This study investigates the motivational effect of relative performance information (RPI) under working environments with or without surveillance, i.e., a behavioral control. We predict that surveillance negatively affects the performance-increasing effect of providing RPI and conduct a laboratory experiment to test this prediction. We manipulate surveillance by having participants work either with or without video surveillance. Consistent with our prediction, we find that the motivational effect of RPI diminishes if surveillance is present. Furthermore, we investigate the underlying mechanisms that drive our results. In particular, we find that surveillance increases perceived behavior control, eliciting individuals to perceive RPI more as a control mechanism. Our findings have important implications for firms using RPI and reveal the need to further investigate the effectiveness of incentive systems under behavior controls.

这项研究调查了在有或没有监视（即行为控制）的工作环境下相对绩效信息（RPI）的激励作用。我们预测监视会对提供RPI的性能提高效果产生负面影响，并进行实验室实验以测试此预测。我们通过让参与者进行视频监控或不进行视频监控来操纵监控。与我们的预测一致，我们发现如果存在监视，则RPI的激励作用会降低。此外，我们研究了驱动结果的潜在机制。特别是，我们发现监视可以增强对行为的控制，从而使个人将RPI视为一种控制机制。