Employee Perceptions of E-Mail Monitoring from a Boundary Management Perspective

Abstract

This research contributes to the growing body of literature exploring employee perceptions of workplace communication monitoring and surveillance by developing an explanatory model based on predictions derived from communication boundary management theory. Specifically, this study explores the perceptions of workplace e-mail monitoring from a cross-section of 155 workers. The data suggest that when employees feel that there is a large amount of e-mail monitoring and believe that the monitoring is inappropriate, they respond negatively to top management. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords: boundary management, e-mail, monitoring, paranoia, privacy, surveillance