Employee acceptability of wearable mental workload monitoring : exploring effects of framing the goal and context in corporate communication

Development of wearable mental workload (MWL) measures thrives, especially as leveraged by Industry 4.0. When employees object to wearing such gauges; however, research efforts might end up redundant. Based on self-determination and communication theories, this study assumed that employees’ acceptability of wearable MWL-monitoring is shaped by framing characteristics in corporate communication. Specifically, we hypothesized that acceptability depends on how (1) the technology’s goals and (2) context of implementation is framed. A pilot study (N = 150) revealed that framing wearable MWL-monitoring in terms of serving intrinsic goals (e.g., improving health) in an autonomy-supportive context (e.g., allowing discussion) induced a higher employee acceptability, compared to framing the technology in terms of serving extrinsic goals (e.g., increasing productivity) in a controlling context (e.g., mandating use). A subsequent pre-registered study (N = 350) could, however, not replicate this result. Instead, higher acceptability was associated with higher technology readiness, lower education levels, and being a woman (for the trust component of acceptability). Independent of conditions, mean acceptability, interestingly, panned out neutral. The current work is thereby the first exploring the complexities of employee acceptability of wearable MWL-monitoring and, based on open-ended questions, finally suggests that privacy management might be the most pivotal explanatory variable.

Publication year:2021

Accessibility:Open