Electronic performance monitoring (EPM) is pervasive in contemporary workplaces, yet its effectiveness in employee performance and behavior remains ambiguous. In addition, there has been insufficient investigation into how individual personalities influence employees’ interactions with EPM. Drawing on psychological reactance theory and incorporating EPM with the Machiavellianism literature, we investigate the relationship between Machiavellianism and EPM awareness, as well as the curvilinear impacts of EPM awareness on employees’ task performance and unethical behavior. Using data collected from 222 employees in a property management company, we find that employees with high Machiavellian traits exhibit greater EPM awareness. Employees enhance (diminish) their efforts on freedom restoration, leading to reduced (improved) performance and increased (reduced) unethical behavior when their EPM awareness increases from low (moderate) to moderate (high) levels. These results help reconcile the mixed findings on EPM and provide meaningful implications for organizations adopting EPM as a human resource management procedure.
