The Development of IT Suspicion as a Construct and Subsequent Measure

Abstract : Suspicion has not been studied in great depth; however, a conceptual understanding of suspicion is no less important than many of the other highly studied constructs related to healthy working relationships. Information technology (IT) is one area in which the study of suspicion is lacking. This thesis focuses on the specific domain of IT suspicion. An extensive study of the suspicion literature and the suspicion nomological net as well as informal surveys of the general population and subject matter experts were used to create an IT suspicion conceptual definition. A survey also was created to test IT suspicion's relationships with other more established constructs. The final pilot study consisted of two measures from the suspicion nomological net (i.e., locus of control and disposition to trust), a trait IT suspicion measure, a manipulation exercise on a laptop computer intended to induce suspicion, and a state suspicion measure. The analysis indicates that IT suspicion is a multi-dimensional construct with independent state and trait properties. The state and trait properties also have separate dimensions. Comparisons between the components of the IT suspicion construct and related measures indicate a negative correlation between state suspicion and locus of control.