The effect of process monitoring on beyond-the-job process improvements

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Schedlinsky, Ivo; Schmidt, Maximilian; Sommer, Friedrich; Woehrmann, Arnt
• 署名单位: University of Munich; University of Bayreuth
• 刊物名称: CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0823-9150
• DOI: 10.1111/1911-3846.13020
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 866-889
• 关键词: IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT; INNOVATION; performance; INFORMATION; QUALITY; VALUES

摘要

Although it has always been important for firms that employees innovate predefined processes, the working environment in which employees implement these processes has significantly changed. Currently, the working environment is often characterized by employee surveillance; that is, the way in which employees conduct a process is monitored. In the current study, we present the results of an experiment examining the effect of process monitoring on process improvements by employees. Although previous accounting literature has reported negative effects of monitoring techniques on several organizational outcomes, we show that process monitoring can have a positive effect on employees' implementation of process improvements in the absence, but not in the presence, of a firm's error avoidance policy. Without an error avoidance policy, employees are motivated to create a favorable impression in front of management by implementing process improvements. This finding has important implications for business practice. From a broader perspective, we show that the influence of action controls depends on the parameters of a cultural control.