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The widespread use of electronic mail (e‐mail) at work has prompted a growing number of companies to implement e‐mail policies to protect both business interests and the privacy of employees. However, very little is known about the effects of such policies on such outcomes for employees such as perceived invasiveness and fairness. Thus, the paper aims to consider these issues.

This paper uses a 2×2 experimental design and a sample of 592 employed internet users to examine the effects of e‐mail policy characteristics (i.e. policy restrictiveness and policy justification) on perceptions of invasion of privacy (invasiveness) and fairness.

Results indicate that policy restrictiveness has effects on both invasiveness and fairness, and that policy justification has an effect on fairness. In addition, privacy values are related to both invasiveness and fairness, and moderated the effect of policy restrictiveness on fairness.

Implications for practice and the integration of organizational justice and organizational privacy theory are discussed. In terms of practice, for example, the study's results have implications for the formulation and enforcement of policies concerning the use of e‐mail systems.

This paper is the first to consider the effects of e‐mail policies on employee reactions (i.e. fairness and invasiveness).