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Shadow AI Use

HR & WorkReliability: alpha 0.853 sample items

About this scale

A multi-item measure of unauthorized or undisclosed use of AI tools at work — using personal AI accounts for work tasks, hiding AI use from managers, or violating organizational AI policy.

Sample item(s)

“I use AI tools at work that have not been approved by my organization”
“I sometimes hide my use of AI from my manager”
“I use my personal AI account for work tasks because the company does not provide one”

Reliability

Reported internal consistency: alpha 0.85. As a rule of thumb, Cronbach’s α ≥ .70 is considered acceptable, ≥ .80 good, and ≥ .90 excellent for established measures.

Notes

Adapted to AI context as Shadow-AI use is a major 2024–2026 governance concern.

Source & citation

Mallmann, G. L., Maçada, A. C. G., & Eckhardt, A. (2018): We are social: A social influence perspective to investigate Shadow IT usage. Proceedings of the 26th European Conference on Information Systems.

Mallmann, Maçada & Eckhardt (2018): Shadow IT use. ECIS 2018.

Source. Scale details are summarised from the publication cited above. Always consult the original source for the full item set, scoring, and permission to use.

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