An expanded view on electronic monitoring: Testing moderating effects of participation and perceived purposes of electronic monitoring

Abstract

Electronic monitoring has become a widespread method to record and analyze the behavior of employees. The current study investigated how developmental and controlling purposes of electronic monitoring, as well as participation, moderate the effects of electronic monitoring on employees’ well-being. Based on social information processing theory, developmental and controlling purposes were assumed to buffer or strengthen the relationship of monitoring with work satisfaction, engagement, and stress. In addition, participative decision making by team-leaders and works councils were expected to weaken this relationship. To examine our hypotheses, we surveyed 365 blue-collar workers from 29 organizations in Germany. To provide the best fit to the data, a Bayesian multivariate and multilevel approach was applied. We found detrimental effects of electronic monitoring on worker stress. However, we could not find the proposed moderator effects. We discuss several theoretical and methodological aspects that may have led to these findings. Future research on electronic monitoring should consider additional explaining factors rather than solely focusing on electronic monitoring.