Bases of Power and Organizational Contexts: How DingTalk Changes Social Relations in Chinese Workplaces

Professor Tian, Xiaoli   (Principal Investigator (PI))

36

2022-01-01

637297

Bases of Power and Organizational Contexts: How DingTalk Changes Social Relations in Chinese Workplaces

China, digital media, human relations, inequality, qualitative research

SociologyMedia and Communication

Humanities & Social Sciences (H)

17600221

General Research Fund (GRF)

2021

On-going

1 Empirical contribution 1: Understanding key characteristics of DingTalk use in Chinese urban middle-class workplaces and variations across different organizational contexts Developed by Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba Group, DingTalk is a comprehensive e-work app with communication, collaboration, and office administration features. The app also enables geolocation tracking which means, for instance, that employees can be located and contacted if they venture beyond their allocated workspace. According to DingTalk’s developer and the Chinese company owners and managers who have adopted the app, its functions enhance efficiency. At the same time, DingTalk may be ""the most hated app in China"". Its borderline authoritarian features are considered a ""catastrophe for office staff"" because of the coercive influence managers are enabled to exert over employees beyond conventional workspaces and times (https://medium.com/@hypp.johnstone/the-dark-side-of-alibabas-dingtalk-fb6b9ed7614a). Given this gulf between employers and employees in perceptions of DingTalk, this project seeks to uncover the various ways in which the two groups use the platform, and how this use varies across organizations. 2 Empirical contribution 2: Exploring how DingTalk’s surveillance functions influence workplace interaction This project seeks to understand how DingTalk use influences workplace social interactions and how individuals at different hierarchical levels perceive DingTalk. Generally, e-work apps have extended work to online venues and facilitated the greater intrusion of work into the private sphere. In particular, the technical features of these apps have provided the means to reach, monitor, and micro-manage workers to a much greater extent than before, and surveillance has increased to inconceivable levels. From the standpoint of theory, of course, surveillance and observability are important for employee compliance. How then does this unprecedented capability influence worker compliance in the workplace? The project will attempt to answer this question by examining how DingTalk influences workplace social interactions between managers and workers and among workers in both conventional FTF and online venues. 3 Empirical contribution 3: Investigating worker coping strategies Literature on the pervasiveness of technology in the workplace emphasizes worker agency by investigating their resistance and control. However, the PI’s previous study on WeChat use in Chinese middle-class workplaces concluded that most workers engaged in cynical performances of compliance when employers used apps to demand affective labor. This phenomenon has not been fully explored, and nor has worker resistance been examined. This study will focus on how workers cope with the enhanced monitoring of their work processes and content through DingTalk. For example, they might appropriate DingTalk to their advantage because such extensive documentation could make it easier for workers to make a case for protection of their labor rights in disputes with employers. 4 Theoretical contribution 1: Examining how digital technology influences the social relations of workplace subordinates and supervisors Most studies on digital technologies in the workplace and organizational culture are based on Western contexts and focus on how technology blurs work and personal boundaries. There is little theoretical examination of how digital media use influences day-to-day workplace social interactions. In a non-Western context, this study field discusses how the increased observability and surveillance afforded by DingTalk influence the power dynamics between workplace subordinates and superiors. Examining DingTalk use in the Chinese context provides a Weberian ideal case because: 1) the use of monitoring technology in the workplace is a global trend and China is at the frontier of its adoption, 2) DingTalk’s comprehensive and invasive feature set is typical of many other similar Chinese e-work apps, and 3) there is a traditional emphasis on hierarchy and a particular style of authoritative relationships in Chinese culture. 5 Theoretical contribution 2: Examining how online interaction characteristics influence workplace power dynamics when daily office communication is digitized DingTalk records conversations, tracks work time, produces work logs, and quantifies worker data for managers. A previous study by the PI suggested that the distinctive features of online interaction, such as the elimination of physical interaction spaces and the unlimited nature of online disclosures, have transformed the workplace into a panoptic environment that transcends time and space. Here, subordinates are compelled to constantly express loyalty and show public deference to superordinates. This project extends the previous study by examining how the distinctive features of digital communication, especially the recordability and quantification capacities of DingTalk, influence workplace social interactions, power differentials between subordinates and superordinates, and interactions between workers.