The Effect Of Electronic Performance Monitoring On Supervisor Undermining

With the increasing maturity of information technology,the reduction of technical costs and the development of work networking,electronic performance monitoring(EPM)emerged at the historic moment,bringing disruptive changes to the work environment.It is increasingly related to data collection,performance evaluation and daily management.Intertwined,it has increasingly become the most commonly used control method and performance information collection method in the workplace.With the penetration of new technologies in the workplace,scholars are starting to pay attention to the effects of EPM.Past studies have investigated its impact on employees’ psychology,attitudes,behavior and performance based on the perspective of these being monitored.There is still a lack of usercentered research,and the mechanism of EPM on the follow-up behavior of supervisors has not been explored yet.In recent years,some scholars have gradually concerned that EPM will be used to create pretense for termination and might be viewed as a way to intimidate or oppress.Then,as the user of EPM,whether or when the supervisor turns EPM into an accomplice to torture,such as to treat employers unfairly and conduct negative leadership behaviors? Moreover,in order to mitigate the negative effects of unfair behaviors on themselves,supervisors are inclined to take an implicit,subtle and gradual approach which is called supervisor undermining.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the internal mechanism between EPM and supervisor undermining.This research attempts to open the "black box" and explain the mechanism of EPM on supervisor undermining based on the approach/inhibition theory of power from the perspective of power perception.Besides this,combined with self-identity orientation theory,the research also examines the moderating effects of supervisor’s individual identity orientation and collective identity orientation.In order to test these hypotheses,this research conducts an empirical analysis using the questionnaire survey.Taking the supervisors of enterprises in Central China and East China as the objects,a total of 225 pieces of data were collected in three time periods.The results of data analysis show that EPM has a positive impact on supervisors undermining.EPM increases supervisor undermining through the sense of power.Individual identity orientation positively moderates the relationship between EPM and the sense of power.In other words,for those supervisors with higher individual identity orientation,EPM has a greater positive impact on the sense of power.Individual identity orientation positively moderates the mediating effect of the sense of power between EPM and supervisor undermining.However,the moderating effect of collective identity orientation on EPM and the sense of power is not significant.Likewise,the moderating effect of EPM on the indirect effect of supervisor undermining through the sense of power is not significant.This research has the following theoretical contributions:(1)From the perspective of users,this research explores how EPM affects the leadership behavior of supervisors,which enriches the research perspective of EPM,and fills the research gap;(2)This research explores the affecting factors of supervisor undermining from a technical perspective,which expands the inducing mechanism of this negative behavior;(3)Based on the approach/inhibition theory of power,this research tries to reveal the mechanism of EPM on supervisor undermining,which complements the explanatory mechanism,verifies the rationality of the approach/inhibition theory of power,and eventually expands the application scope of the theory;(4)By integrating self-identity orientation theory,this research examines the important role of supervisor’s personality traits(individual identity orientation,collective identity orientation)in the relationship between EPM and supervisor undermining,which is conducive to facilitate managers to better understand the boundary conditions of EPM.