Status and privacy restoring communication in the workplace

Abstract

Abstract Privacy in the workplace has become a significant issue. Privacy invasions, which were once accepted as organizationally acceptable, are now being questioned by employees. The current investigation explored effects of type of privacy invasion (physical, social, or informational‐psychological) and status (supervisor, subordinate, or co‐worker) upon privacy restoration strategies exhibited (interaction control, dyadic intimacy, expressions of negative arousal, blocking and avoidance, distancing, and confrontation). Although the effect size for status is small, the results indicate subordinates report using significantly more blocking/avoidance and confrontation in response to all privacy invasions than supervisors or co‐workers. Additionally, less confrontation and expressions of negative arousal were used in response to social invasions as opposed to psychological/informational and physical invasions. Given that physical invasions were operationalized as “movement too close, “ and that physical in...