Organizations are rapidly adopting emerging technologies, popularly known in the media as “bossware,” that track the behaviors of employees. The use of these technologies to monitor worker performance is known as electronic performance monitoring (EPM) in the academic literature. EPM systems increasingly utilize advanced algorithms, equipping companies with the capabilities to expose employees' actions, thoughts, and feelings. Prior research on EPM has focused mainly on the reactions of front-line workers, ignoring the perceptions of employees who work at different hierarchical levels within their organizations. An organizational justice perspective is used to examine how a company’s decision to grant employees the ability to turn off EPM or “go backstage” is likely to be viewed differently by those who are at higher levels of a hierarchy in comparison to those at lower levels. Utilizing experimental vignette methodology (EVM), I find evidence that managers and front-line employees are likely to react differently towards having increased control of EPM. These findings may not be limited to EPM and could prove helpful in understanding employee reactions towards corporate policy implementations in a broader context.
","abstract_html":"<p>Organizations are rapidly adopting emerging technologies, popularly known in the media as “bossware,” that track the behaviors of employees. The use of these technologies to monitor worker performance is known as electronic performance monitoring (EPM) in the academic literature. EPM systems increasingly utilize advanced algorithms, equipping companies with the capabilities to expose employees' actions, thoughts, and feelings. Prior research on EPM has focused mainly on the reactions of front-line workers, ignoring the perceptions of employees who work at different hierarchical levels within their organizations. An organizational justice perspective is used to examine how a company’s decision to grant employees the ability to turn off EPM or “go backstage” is likely to be viewed differently by those who are at higher levels of a hierarchy in comparison to those at lower levels. Utilizing experimental vignette methodology (EVM), I find evidence that managers and front-line employees are likely to react differently towards having increased control of EPM. These findings may not be limited to EPM and could prove helpful in understanding employee reactions towards corporate policy implementations in a broader context.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Harris, Maurice"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Daniel Baack","Dennis Wittmer","Andrew Schnackenberg","Jayson Richardson"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2022-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:11Z","subjects":["Corporate policy","Electronic performance monitoring","Organizational hierarchy","Organizational justice","Business","Business Administration, Management, and Operations","Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics","Organizational Behavior and Theory"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
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"],"dc:subject":["Corporate policy","Electronic performance monitoring","Organizational hierarchy","Organizational justice","Business","Business Administration, Management, and Operations","Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics","Organizational Behavior and Theory"],"dc:title":["Going Backstage: Examining Justice Perceptions of Electronic Performance Monitoring"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:11Z"}