Initially called the Communication Boundary Management by Sandra Petronio (2002), one of its authors, the three-pronged theory of Communication Privacy Management (CPM) “represents a map that presumes private dialectical, that people make choices about revealing or concealing based on criteria and conditions they perceive as salient, and that individuals fundamentally believe they have a right to own and regulate access to their private information” (p. 2). According to footnotes in Petronio’s 2002 book, the name change was devised to emphasize the theory’s focus, as the new name implies, on disclosures of one’s own private information and by extension, the management thereof (p. 2). In addition to the three aforementioned rule management processes, Petronio’s “CPM theory proposes we manage both personal boundaries and collective ones,” (2002, p. 4) by adjusting “levels of access to privacy boundaries” (2002, p. 4). The theory goes on to identify “three kinds of collective coordination patterns: inclusive, … intersected, … and unified” (Petronio 2002, p. 4).
Unlike Uncertainty Reduction Theory which proposes that folks seek information to reduce their uncertainty about others, CPM theory is all about the mental process people use decide to disclose or withhold their own private information when it comes to interpersonal situations and relationships. In Petronio’s words, “CPM theory offers a privacy management system that identifies ways privacy boundaries are coordinated between and among individuals” (2002, p. 3). As a military intelligence professional who has dealt with disclosures and denials of information, the applications and usefulness of this theory seem to be unlimited. Therefore, I propose that the assumptions of CPM theory my just prove valid and valuable within almost any context. In fact, Petronio’s later writings about this theory include provisions for medical and health care information and even personal publications such as blogs.
References
Petronio, S. (Ed.). (1999). Balancing the Secrets of Private Disclosures (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410604606.
Petronio, S. (2002). Boundaries of privacy: Dialectics of disclosure. New York: State University of New York Press.
fabulousbutterfly.com 