Development of It Suspicion as a Construct and Subsequent Measure

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 where suspicion study is lacking, and this research effort was a study into 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 populous and subject matter experts were used to create an IT suspicion conceptual definition and measure. In order to test IT suspicion's relationships with other more established constructs a survey was created. The final pilot study consisted of two measures from suspicions nomological net, locus of control and disposition to trust, a trait IT suspicion measure, a manipulation exercise on a laptop computer intended to induce suspicion, and finally a state suspicion measure. Analysis indicated IT suspicion is a multi-dimensional construct, with independent state and trait properties. It also has separate dimensions within the state and trait components. Comparisons between the components of the IT suspicion construct and related measures indicated a negative correlation between state suspicion and locus of control.