International Journal of Management (IJM)

Volume 11, Issue 11, November 2020, pp. 3784-3791, Article ID: IJM_11_11_373
Available online at https://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=11
ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34218/IJM.11.11.2020.373

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

A STUDY ON MEASURING THE

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ELECTRONIC
MONITORING AND WORK PERFORMANCE
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO
EDUCATIONAL INSTRUCTIONS IN
TAMILNADU
R. Shanmuga Sundari
Research Scholar, Department of Management & Research,
Adaikalamatha College, (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University),
Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India

Dr. S. Venkatesan
Assistant Professor, Department of Management & Research,
Adaikalamatha College, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT
Electronic performance monitoring is becoming more prevalent as it is necessary in
some situations Previous studies on and more convenient in others, electronic
monitoring have not examined the relationship between electronic monitoring and work
performance of employees and their performance. This study therefore examined the
relationship between electronic monitoring and work performance with special
reference to educational sector. The research design was both survey and exploratory.
Comprehensive sampling technique was used to ascertain the number of respondents.
A semi- structured questionnaire was used to elicit information. Five Key Informant
Interviews (KII) wereconducted with the employees in educational sector in selected
colleges in Tamilnadu. Non- participant observation was carried as well for the same
purpose. Quantitative data were analyzedusing descriptive and chi-square test statistics
at 5% level of significance while qualitative data were content analyzed. Majority of the
respondents (85.8%) were aware of the use of electronic monitoring in the organisation,
while 81.1% had positive perception about the use of electronic monitoring.
Key words: Electronic Monitoring, Performance, employees, Relationship
Cite this Article: R. Shanmuga Sundari and S. Venkatesan, A Study on Measuring the
Relationship between Electronic Monitoring and Work Performance with Special Reference to
Educational Instructions in Tamilnadu, International Journal of Management (IJM), 11(11),
2020, pp. 3784-3791.
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 A Study on Measuring the Relationship between Electronic Monitoring and Work Performance
with Special Reference to Educational Instructions in Tamilnadu

1. INTRODUCTION
Electronic performance monitoring is becoming more popular as it is necessary in some
situations(e.g., work from home), and more convenient in others (e.g., virtual work teams),
where the manager can review performance at a later time. In fact, millions of American
workers have beenelectronically monitored in some form (Hedge & Borman, 1995). In the past
few years, approximately 26 million workers have been electronically monitored at work
(Mishra & Crampton, 1998). The American Management Association estimated that in 2001,
78% of mid tolarge size companies were using some form of electronic monitoring (Moorman
& Wells, 2003). Electronic monitoring can range from listening in on or recording phone
conversations, to videotaping, to the more recent and growing in popularity computer
monitoring. In computer monitoring, programs have been designed to record or evaluate
information related to the specificperformance criteria such as time on computer, keystrokes
and accuracy, speed, idle time, or evenwatching the employees' computer screen through their
own (Hedge & Borman, 1995; Mishra &
Crampton, 1998). It is also possible for electronic monitoring to allow real-time observation
of performance.
Performance appraisals are commonly used by management to better understand an
employee's performance. Measures of employee performance are important to the organization
as they are used to conduct an evaluation of the employee, which can be critical to organizational
functioning. Performance appraisals are used for decisions in promotions, raises, layoffs,
placement, and employee development (Viswesvaran, 2001). Performance monitoring is a
common tool used in the performance appraisal process where by an observer such as a manager
observes an employee'sperformance in some manner, such as in-person or listening in on phone
recordings, to monitoringa computer screen, in order to assist in the performance appraisal
process. As one step in the appraisal process monitoring helps to gain knowledge of the
employee's actual job performance
Performance monitoring is the process by which one actively observes an employee's
behaviors interms of performance in order to assist in the appraisal process. The purpose of
monitoring performance is to provide means for management to be able to assess performance
levels. The information collected from performance monitoring can be used in a variety of ways.
Two popular uses are to assist in administrative decisions and development of employees.
Studies conducted in the 1970's suggested that more than 50 percent of job performance
assessments were used for administrative purposes such as, pay, promotions, and layoffs
(DeVries, Morrison, Shullman, & Gerlach, 1986; as cited in Viswevaran, 2001) . Feedback can
be used to convey to the employee where they may have weaknesses and where their strengths
are, which may then be helpful in theprocess of employee development (Viswesvaran, 2001).
Traditionally, performance monitoring has been conducted in-person, using supervisors, peers,
subordinates and customers, who would actually observe performance of the employee in
person. The increased use of technology, as in the popularity of personal computers at home
and the wide use of computers in many industries, is leading to many significant changes in the
ways that performance monitoring is conducted in organizations (Hedge & Borman, 1995).
For- example it is becoming more popular to have employees working from home,
telecommuting and working in virtual organizations (Bureau of Labor, 2001). It would be
difficult to continue to rely on old forms of performance monitoring such as using peers to
monitor and subsequently rate the employee when they are working in separate locations
(Hedge & Borman, 1995; Ilgen & Pulakos, 1999; Murphy Sc Cleveland, 1995).Consequently,
electronic performance monitoring has emerged as a viable approach to observingperformance
in situations where in-person observation is not practical.

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 R. Shanmuga Sundari and S. Venkatesan

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
According to JAING (2012), an employee’s performance is a function of three variables:
ability, opportunity to perform, and motivation. In order to maximize employee’ performance,
his skills need to be enhanced, he should be given an opportunity to contribute and he should
be motivated.Top management has to assess staff and organizational performance from time to
time on regular basis, so that to be able to identify any deviation in performance, and thus
information systems are needed. Continuing with other review (Jansirani, Hatrikrishnan, Jaya
kani, & Saisathya, 2013) saidthat a performance appraisal is defined as a systematic evaluation
of the performance of employees as well as how to assign duties and responsibilities and
understand the abilities of the employees. The appraisal should base on what the employee
actually achieves not on the employee's personality characteristics.
Previous studies addressed the impact of electronic monitoring on an array of dependent
variables like work satisfaction, perceived stress, privacy violation, performance, perceived
autonomy, trust,social support, and alike (Alge & Hansen, 2013; Backhaus, 2019; Ravid et al.,
2019; Stanton, 2000). Thus, it is possible to examine a huge number of effects which electronic
monitoring may have on employees. At this point, we focus our efforts on job satisfaction, stress,
and performance because there is a large number of studies that took these variables into
account, whereas other variables were less often addressed (Backhaus, 2019). In addition, these
other possible dependentvariables show a substantial correlation with our main outcomes. For
example, a meta-analysis found high relationships between job satisfaction, justice / fairness
perceptions, and citizenship behaviors (Fassina et al., 2008). In addition, the three chosen
variables show distinct characteristics: job satisfaction can show the impact of electronic
monitoring on employees’ workattitudes, stress can show the impact on employees’ well-being,
and performance is a major justification for the implementation of electronic monitoring.
A key justification for the use of electronic monitoring is the observation and maintenance
of organizational performance and thus employees’ performance. Regarding performance,
different theories come to different conclusions about the effect of monitoring on employees’
performance.Following a stress perspective, electronic monitoring reduces performance in the
long term due tothe strain an individual experiences (Karasek, 1979). In contrast, agency theory
(Eisenhardt, 1989)predicts higher performance in monitored employees than in non-monitored
employees (Mahaney & Lederer, 2011). According to agency theory, the agent (or the
employee) has a knowledge advantage over the principal (or the supervisor), because the agent
knows which performance theyhave achieved and is able to achieve. Monitoring balances
this advantage by conveying this
information to the principal as well. This way, the principal can act according to the agents’
performance and maintain performance (see Frey, 1993, for a critique on this simplification).
Indeed, research has found a positive impact of electronic monitoring (e.g., Nebeker & Tatum,
1993; Huston et al., 1993) as well as a negative impact of monitoring on performance (e.g.;
Aiello& Kolb, 1995; Becker & Marique, 2014). To summarize, there are different propositions
regardingperformance though the previous meta-analysis by Backhaus (2019) found a positive
relationshipbetween electronic monitoring and performance.

3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
This research aims to study the influencing factors on the employee’s performance, and hence
the overall organization performance. Mainly focuses on the impact of using Information
System (Electronic Monitoring and Evaluation System), which enhances the communication
between the top management and employees (the internal control) and increase employees’
performance, in addition to the impact of the Organizational Learning on increasing the
organization performance.With taking into consideration, the effect of the innovation and the

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 A Study on Measuring the Relationship between Electronic Monitoring and Work Performance
with Special Reference to Educational Instructions in Tamilnadu

training programs, on the relation between the information systems, the organizational learning,
and the employees’ performance as well.
• Examined the relationship between electronic monitoring and work performance with
special reference to educational sector
• To identify the influence of electronic monitoring on employee performance in selected
institutions in Study area.

4. DATA ANALYSIS
The below Table 1 reveals some of the socio demographic characteristics of the respondents
for the study. This included their sex, age, religion, ethnic group, departments of the
respondents. Thedata obtained on sex showed that 52.0% of the respondents were males while
48.0% were females.This indicated that there was a fair gender balance in the organisation. Data
on age revealed that 30.7% of the respondents were within the age bracket of 20-24, 34.6% were
within the age bracketof 25-29 and 34.6% were also aged 30 and above. This implied that the
organisation comprised youths who are a strong workforce.

Table 1 Frequency distribution of respondent’s socio-demographiccharacteristics.

Variable Frequency F=127 Percenta ge
Sex
Male 66 52
Female 61 48
Age
20-24 39 30.7
25-29 44 34.6
30 and above 44 34.6
Religion
Christianity 91 71.7
Islam 35 27.6
Traditional 1 0.8
Department
Accounting 4 3.1
Customer care 8 6.3
Operations 13 10.2
Teller 55 43.3
Marketing 47 37
Educational level completed
OND 29 22.8
HND 31 24.4
BSC 50 39.4
Post graduate 17 13.4
Marital status
Single 76 59.8
Married 47 37
Divorced 4 3.1
Mode of employment
Full staff 68 53.5
Contract staff 59 46.5
Number years of working
experience
0-3 years 62 48.8
4-7 years 55 43.4
8 years and above 10 7.9

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 R. Shanmuga Sundari and S. Venkatesan

Table 2 Chi-square test of association between variables:

What is your Electronic monitoring is capable of providing instant feedback onworkers
perception about
Performance
electronic
monitoring? Yes No Total
(i) Positive 86(68.8%) 15(12.0%) 101(80.8%)
(ii) Negative 5(4.0%) 5(4.0%) 10(8.0%)
(iii) Don‟t know 13(10.1%) 1(0.8%) 14(11.2%)
Total 104 21 125(100%)
x2 Result X2C =9.134; X2E=7.396;DF=3; LS=0.05; AS=0.028
What is your
Electronic monitoring can serve as an objective performance
perception about
evaluation tool
electronic electronic
Positive Negative Total
monitoring?
(i) Positive 92 (73.6%) 9(7.2%) 101(80.8%)
(ii) Negative 7(5%) 3(2.4%) 10(7.4%)
(iii) Don‟t know 12(9.6%) 2(1.6%) 14(10.4%)
Total 111 14 125(100%)
x2 Result X2C =12.175; X2E=7.706;DF=3; LS=0.05; AS=0.007
Awareness of electronic
The effect of the forms of e-monitoring used in my
monitoring
organisation
Positive Negative don’t know T
(i) Yes 82(64.6%) 17(13.4%) 10(7.9%) 109(8
5.5%)
(ii) No 9(7.1%) 2(1.6%) 7(5.5%) 18(14
.2%)
Total 91 19 17 127(1
00%)
x2 Result X2C =11.770; X2E=9.110; DF=2;LS=0.05;AS=0.01
The data revealed that 42.5% of the respondents agreed that electronic monitoring could
create a poor working environment, 48.0% disagreed and 9.4% were undecided. This indicated
that a greater percentage of the respondents were not of the view that electronic monitoring
creates a poor working environment. This goes to say that employees have a good working
environment irrespective of electronic monitoring devices in place. The table also showed
whether electronicmonitoring brought about conflict between management and employees in
the organisation. Thedata obtained showed that 34.6% of the respondents agreed that electronic
monitoring could leadto conflict between management and employees, 51.2% disagreed, 14.2%
remained undecided.Electronic monitoring would not cause conflict between management and
employees in the organisation. Table 5 also showed the respondents response on whether
electronic monitoring of workers can lead to low motivation. The data obtained in the table
revealed that 46.5% of the respondents agreed that electronic monitoring could lead to low
motivation, 47.2% disagreed and 6.3% were undecided. This implied also that some workers
believed that electronic monitoring can lead to low motivation while others did not. This
showed that the perception of the effects or benefits of electronic monitoring was specific to
each individual worker. Apart from these challenges identified above, the interviewees also
identified other challenges which even though might not have adverse effects on the work
performance of the employee; they aremainly structural in nature. These include power supply,
network downturn and other structural issue.

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 A Study on Measuring the Relationship between Electronic Monitoring and Work Performance
with Special Reference to Educational Instructions in Tamilnadu

5. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

The research findings showed that an organisation uses various forms of electronic monitoring
to monitor their employees, among which include some of the forms of electronic monitoring
described by Botan (1995), Mc- Hardy et al. (2005), Ciocchetti (2011) and Yerby (2013).
Though monitoring software packages on the computer (9.4%), internet monitoring (22.8%)
and video surveillance (17.3%) were the most used forms of monitoring employee. Majority
(88.9%) of the respondents also agree that their computer usage is being monitored. Inthe same
vein, the respondents also agreed that traditional forms of electronic monitoring (direct
supervision of work and employee files/records keeping) are being used in monitoring them as
well. Majority of the respondents were aware that their emails received on the organisation‟s
computers are being monitored, their phone conversation on the organisations phone facilities
are being monitored.

6. CONCLUSION
The study shows the use of electronic monitoring having place of importance in the working
strategies put in place to make the educational organisations in an efficient manner. The
employees have good knowledge of the different forms of electronic monitoring and their usage
in the bank. This knowledge hasenabled the employees to be efficient in performance of their
key job functions and reducing possibility of employees running afoul of organisation rules and
regulation. The forms of electronic monitoring used in the organisation have been found to be
effective, well planned and implemented by both the management and the employees. The
employees on the other hand, with the use of electronic monitoring, have noticed increase in
their work performance and the same time not leading to unnecessary work pressure. Given the
inexpensive nature and capability of electronicmonitoring to produce instant feedback and give
objective analysis of employee’s work performance, it becomes essential for organisations;
particularly in organisations where high premium is placed on the use of ICT in their work
activities. Computer technologies can be adapted for the use of electronic monitoring while in
use by employees and at the same time electronic monitoring reduces costs incurred with the
recruitment of more supervisors and human resources personnel. Before installation and usage
of electronic monitoring in any organisation, employees should be made aware of its usage in
the organisation. Awareness of its usage would eliminate any form of unnecessary or negative
effects it would have on the workperformance of the employees. Informing employees of its
usage would enable a positive perception of electronic monitoring and produce positive
reactions of its usage from the employees; it would at the same time make implementation more
successful. Furthermore, it becomes imperative for organisation where electronic monitoring is
used, to combine both traditional forms and electronic forms of monitoring in monitoring
employees. While electronicmonitoring has been found to be effective far more than traditional
forms of monitoring, it hasnot been without its challenges and lapses; ranging from human
factors to structural forms.

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