The impact of IT security psychological climate on salient user beliefs toward IT security: An empirical study.

摘要

There is a growing need to better understand what influences user behavior for developing comprehensive IT security systems. This study integrates two prominent bodies of research, the theory of planned behavior used to frame the factors influencing user behavior and individual level climate perceptions used to frame organizational environment influences, to develop a multidimensional IT security user behavior model. The model is then used as the basis for a survey based research to empirically test the hypotheses whether the perceived IT security climate of an organization significantly influences the users' beliefs regarding the use of IT security. The intent of the study is to extend the theory of planned behavior and IT security literature by investigating salient IT security beliefs and environmental influences on those beliefs.;First, anti-spyware was identified as an appropriate target IT security artifact, and then incorporated into a multi-phased research approach. Second, a semi-structured interview process was used to elicit salient beliefs regarding use of the IT security artifact. Third, IT security psychological climate was conceptualized based on the extant literature on organizational climate, safety climate and IT security in order to examine the organizational environment influences on these beliefs. Finally, a survey was used to collect data to validate the constructs and test the hypothesized relationships.;The study found that there was a significant positive relationship between IT security psychological climate and (1) the belief that anti-spyware will protect organizational interests such as privacy and data, (2) the belief that anti-spyware will prevent disruptions to work, (3) the belief that the approval of anti-spyware use by the technical support group is important, (4) the belief that monetary resources are needed to enable the use of anti-spyware, and (5) the belief that time is a facilitating condition for the use of anti-spyware. A discussion of the findings and their implications for theory and practice is provided.