Electronic Performance Monitoring

Electronic performance monitoring describes the process of obtaining information about work-related behaviors using various forms of information technology. The information may simply be observed behaviors, but it can also take the form of measurements of time, resource usage, an individual’s or a vehicle’s movement through space, or various combinations of these. Electronic monitoring of employees is often conducted on behalf of their supervisors, ostensibly in service of improving productivity and quality, but it may also be conducted for other purposes in an organization (e.g., for the maintenance of information security). Technology can monitor groups of people, but it is most typical to monitor the activities of individual workers.

Decreasing costs and increasing capabilities of information technology have provided one impetus for the increasing use of electronic ...