ABSTRACT
Protecting data and privacy is among the most critical aspects of today’s data-driven workplaces. Many organizations are challenged to gain the trust and confidence of their employees and workers. This paper is aimed at determining how employers protect data and privacy. Specifically, the article presents the employee’s trust level in relation to how organizations safeguard data and privacy in the workplace. It also shows the relationships between the trust level and the respondents’ socio-demographics, employment, and technological profile. A total of 4,843 individuals from 36 countries were analyzed. An online survey was conducted utilizing the Marcial-Launer Digital Trust in the Workplace Questionnaire. Results show that the overall mean of the trust level as perceived by the respondents is moderate ( https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> x ̅ https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003368700/7d909da4-8377-42e2-88f3-62b63c6b03c8/content/inline-equ9.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> = 3.01). Also, the continent, country’s innovation index, income level, internet satisfaction, job position, company form, and company size were significant predictors of trust level regarding data protection and privacy practices in the workplace. It is concluded that employees are moderately confident – the degree affected by many variables – that their workplace protects their data and privacy. There is a need for all organizations to improve their data archiving practices to increase the trust of their employees.
