Conclusion


In this chapter, we have examined the idiocultural dynamics associated with the use of surveillance technology in one particular retail store. Surveillance is not something that unilaterally dominates workers. New surveillance procedures are shaped in part by the reactions of employees to them. Our examination of surveillance techniques, then, offers us both an entry point into workplace idioculture and, in turn , a view of how the implementation and use of surveillance is shaped by the mutual understandings created among employees.

The ways that employees negotiate surveillance are not just based on how it is organized in the present, but also in relationship to what it was like in the past. Employees understand video surveillance as both an extension of and in contrast to previous procedures. In this way, surveillance is embedded in the idioculture of the store. Workers develop interactional rituals that take into account the capabilities of surveillance, allowing them to negotiate around its margins. They are able to find its limits, allowing them to create free space in which they are able to entertain each other without being subjected to the impersonal gaze of the video cameras . They are also able to co-opt surveillance technologies in ways that facilitate these subcultural practices and reinforce the normative expectations shared by the employees.

There are definite limitations to the efficacy of idiocultural processes in the face of increasingly sophisticated technology. Employees are only able to create small pockets of space for themselves around the edges of the surveillance terrain. We can expect that as forms of surveillance become more encompassing; it will be increasingly difficult for employees to negotiate around the edges. Isolated, small-scale idiocultural responses to surveillance are ultimately limited, because they do not provide the resources for workers to challenge the power of surveillance. By negotiating around its edges, employees are ultimately implicating themselves in the processes of social control. Workers are active participants in the exercise of power; however, the types of activities described in this chapter are not adequate substitutes for more organized attempts at increasing the empowerment of workers. Worker idioculture allows employees to create meaning and enjoyment in the work they do in the face of the constraints they face. It does not, however, alleviate the need for organized political activity and legislative reform.




Electronic Monitoring in the Workplace. Controversies and Solutions
Electronic Monitoring in the Workplace: Controversies and Solutions
ISBN: 1591404568
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 161

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