EMPLOYEE TRACKING AND MONITORING 1 TABLE 16.6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Employee Tracking and Monitoring Table divided into 2 columns summarizes Advantages and Disadvantages of Employee Tracking and Monitoring. The column headers are marked as: ADVANTAGES and DISADVANTAGES. ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES Managers claimed employee tracking and monitoring . . . Employees claimed employee tracking and monitoring . . . Reduced their uncertainty about employees' engagement. Increased their stress, anxiety, and burnout. A survey indicated 59% of employees reported feeling stressed or anxious about their employer's surveillance. Superscript a Reduced employees' distraction associated with social media and video streaming services. Introduced distractions because they felt micromanaged and worried about the monitoring system generating a productivity score that would negatively impact their performance review. Improved employees' outcomes (e.g., safety and productivity). Measured the wrong things. Software tracked busyness, or "vanity metrics" (keystrokes, time logged in, mouse movement, time away from desk), more than the substantive parts of business (reading, collaborating, critical thinking, and problem solving). Increased employees' accountability. Decreased the degree to which they took responsibility for their work because they felt the system was unfair and took away their autonomy. Superscript a “ ExpressVPN Survey Shows Widespread Surveillance on Remote Workers,” ExpressVPN , May 20, 2021, https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/expressvpnsurvey-surveillance-on-the-remote-workforce/. Sources: Ravid , D.M., J.C. White, D.L. Tomczak, A.F. Miles, and T.S. Behrend. “A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Electronic Performance Monitoring on Work Outcomes.” Personnel Psychology 76 (2023): 5–40; Eyal , N. “Managers, Stop Distracting Your Employees.” Harvard Business Review . January 12, 2023. https://hbr.org/2023/01/managers-stop-distracting-your-employees ; Thiel, C.E., J. Bonner, J.T. Bush, D.T. Welsh, and N. Garud . “Stripped of Agency: The Paradoxical Effect of employee monitoring on deviance.” Journal of Management 49 (2023): 709–740; Kantor, J., A. Sundaram, A. Aufrichtig , and R. Taylor. “The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score.” The New York Times . August 15, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/14/business/worker-productivity-tracking.html?te=1&nl=the-morning&emc=edit_nn_20220815 ; Murty, R.N. and S. Karanth , “Monitoring Individual Employees Isn’t the Way to Boost Productivity.” Harvard Business Review . October 27, 2022. https://hbr.org/2022/10/monitoring-individual-employees-isnt-the-way-to-boost-productivity ; Thiel, C., J.M. Bonner, J. Bush, D. Welsh, and N. Garud . “Monitoring Employees Makes Them More Likely to Break Rules.” Harvard Business Review . June 27, 2022. https://hbr.org/2022/06/monitoring-employees-makes-them-more-likely-to-break-rules ; Kalischko , T. and R. Riedl . “Electronic Performance Monitoring in the Digital Workplace: conceptualization, Review of Effects and Moderators, and Future Research Opportunities.” Frontiers in Psychology 12 (2021): 633031; Trivedi, S. and N. Patel. “Virtual Employee Monitoring: A Review on Tools, Opportunities, Challenges, and Decision Factors.” Empirical Quests for Management Essences 1 (2021): 86–99; Ravid , D.M., D.L. Tomczak, J.C. White, and T.S. Behrend. “EPM 20/20: A Review, Framework, and Research Agenda for Electronic Performance Monitoring.” Journal of Management 46 (2020): 100–126. 38