Can Electronic Performance Monitoring Be Fair? Exploring Relationships Among Monitoring Characteristics, Perceived Fairness, and Job Performance

With the increased use of technology in all areas of human resource management, many organizations are using electronic and computerized means for monitoring and assessing employee performance. We tested three path models that explored whether the perception of certain characteristics of an electronic performance monitoring (EPM) system might relate to 1) the perceived fairness of that system and 2) employee performance. Results suggest that perceptions of three of the characteristics — opportunity to challenge, feedback tone, and amount of monitoring were related to the perceived fairness of the performance monitoring system. In turn, perceived fairness of the system fully mediated the relationship between the monitoring system characteristics and dimensions of contextual performance. However, the best fitting path model did not support any linkages to task performance.