To Reveal or Conceal: Using Communication Privacy Management Theory to Understand Disclosures in the Workplace

Abstract

A sample of 103 full-time employees from various organizations and industries completed an online, open-ended survey to explore and understand the decisions people make to manage their private disclosures at work. Communication privacy management theory was used to understand the management of private information. Results indicate that core and catalyst criteria motivate people to reveal/conceal at work, such as boundary maintenance based on organizational culture, relational considerations, a desire for feedback, and risk/benefit considerations. People also used implicit/explicit rules, reiteration of privacy rules, and retaliation to limit and respond to turbulence. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research.

Keywords

disclosure organizations communication privacy management employee communication

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allen

M. W.

Coopman

S. J.

Hart

J. L.

Walker

K. L.

(2007). Workplace surveillance and managing privacy boundaries. Management Communication Quarterly, 21, 172-200. doi:10.1177/0893318907306033

Altman

Taylor

(1973). Social penetration: The development of interpersonal relationships. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Boren

J. P.

Veksler

A. E.

(2015). Communicatively restricted organizational stress (CROS) I: Conceptualization and overview. Management Communication Quarterly, 29, 28-55. doi:10.1177/0893318914558744

Buhrmester

Kwang

Gosling

(2011). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk: A new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality data? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 3-5. doi:10.1177/1745691610393980

Chang

S. E.

Liu

A. Y.

Lin

(2015). Exploring privacy and trust for employee monitoring. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 115, 88-106. doi:10.1108/IMDS-07-2014-0197

Child

J. T.

Haridakis

P. M.

Petronio

(2012). Blogging privacy rule orientations, privacy management, and content deletion practices: The variability of online privacy management activity at different stages of social media use. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 1859-1872. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.05.004

Child

J. T.

Petronio

Agyeman-Budu

E. A.

Westermann

D. A.

(2011). Blog scrubbing: Exploring triggers that change privacy rules. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 2017-2027. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.05.009

Child

J. T.

Starcher

S. C.

(2016). Fuzzy Facebook privacy boundaries: Exploring mediated lurking, vague-bookings, and Facebook privacy management. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 483-490. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.035

Child

J. T.

Westermann

D. A.

(2013). Let’s be Facebook friends: Exploring parental Facebook friend requests from a communication privacy management (CPM) perspective. Journal of Family Communication, 13, 46-59. doi:10.1080/15267431.2012.742089

10.

Compton

C. A.

(2016). Managing mixed messages: Sexual identity management in the changing U.S. workplace. Management Communication Quarterly, 30, 415 - 440. doi:10.1177/0893318916641215

11.

Cozby

P. C.

(1973). Self-disclosure: A literature review. Psychological Bulletin, 79, 73-91. doi:10.1037/h0033950

12.

Croteau

Anderson

VanderWal

(2008). Models of workplace sexual identity disclosure and management: Reviewing and extending concepts. Group & Organizational Management, 33, 532-565. doi:10.1177/1059601108321828

13.

Derlega

V. J.

Metts

Petronio

Margulis

S. T.

(1993). Self-disclosure. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.

14.

Durham

Braithwaite

D. O.

(2009). Communication privacy management within the family planning trajectories of voluntarily child-free couples. Journal of Family Communication, 9, 43-65. doi:10.1080/15267430802561600

15.

Frampton

B. D.

Child

J. T.

(2013). Friend or not to friend: Coworker Facebook friend requests as an application of communication privacy management theory. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 2257-2264. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.05.006

16.

Gordon

M. E.

(2011). The dialectics of an exit interview: A fresh look at conversations about organizational disengagement. Management Communication Quarterly, 25, 59-86. doi:10.1177/0893318910376914

17.

Gottleib

(1981). Preventive interventions involving social networks and social support. In Gottleib

(Ed.), Social networks and social support (pp. 201-232). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.

18.

Greene

Derlega

V. J.

Mathews

(2006). Self-disclosure in personal relationships. In Vangelisti

Perlman

(Eds.), Cambridge handbook of personal relationships (pp. 409 427). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

19.

Hesse

Rauscher

E. A.

(2013). Privacy tendencies and revealing/concealing: The moderating role of emotional competence. Communication Quarterly, 61, 91-112. doi:10.1080/01463373.2012.720344

20.

Holmes

Marra

(2004). Relational practice in the workplace: Women’s talk or gendered discourse? Language in Society, 33, 377-398. doi:10.1017/S0047404504043039

21.

Irvine

(2011). Sometime to declare? The disclosure of common mental health problems at work. Disability & Society, 26, 179-192. doi:10.1080/09687599.2011.544058

22.

Jablin

(1985). Task/work relationships. In Miller

Knapp

(Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communication (pp. 615-654). Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE.

23.

Joinson

(1999). Social desirability, anonymity, and Internet-based questionnaires. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 31, 433-438. doi:10.3758/BF03200723

24.

Jourard

S. M.

(1971). Self-disclosure: An experimental analysis of the transparent self. New York, NY: John Wiley.

25.

Krippendorff

(2012). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

26.

Lincoln

Guba

(1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE.

27.

Lindlof

Taylor

(2010). Qualitative communication research methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

28.

Magsaman-Conrad

Checton

Venetis

M. K.

(2013). Privacy and disclosure at work: The implications of self-concealment and anonymity. In Proceedings of the 2nd Annual International Conference on Journals and Mass Communications (pp. 118-126). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5176/2301-3710_JMComm13.51

29.

Morr Serewicz

M. C.

Dickson

F. C.

Morrison

J. H.

Poole

L. L

. (2007). Family privacy orientation, relational maintenance, and family satisfaction in young adults’ family relationships. Journal of Family Communication, 7, 123-142. doi:10.1080/15267430701221578

30.

Morrison

E. W.

Milliken

F. J.

(2000). Organizational silence: A barrier to change and development in a pluralistic world. Academy of Management Review, 25, 706-725. doi:10.5465/AMR.2000.3707697

31.

Owen

(1984). Interpretive themes in relational communication. The Quarterly Journal of Speech, 67, 274-286. doi:10.1080/00335638409383697

32.

Petronio

(1991). Communication boundary management: A theoretical model of managing information between marital couples. Communication Theory, 1, 311-335. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.1991.tb00023.x

33.

Petronio

(2002). Boundaries of privacy: Dialectics of disclosure. Albany: State University of New York Press.

34.

Petronio

(2013). Brief status report on communication privacy management theory. Journal of Family Communication, 13, 6-14. doi:10.1080/15267431.2013.743426

35.

Petronio

Durham

W. T.

(2015). Communication privacy management theory: Significance for interpersonal communication. In Braithwaite

D. O.

Schrodt

(Eds.), Engaging theories in interpersonal communication: Multiple perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 335-347). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

36.

Ragins

(2004). Sexual orientation in the workplace: The unique work and career experiences of gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 23, 35-120. doi:10.1016/S0742-7301(04)23002-X

37.

Ray

Miller

(1994). Social support, home/work stress, and burnout: Who can help? Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 30, 357-373. doi:10.1177/0021886394303007

38.

Riffe

Lacy

Fico

F. G.

(2005). Analyzing media messages: Using quantitative content analysis in research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

39.

Schein

E. H.

(2010). Organizational culture and leadership (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

40.

Scott

C. R.

Rains

S. A.

(2005). Anonymous communication in organizations: Assessing use and appropriateness. Management Communication Quarterly, 19, 157-197. doi:10.1177/0893318905279191

41.

Sias

Krone

Jablin

(2002). An ecological systems perspective on workplace relationships. In Knapp

Daly

(Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communication (pp. 615-642). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

42.

Smith

S. A.

Brunner

S. R.

(2015). The great whoosh: Connecting an online personal health narrative and communication privacy management. Health Communication, 31, 12-21. doi:10.1080/10410236.2014.930551

43.

Snyder

J. L.

(2010). E-mail privacy in the workplace. Journal of Business Communication, 47, 266-294. doi:10.1177/0021943610369783

44.

Snyder

J. L.

Cornetto

(2009). Employee perceptions of e-mail monitoring from a boundary management perspective. Communication Studies, 60, 476-492. doi:10.1080/10510970903260327

45.

Steuber

K. R.

McLaren

R. M.

(2015). Privacy recalibration in personal relationships: Rule usage before and after an incident of privacy turbulence. Communication Quarterly, 63, 345-364. doi:10.1080/01463373.2015.1039717

46.

Strauss

Corbin

(1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

47.

Tardy

Dindia

(2006). Self-disclosure: Strategic revelation of personal information in personal and professional relationships. In Hargie

(Ed.), A handbook of communication skills (3rd ed., pp. 229-266). London, England: Routledge.

48.

Venetis

Greene

Magsamen-Conrad

Banerjee

Checton

Bagdasarov

(2012). “You can’t tell anyone but.”: Exploring the use of privacy rules and revealing behaviors. Communication Monographs, 79, 344-365. doi:10.1080/03637751.2012.697628

49.

Von Schrader

Malzer

Bruyére

. (2013). Perspectives on disability disclosure: The importance of employer practices and workplace climate. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 26, 237-255. doi:10.1007/s10672-013-9227-9

50.

Wimmer

R. D.

Dominick

J. R.

(2003). Mass media research: An introduction (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

51.

Wolfe

A. W.

Blithe

S. J.

(2015). Managing image in a core-stigmatized organization: Concealment and revelation in Nevada’s legal brothels. Management Communication Quarterly, 29, 539-563. doi:10.1177/0893318915596204