Understanding Employee Responses to Stressful Information Security Requirements: A Coping Perspective

Author List: D'Arcy, John; Herath, Tejaswini C.; Shoss, Mindy K.;

Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014, Volume 31, Issue 2, Page 285-318.

We use coping theory to explore an underlying relationship between employee stress caused by burdensome, complex, and ambiguous information security requirements (termed “security-related stress” or SRS) and deliberate information security policy (ISP) violations. Results from a survey of 539 employee users suggest that SRS engenders an emotion-focused coping response in the form of moral disengagement from ISP violations, which in turn increases one’s susceptibility to this behavior. Our multidimensional view of SRS—comprised of security-related overload, complexity, and uncertainty—offers a new perspective on the workplace environment factors that foster noncompliant user behavior and inspire cognitive rationalizations of such behavior. The study extends technostress research to the information systems security domain and provides a theoretical framework for the influence of SRS on user behavior. For practitioners, the results highlight the incidence of SRS in organizations and suggest potential mechanisms to counter the stressful effects of information security requirements.

Keywords: coping theory;ethical orientation;information security;moral disengagement theory;sanctions;security compliance;security policies;security policy violation;social cognitive theory;technostress;workplace stress

Algorithm:

List of Topics

#186	0.292	security information compliance policy organizations breach disclosure policies deterrence breaches incidents results study abuse managed isp violations based comply protection
#116	0.259	research study influence effects literature theoretical use understanding theory using impact behavior insights examine influences mechanisms specifically context perspective findings
#73	0.109	security threat information users detection coping configuration avoidance response firm malicious attack intrusion appraisal countermeasures benefit costs threats ability rate
#284	0.081	users user new resistance likely benefits potential perspective status actual behavior recognition propose user's social associated existing base using acceptance
#298	0.071	job employees satisfaction work role turnover employee organizations organizational information ambiguity characteristics personnel stress professionals conflict organization intention variables systems