Digital Monitoring and Employee Work Discipline: Examining the Limits of Electronic Attendance Systems in Public Organizations

Abstract

This study examines the effectiveness of electronic attendance systems in improving employee work discipline, with supervisory supervision modeled as a mediating mechanism in a public sector context. The research focuses on civil servants at the East Kutai Education Office and applies a quantitative explanatory design. Data were collected from 30 respondents using an 18-item questionnaire and analyzed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. The results indicate that the use of electronic attendance applications has a positive, statistically significant effect on supervisory supervision, suggesting that digital systems enhance the structure, objectivity, and intensity of monitoring practices. However, the direct effect of electronic attendance on employee work discipline is not statistically significant. Similarly, supervisory supervision does not exert a significant direct influence on work discipline. Mediation analysis further confirms that supervisory supervision does not significantly transmit the effect of electronic attendance systems to disciplinary outcomes. Despite these findings, the model demonstrates strong explanatory power, accounting for 57.5 percent of the variance in employee work discipline. This result indicates that electronic attendance systems and supervisory mechanisms remain relevant predictors, although their influence operates through more complex and indirect pathways than initially hypothesized. The study concludes that implementing digital monitoring tools alone is insufficient to achieve consistent improvements in employee discipline. Organizational factors such as leadership effectiveness, enforcement consistency, and work culture are likely to play a more decisive role. These findings highlight the need for integrated governance strategies that combine technological systems with behavioral and managerial interventions in public organizations.