Privacy is a growing concern among workers around the world as they recognize and begin to question how their personal information, shared through offline and online processes and technologies, is being used by organizations.
In this paper we explore the role that national culture plays in shaping worker views of work-related data privacy. Applying advanced psychometric techniques to survey responses from 17,453 workers in 24 countries about their willingness to share personal information with their employer, we found significant variation across countries, with Indian employees most willing to share personal information and German employees least willing to share. However, we also found considerable variation in privacy preferences within countries.
In addition to sharing employee perspectives, in this paper we discuss strategies organizations can adopt to demonstrate the value of data sharing to employees, unions, and works councils. When managed appropriately, data sharing can yield mutually beneficial outcomes for employees and organizations that take a pragmatic stance on workplace privacy.
