Shaping the attitude towards information security- a social influence approach

Abstract

Employees play a vital role in organizational information security posture. Most security breaches involve human elements such as stolen credentials, phishing scams, misuse, or simple errors from employees. As the threat landscape continues to put pressure on this aspect of organizational information security, there is an increasing need to effectively motivate employees towards desirable security attitudes and outcomes. Social influence has been found to help shape employees’ information security attitudes. However, there is limited understanding of the roles different motivational processes can play in this context – which may have differential effect of employee attitudes towards security. In this study we use Kelman’s social influence theory which proposes that an individual’s attitudes are influenced by referent others through three processes - compliance, identification, and internalization. The study aims to provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners alike.

Department(s)

Information Technology and Cybersecurity

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Keywords

compliance, identification, information security, internalization, Social influence theory

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Journal Title

29th Annual Americas Conference on Information Systems Amcis 2023

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