IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Winter 2014 - 66

at a typical daylight moment, and
the percentage of drivers text-messaging or visibly using handheld
devices increased significantly from
0.9% in 2010 to 1.3% in 2011 [16].
Due to the increasingly higher
number of drivers using cell
phones, road safety has become
a vital concern. Research in this
area is scattered across diverse
fields of technology, medicine,
psychology, and public policy.
Although the existing literature
mostly examines the risks to individuals, there is another dimension
of social implications that has not
yet been addressed systematically,
namely, what are the risk issues for
organizations?
It is currently common for many
employers to give cell phones as
business tools to their workers.
Although there is a substantial
amount of research on the effects
of cell phone use while driving,
little research has been generated in
order to examine the implications

Literature Review
The first study of mobile-phone use
and driver behavior appeared as early
as the 1960s [2]. Over the years,
there have been numerous studies
on cell phone and road safety. These
studies can be divided into three
types: experimental, epidemiological, and observational [15].

Experimental Studies
Experimental studies use driving
simulators, or controlled courses,
to ascertain driving performance
while the subject uses a cell phone.
Generally, the advantage of driving
simulators is that the researcher can
place strict controls on the driving
environment, while also accurately
measuring driving performance.
However, the disadvantage is that
the subject may react differently in
experimental settings than in a real
world setting.
One common question that is considered is how conversations on cell
phones may differ from conversa-

Even if an employee follows
the law, there is no guaranteed
immunity from liability in the
case of an accident.
in an organizational context and
apply the findings to managing the
potential risks. As the use of mobile
phones becomes more widespread,
not just among the population in
general, but also in the workplace,
it is important for organizations
- for-profit, non-profit, and educational - to be cognizant of relevant
research literature and issues. It is
also important for organizations to
make informed decisions regarding
mobile-technology use of workers.
As such, this article reviews the
research in this area, examines an
organization's exposure, and suggests risk treatments for organizations that have administrative and
oversight responsibilities over these
mobile devices.
66

tions held between in-vehicle passengers. Studies show that conversations
on cell phones affect driving performance more than conversations
between in-vehicle passengers [5],
and the number of driving errors was
the highest when conversing on cell
phones. During conversations with
in-vehicle passengers, there were a
greater amount of references made
to traffic, and this shared situational
awareness may have contributed to
the lower number of driving errors in
that setting [5].
More recent studies have investigated other factors such as the
types of conversations and also
technology. For example, more
emotional conversations on the cell
phone while driving would produce

more dangerous driving behaviors
[6]. Three levels of call conditions
were administered: emotional call
(produced by calling the subject
and arguing the opposite position of a deeply-held belief of the
subject), mundane call, and no
call. Subjects with emotional calls
exhibited more dangerous driving
behaviors in four of the five driving variables: number of speeding
occurrences, percentage driving
time spent speeding, number of
center-line crossings, and number
of collisions [6]. In terms of technology, using speech-to-text technology was the most cognitively
distracting when compared to other
in-vehicle activities such as listening to the radio [29].
In general, experimental studies
have shown degradations in driving performance when using cell
phones. This is consistent with the
assessment that "most variables
related to driving were affected
by cell phone use: reaction time;
visual perception and discrimination; gaze orientation; glances away
from the road scene" [3, p. 597].

Epidemiological Studies
Epidemiological studies are akin
to survey research that examines
data-collected ex post. The advantage of this type of study is that the
data reflect subjects who are undergoing real-life situations. Furthermore, the data on the dependent
variables of interest (e.g., crash
rates) can be collected and analyzed. The drawback is that it is
difficult to impose control in epidemiological studies. In addition,
statistical association does not
simply establish a causal relationship as other confounding factors
may have contributed to the effect.
An often-cited 1997 study
showed a quadrupling risk of collisions associated with cell phone
use while driving [23] and has led
to the emergence of other epidemiological studies [3]. This increase
in crash risk has also been observed
by another case-crossover study

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Winter 2014