Privacy Regulation Theory: Redevelopment and application to work privacy

Abstract

An extensive literature consistently identifies a lack of privacy as the key source of dissatisfaction among workers, particularly for those occupying open office structures. However, theoretical perspectives on work privacy vary greatly, and there is little agreement on what work privacy constitutes. As a result, the available evidence lacks comparability and undermines the ability to draw conclusions that could serve as a guide to workplace design and management. This chapter gives an overview on different conceptualisations of work privacy, highlighting inconsistencies, and introduces a new multidimensional conceptualisation and corresponding measure of work privacy fit. To highlight the relevance of the work privacy theory and its applicability to workplace research, the chapter discusses environmental and social predictors of privacy fit and privacy desires as well as health- and work-related consequences of poor privacy fit. Further, the chapter gives an overview on quantitative and qualitative methods to study work privacy, such as the new measure of privacy fit (PAW). Theoretical and methodological limitations are pointed out, and avenues of future research are suggested. The relevance of work privacy theory to practice is discussed.