An Investigation of Attitudes toward Surveillance at Work and Its Correlates

Abstract

A large British sample completed measures of job autonomy and satisfaction as well as work discrimination and attitudes to authority measures along with a new surveillance at work measure. The new 16 item surveillance at work measure factored into two clear factors which reflected positive and negative attitudes to surveillance. Higher scores on Negative Aspects of Surveillance were significantly associated with lower job satisfaction, lower job autonomy, greater perceived discrimination at work, more negative attitudes to authority, and greater left-wing orientation while higher scores on Positive Aspects of Surveillance were significantly associated with greater job satisfaction and more positive attitudes toward authority.

Attitudes toward Surveillance: Personality, Belief and Value Correlates

“…The study showed, similar to Furnham and Swami's (2015) Interestingly, the items which attracted most agreement were 19 (I probably could not tell if I were under surveillance), 7 (Surveillance systems are necessary because they help in the identification and apprehension of criminals) and 1 (Surveillance systems help protect society from terrorists and criminals) while those that attracted most disagreement was 16 (I sometimes feel as though I am constantly being watched or monitored by surveillance), 25 (Surveillance does or would motivate me to be a better citizen) and 18 (Surveillance alienates people because it makes the more likely to self-police each other).…”

“…Similar scale dimensionality on surveillance related topics has been reported by Furnham and Swami (2015). It is quite probable that the factor structure was affected by the positive and negative wording of the items (Schmitt & Stults, 1985).…”

“…Inevitably, work psychologists and sociologist have been particularly interested in surveillance in the workplace (Furnham & Swami, 2015;Higgins & Grant, 1989;Sewell & Barker, 2006;Sewell & Wilkinson, 1992;Townsend, 2005). This can take many forms as the sophistication of technology advances.…”

“…This study looks at people's attitudes to surveillance. There appears to be a Furnham and Swami (2015) which was used in a recent study to test the hypotheses that attitudes towards surveillance moderate the relationship between the perceived level of surveillance and counterproductive work behaviour (Martin, Wellen, & Grimmer, 2016).…”

The new technologies in personality assessment: A review.

“…Many employees may not read or fully understand these documents and click to accept without comprehending their implications. Few people have considered the ethics of these techniques and employee attitudes to surveillance (Furnham & Swami, 2015).…”