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The increasing and widespread adoption of analytics, the use of digital inputs and outputs to inform organizational decision making, makes the communication of data central to organizing. This article applies and extends signaling theory to provide a framework for the study of analytics as communication. We report three cases that offer examples of dubious, selective, and ambiguous signaling in the activities of workers seeking to shape the meaning of data within the practice of analytics. The analysis casts the future of work as a game of strategic moves between organizations, seeking to measure behaviors and quantify the performance of work, and workers, altering their behavioral signaling to meet situated goals. The framework developed offers a guide for future examinations of the asymmetric relationship between management and workers as organizations adopt metrics to monitor and evaluate work.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/jcmc\/zmad023","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,29]],"date-time":"2023-06-29T14:09:09Z","timestamp":1688047749000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Signaling and meaning in organizational analytics: coping with Goodhart\u2019s Law in an era of digitization and datafication"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"28","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3269-5559","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jeffrey W","family":"Treem","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication Studies, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5438-9961","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"William C","family":"Barley","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana\u2013Champaign , Champaign, IL, USA"}]},{"given":"Matthew S","family":"Weber","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication, Rutgers University , New Brunswick, NJ, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8384-7175","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joshua B","family":"Barbour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication Studies, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX, USA"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,29]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2\u20133","key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"179","DOI":"10.1207\/S15327051HCI1523_5","article-title":"The intellectual challenge of CSCW: The gap between social requirements and technical feasibility","volume":"15","author":"Ackerman","year":"2000","journal-title":"Human\u2013Computer Interaction"},{"issue":"2","key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"256","DOI":"10.1177\/0018726717711237","article-title":"Analytics and expert collaboration: How individuals navigate relationships when working with organizational data","volume":"71","author":"Barbour","year":"2018","journal-title":"Human Relations"},{"issue":"6","key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1612","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.2015.1012","article-title":"Anticipatory work: How the need to represent knowledge across boundaries shapes work practices within them","volume":"26","author":"Barley","year":"2015","journal-title":"Organization Science"},{"key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1057\/978-1-137-55649-3","volume-title":"Metric power","author":"Beer","year":"2016"},{"key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B5","volume-title":"The control revolution: Technological and economic origins of the information society","author":"Beniger","year":"1986"},{"issue":"3","key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1177\/0094306118767649","article-title":"The sociology of quantification: Where are we now?","volume":"47","author":"Berman","year":"2018","journal-title":"Contemporary Sociology"},{"key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/6352.001.0001","volume-title":"Sorting things out: Classification and its consequences","author":"Bowker","year":"2000"},{"issue":"1","key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"44","DOI":"10.1177\/1350508420961531","article-title":"Pacifying the algorithm\u2014Anticipatory compliance in the face of algorithmic management in the gig economy","volume":"28","author":"Bucher","year":"2021","journal-title":"Organization"},{"key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B9","volume-title":"Manufacturing consent: Changes in the labor process under monopoly capitalism","author":"Burawoy","year":"1979"},{"issue":"1","key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"231","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.2021.1547","article-title":"\u201cMaking out\u201d while driving: Relational and efficiency games in the gig economy","volume":"33","author":"Cameron","year":"2022","journal-title":"Organization Science"},{"issue":"1","key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"38","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.2021.1557","article-title":"Expanding the locus of resistance: Understanding the co-constitution of control and resistance in the gig economy","volume":"33","author":"Cameron","year":"2021","journal-title":"Organization Science"},{"issue":"3","key":"2023062914015624300_zmad023-B12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"485","DOI":"10.1177\/14614448211012794","article-title":"What are the risks of virtual reality data? 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