The Algorithmic Gaze: Power, Surveillance, and Despotism in the Digital Workplace

Title

The Algorithmic Gaze: Power, Surveillance, and Despotism in the Digital Workplace

Creator

Aggarwal, Palak; Pandey, Diksha

Description

This chapter investigates the ways that algorithmic technologies reconfigure workplace authority by changing how we think about surveillance, evaluation, and control in data- driven management practices. Drawing from and reconceptualising Foucaults Panopticon and Zuboffs Surveillance Capitalism, it contends that the algorithmic gaze creates an invisible governance system, where trust and autonomy are replaced by quantification. Through case studies in service, fintech, and logistics sectors, the analysis highlights how discourses of efficiency and performance sustainability legitimise digital despotism, bias, and workers self- monitoring. The chapter concludes with a framework for digital humanism, which articulates ethical, transparent, and participatory governance and management, which can restore human dignity and agency in algorithmically mediated labour. 2026 by IGI Global Scientific Publishing. All rights reserved.

Source

Digital Ideologies in the Age of Algorithmic Culture;pp.339-371

Date

01-01-2026

Publisher

IGI Global

Coverage

Aggarwal P., Christ University, India; Pandey D., Christ University, India

Rights

Restricted Access; Hardcopy may be available in the library

Relation

ISBN: 979-833734533-8; 979-833734531-4;

Format

online

Language

English

Type

Book chapter

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3373-4531-4.ch011

https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105036790193?origin=resultslist