Moderating effects of person and job characteristics on digital monitoring outcomes

Many individuals perceive digital monitoring to be an inherently negative practice that invades privacy, but recent research suggests that it has positive effects for workers under certain circumstances. This review expands upon existing digital monitoring frameworks by adopting a psychological perspective to explain individual and contextual variation in monitoring reactions. To do so, we identify person characteristics (e.g. trait reactance, self-efficacy, ethical orientation, goal orientation) and job characteristics (e.g. manual versus nonmanual labor, autonomy, task significance) that moderate workers' reactions and performance outcomes while being digitally monitored. Future research on moderators such as these will remain important as organizations continue to collect big data using digital monitoring.