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- Title
The (electronic) walls between us: How employee monitoring undermines ethical leadership.
- Authors
Thiel, Chase E.; Prince, Nicholas; Sahatjian, Zhanna
- Abstract
Ethical leaders are coveted for their notable ability to inspire positive employee behaviours, an influence portrayed in the ethical leadership literature as robust to most organizational conditions. Yet, we argue that a primary mechanism by which ethical leaders influence their employees (i.e., trust) is disrupted by a company practice that has become nearly as ubiquitous as emphasising ethicality in hiring—employee electronic monitoring. Specifically, drawing from social exchange theory, we propose that electronic monitoring undermines an ethical leader's ability to offer social benefits and thereby erodes trust. We tested our moderated‐mediation model with multi‐wave data from an organisationally diverse field sample of supervisors and their employees. The results provide support for our predictions. Considering the accelerated pace at which electronic monitoring technologies are being adopted, this research makes timely contributions. Practitioner notes: What is currently known?Ethical leadership is a coveted trait in managers because it promotes positive behaviour important to organizational effectiveness.Electronic monitoring has become a popular HR practice as well because it is assumed to also promote positive employee behaviour.Many organisations are currently pursuing an HR agenda of hiring ethical leaders and electronic monitoring, yet oversights in these literature make this a tenuous approach. What this paper adds?Empirical evidence suggesting that many of the benefits of ethical leadership can be undermined by electronic monitoring.Empirical evidence suggesting that electronic monitoring has relational consequences for supervisors and employees where supervisors show ethical leadership.Empirical evidence suggesting that electronic monitoring may have contradictory effects to those advertised by monitoring technology companies. The implications for practitioners:For organizational owners and stewards—in hiring organizational leaders with desirable styles or traits, it is important to also consider the conditions facing leaders.For organizational owners and stewards—implementing an electronic monitoring system should be done on a case‐by‐case basis as it may not be needed under some conditions.For organizational managers—additional efforts may be needed to develop and maintain trust with employees where electronic monitoring is required.For HR managers—it may be important to pay attention to and measure the interactive effects of formal HR practices rather than evaluating them in isolation.
- Subjects
LEADERSHIP ethics; EMPLOYEE surveillance; ELECTRONIC surveillance; SOCIAL exchange; SOCIAL skills
- Publication
Human Resource Management Journal, 2022, Vol 32, Issue 4, p743
- ISSN
0954-5395
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1748-8583.12462