Psychosocial Aspects of Employee Control with the Use of Modern Technologies

Abstract

When functioning in an organisation, conflicting interests of parties to the employment relationship collide: the employee’s right to privacy and the employer’s right to control the quality and manner of performing work. Traditional forms of employee monitoring, such as a breathalyser test or personal search, raise a lot of controversy. With the development of modern technologies, new forms of control emerge, such as monitoring, Internet access control, or even checking private employee accounts on social networking platforms. The problem of using them improperly arises. Such practices are controversial not only for ethical and legal reasons. Attempts to limit the freedom of employees and their strict control with the use of modern techniques may result in serious psychological consequences for the employees, such as low efficiency, mental discomfort, or reduced job satisfaction. That is why wisely-managed organisations restrain limiting freedom of employees by implementing excessive control in favour of appealing to their internal self-control.