CAREER: Organizations, Technology, and Data about Workers

个人电脑、局域网和因特网在工作组织中的广泛使用促进了有关工人信息收集的惊人增长。越来越多的组织使用联网的计算机系统结合专门的硬件和软件来测试、跟踪和监视他们的员工。无线技术甚至有助于收集那些因工作需要离开办公场所的员工的数据。使用技术来收集和处理有关工人的信息引发了许多价值问题。组织的法律和财务需求可能与员工的自主权、尊严、隐私和对组织的信任相冲突。这些相互对立的需求实际上肯定会导致冲突。这些努力的首要目标是记录技术是如何以及将如何用于收集有关工人的数据，并了解这些技术的使用如何塑造工人、管理人员和组织之间的关系。CAREER奖将支持多样化的研究，为本科生和研究生开发课程，并创建公共可用资源，以促进对组织技术问题的检查和认识。研究将侧重于个人的态度、信念和行为。研究将从员工和管理者的角度评估这些变量。从这两个角度来看，研究将检查隐私信念，对个人和绩效信息的控制，对组织的信任，以及这些因素与公平信念的联系。从管理的角度来看，该研究还将在道德决策框架内评估有关工人数据技术的管理行为和决策。研究的第三个要素是对比员工和管理者的信仰体系。这些研究的结果将有助于建立一个关于工人信息的心理框架。最后，一项为期三年的纵向研究将考察员工数据技术在一个组织中的采用和使用，以及它对管理者、员工和组织的影响。除了组织研究的典型调查方法外，拟议的项目将使用定性方法，包括深入访谈和组织技术使用的民族志调查。这个职业奖的教育部分与研究是共生的。关于人的数据的道德管理是心理学研究和实践的基石，但在课程中（尤其是在本科培训中）没有得到重视。由于许多心理学专业的学生毕业后都担任了管理有关人的数据的职位，因此需要进行相关的道德培训。首席研究员同时承担研究生和本科生的教学责任，这为开发和测试与道德处理有关的关于人的数据的教材和方法提供了机会。除了标准的学术渠道外，来自研究的工具、发现和规范以及课程开发的材料将作为基于网络的资源中心的基础。将公布组织评估工具包，以促进对工人数据技术和相关主题的进一步研究。与工作场所的技术和隐私有关的道德问题的练习、案例和其他课程材料也将被公布。

The widespread availability of the personal computer, local area networks, and the Internet in work organizations has fostered extraordinary growth in the collection of information about workers. Increasingly, organizations use networked computer systems in conjunction with specialized hardware and software to test, track, and monitor their employees. Wireless technologies even facilitate data collection on employees whose work takes them physically outside the work premises. Using technology to collect and process information about workers raises numerous value-laden questions. An organization's legal and financial needs may conflict with workers' autonomy, dignity, privacy, and trust in the organization. These opposing needs virtually guarantee conflict. The overarching goal of these efforts is to document how technology is and will be used to collect data about workers and to understand how these uses of technology shape the relationships among workers, managers, and organizations. The CAREER award will support a diverse set of research studies, curriculum development for undergraduate and graduate students, and the creation of publicly available resources to promote examination and awareness of organizational technology issues.The research will focus on individual attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Studies will assess these variables from the perspectives of both employees and managers. From both perspectives, the research will examine privacy beliefs, perceptions of control over personal and performance information, trust in the organization, and linkages of these factors to fairness beliefs. From the managerial perspective, the research will also assess managerial actions and decisions about worker data technology within an ethical decision-making framework. A third element in the research will contrast employee and manager belief systems. Results from these studies will contribute to development of a psychological framework about worker information. Finally, a three-year longitudinal study will examine the adoption and use of worker data technology in one organization, and its effects on managers, employees, and the organization. In addition to the survey methods typical to organizational research, the proposed projects will use qualitative methods including in-depth interviewing and ethnographic investigation of organizational technology use.The educational component of this CAREER award is symbiotic with the research. Ethical management of data about people, a cornerstone of research and practice in psychology, is under-emphasized in the curriculum (especially in undergraduate training). Since many psychology majors graduate into positions with responsibilities for managing data about people, relevant ethical training is needed. The principal investigator has both graduate and undergraduate teaching responsibilities, which provides the opportunity to develop and test teaching material and methods pertaining to the ethical handling of data about people.In addition to standard scholarly outlets, instruments, findings, and norms from the research studies together with materials from the curriculum development will serve as the basis for a web-based resource center. A toolkit of organizational assessments will be publicized to promote further research on worker data technology and related topics. Exercises, cases, and other curricular materials on ethical issues related to technology and privacy in the workplace will also be publicized.