Electronic workplace monitoring: What employees think

Abstract

It is estimated that at least 26 million Americans are electronically monitored in the workplace. Management insists that they have the right to monitor workers during time paid for by the company. Labor leaders and civil rights advocates argue that the practice violates the dignity and right to privacy of employees. In this study, 823 employees were surveyed. A great majority of the respondents felt that electronic monitoring might cause undesirable tension between managers and workers. Supervisors favor electronic monitoring more than non-supervisors do whereas non-supervisors believe to a greater extent than supervisors that electronic monitoring has a negative impact in the workplace. Supervisors and non-supervisors also differ in their beliefs about the ability of monitoring to reduce theft and create tension in the workplace, and the need to alert employees when monitoring takes place. Employees of organizations that practice monitoring object to it less then employees of organizations without electronic monitoring. Women, more than men, believe that electronic monitoring reduces theft and embezzlement.