ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to contribute to an understanding of the relationship between communication and information by examining surveillance in the information workplace and its impact on communication. It argues a definition of information work that helps in understanding the relationship being investigated. The chapter identifies the organization of information work as a specific instance of more general work organization, and discusses how established and emerging information technologies are used as monitoring devices to extend traditional organizational schema into information work. It considers how such use of these technologies makes them upwardly mobile and may contribute to stress. The chapter also identifies indications of a possibly antagonistic relationship between information technology, when it is employed in the service of traditional workplace policies, and the communication process. Information technologies have the potential to increase the gathering and handling of information, but it is an organization's philosophy and resulting policies that determine how they are used.
