When Self-Management and Surveillance Collide

Abstract

Despite arguments for the benefits of self-management for enhancing employees’ motivation to work toward organizational goals, many managers fail to give their employees control and instead engage in surveillance to gain compliance. Drawing on personal control and reactance theories, the authors propose self-management would relate to increased discretionary contributions, that is, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), but when supervisory surveillance is also in place, OCB would be diminished and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) would increase. The authors further propose that these effects would be mediated by employees’ perceptions of autonomy and the degree to which they believe the organization trusts them. Two studies establish the beneficial effects of self-management on OCB and illustrate the detrimental effects for employees and organizations when self-management and surveillance collide.