh Business School under the theme ‘Enlightening the Future: The Challenge for Organizations’.
Our research was presented within the sub-theme of ‘Organizing in the Age of Digitalization and Datafication: Surveillance, Transparency and Power’ hosted by Cristina Alaimo, Mikkel Flyverbom and Nanna Bonde Thylstrup. Here, Eliane Bucher together with Peter Schou from the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen discussed their paper on behavioral control and self-discipline vis à vis surveillance algorithms on digital work platforms. In particular, they argued that algorithms act as unseen observers that evaluate, judge and potentially punish workers on digital work platforms which leads to workers self-disciplining as they internalizing the rationality of power. We are most grateful to Richard Weiskopf who acted as principal discussant for the paper and who provided nuanced and actionable feedback for the further development of this research stream.