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Ostermaier, A. (2013). The Business Case for Employee Privacy. Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Employee Privacy on Empowerment, Creativity, and Job Satisfaction. Duncker & Humblot. https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-53826-3
Ostermaier, Andreas. The Business Case for Employee Privacy: Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Employee Privacy on Empowerment, Creativity, and Job Satisfaction. Duncker & Humblot, 2013. Book. https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-53826-3
Ostermaier, A (2013): The Business Case for Employee Privacy: Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Employee Privacy on Empowerment, Creativity, and Job Satisfaction, Duncker & Humblot, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-53826-3

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The Business Case for Employee Privacy

Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Employee Privacy on Empowerment, Creativity, and Job Satisfaction

Ostermaier, Andreas

Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschungsergebnisse, Vol. 140

(2013)

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About The Author

Andreas Ostermaier is a postdoctoral research fellow at Technische Universität München. His research interests include accounting, organizational behavior, and business ethics. He graduated from the Universities of Passau, Strasbourg, and Munich with degrees in International Cultural & Business Studies, International Relations, and Business Research, and earned his doctoral degree in business administration from the University of Munich.

Abstract

Privacy poses a challenge to companies, which strive to strike a balance between economic interests and moral obligations. Employees claim their right to privacy, but economic reasoning seems to warrant restrictions of employee privacy, since less privacy means more control. However, is there really a conflict between privacy and profit?

In his study Andreas Ostermaier investigates effects of employee privacy that are in line with company interests and thus might resolve the conflict between privacy and profit. Specifically, the author investigates how intrinsic motivation, creativity, and job satisfaction are related to privacy. It turns out that employees who can achieve as much privacy as they desire are more motivated and more satisfied with their job.

The study contributes to the ongoing debate about privacy in organizations as well as society at large. It introduces a measure to quantify the manifold aspects of privacy and finds support for positive effects of privacy, but also shows that these effects are not obvious. The study is therefore a first step toward making the business case for employee privacy.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
The Business Case for Employee Privacy 1
The Ethical Challenge of Employee Privacy 1
An Analytical Approach to the Privacy Challenge 2
Making the Business Case for Employee Privacy 4
Conceptualization of Employee Privacy 7
The Relationship between Privacy and Control 7
The Balance between Achieved and Desired Privacy 9
Perceived vs. Objective Privacy 12
Privacy Regulation Behaviors 14
Control over the Environment 14
Control over Communication 15
Control over Personal Information 17
Control over the Work–Life Boundaries 18
Development of a Measure of Employee Privacy 23
The Development of Measures 23
Development of the Initial Items 25
Items for Control over the Environment 25
Items for Control over Communication 26
Items for Control over Personal Information 28
Items for Control over the Work–Life Boundaries 29
Validation of the Measure 31
Final Measure of Employee Privacy 33
The Effects of Privacy on Creativity and Job Satisfaction 37
Privacy and Creativity 37
Creativity as an Objective of Companies 37
The Effect of Privacy on Creativity 38
Privacy and Job Satisfaction 41
Job Satisfaction as an Objective of Companies 41
The Effect of Privacy on Job Satisfaction 42
The Mediating Effects of Empowerment 44
The Concept of Empowerment 44
The Effect of Privacy on Empowerment 45
The Effect of Empowerment on Creativity 47
The Effect of Empowerment on Job Satisfaction 49
The Control Variables and their Effects 51
Choice of the Control Variables 51
Person-Related Effects 52
Job-Related Effects 54
Context-Related Effects 55
Empirical Test of the Effects of Privacy 61
Research Setting, Participants, and Procedures 61
Research Setting 61
Participants 62
Procedures 66
The Measures 68
The Measure of Creativity 68
The Measure of Job Satisfaction 71
The Measure of Empowerment 73
The Measure of Creative Potential 74
The Measure of Motivating Potential 76
The Measure of Climate for Creativity 79
The Measures of the Manifest Variables 80
Statistical Procedures 83
Choice of the PLS Approach 83
Evaluation of Reflective Measurement Models 85
Evaluation of Formative Measurement Models 86
Evaluation of the Path Model 88
Results of the Empirical Analysis 90
Evaluation of the Measurement Models 90
Evaluation of the Structural Model 96
Analysis of Moderating Effects 102
Test for Common Method Variance 109
Discussion of the Results 111
Summary of the Results 111
Limitations and Implications for Research 113
Managerial Implications 116
Appendix: Statistics and Tests 119
Test of psa and csv for Significance 119
The Sobel Test for Mediation 119
Test for Moderation 120
Appendix: Tables 121
Correlations between the Privacy Items 121
Indirect and Total Effects 121
Appendix: German Questionnaire 123
Appendix: English Questionnaire 133
Bibliography 139
Index 161