Case studies

APA FORMAT 

500 – 600 WORDS PER TASK

5 – 6 References per task.

Provide me with separate word documents separately for the 2 tasks.

Mini Case

Innovation at International Foods2

Josh Novak gazed up at the gleaming glass-and-chrome skyscraper as he stepped out of the cab. “Wow!” he thought to himself. “I’ve hit the big time now.” The International Foods Group (IFG) Tower was a Chicago landmark as well as part of the company’s logo, which appeared on the packages of almost every type of food one could imagine— breakfast cereals, soft drinks, frozen pizza, cheese, and snack foods, to name just a few. Walking into the tower’s marble lobby, Josh could see displays of the company’s packaging from its earliest days, when its dairy products were delivered by horse and wagon, right up to the modern global entity it had become.

After signing in with security, Josh was whisked away to the 37th floor by an efficient

attendant who walked him down a long hall of cubicles to a corner office

overlooking Lake Michigan. On the way, Josh passed display photos of the company’s

founder, old Jonas Wilton looking patriarchal, and several of the family scions, who

had grown the company into a major national brand before the IPO in the 1980s had

made IFG a public company. Josh, having “Googled” the company’s history last night in

response to this summons, knew that IFG was now the largest purveyor of food products

the world had ever known. While many decried the globalization of the food business,

IFG kept right on growing, gobbling up dozens of companies each year—some because

IFG wanted to stomp on its competition and others because it wanted their good ideas.

Josh’s own small company, Glow-Foods, a relative newcomer in the business, was

fortunately one of the latter, but Josh was a little puzzled about this command performance.

After all, he himself wasn’t anyone important. The owners of the company

all received multiple millions and were sticking around—as per contract—during the

transition. The next level, including Josh’s boss, had mostly jumped ship as soon as the

“merger” was announced. “This isn’t my thing,” drawled Nate Greenly over beer one

night at the local pub. “Corporate America isn’t going to let us stay as we are, no matter

what they say. Get out while you can,” he advised. But Josh, with a freshly minted

MBA in his pocket, thought differently. And so here he was, walking into the CIO’s

office hundreds of miles away from the cramped loft in Toronto where Glow-Foods was

headquartered.

As the office door swung open, two people dressed in “power suits” turned to

meet him. “Uh oh, I’m not in Kansas anymore,” thought Josh as he mentally reviewed

his outfit of neatly pressed khakis and golf shirt, which was a big step up from his

usual attire of jeans and a T-shirt. A tall man with silver hair stepped forward with his

hand held out. “You must be Josh,” he boomed. “Welcome. I’m John Ahern, and this is

my associate, Tonya James, manager of IT

marketing

. Thanks for coming today. Please,

have a seat.” Josh complied, slinging his backpack over the corner of the leather chair while taking in the rich furnishings of the office and the panoramic view. After a bit of

chitchat about the weather and the prospects of their respective baseball teams, John

pulled out a black leather folder.

“Well, we won’t keep you in suspense anymore, Josh. As you know, when we took

over Glow-Foods we decided to completely align our processes, including IT. It doesn’t

make any economic sense to run separate data centers and applications, so we already

have a team in place to transfer all your hardware and software to our centralized corporate

systems over the next month. We’ll be replacing your Macs with PCs, and everyone

will get training on our ERP system. We’re going to keep a small team to deal with

the specifically Canadian issues, but other than that we see no need for an IT function

in Toronto any more.” Josh nodded glumly, thinking about his friends who would be

losing their jobs and all the fun they’d had during those all-nighters brainstorming new

ways to help Glow-Foods products go “viral.” Nate was right, he thought glumly. They

don’t really get us at all.

“That said,” John continued. “We are very impressed with the work you and your

team have done in using social networking, mashups, and multimedia to support your

marketing strategy. Your ability to reach the under-thirty demographic with technology

is impressive.” He turned to Tonya, who added. “Here at IFG, we have traditionally

marketed our products to women with children. We have a functional Web site—a place

where customers can find out about our products and where to buy them. More recently,

we’ve added their nutritional content, some recipes, and a place where customers can

contact us directly with questions, but it’s really unidirectional and pretty dry.”

Josh nodded in agreement with this assessment. The difference in the two companies’

approaches was night and day. Although not everything they had tried at Glow-

Foods had worked, enough of it had succeeded that demand for the company’s products

had skyrocketed. Young adults and teens had responded en masse to the opportunity

to post pictures of themselves drinking their Green Tea Shakes in unusual places on the

Glow-Foods Web site and to send a coupon for their favorite Glow-Foods product to

a friend. Serialized company mini-dramas popped up on YouTube and viewers were

asked to go online to help shape what happened to the characters—all of them using

Glow-Foods products extensively. Contests, mass collaboration in package design, and

a huge network of young part-time sales reps linked through Facebook all contributed

to making the brand hip and exciting—and drove sales through the roof.

John adjusted his French cuffs. “We want to tap into the youth and young adult

market with IT, and we think you’re the one who can help us do this. We’re going to

give you a team and whatever resources you need right here in Chicago. With our

global reach and much larger budgets, you could do great things for our company.”

John went on to outline a job offer to Josh that sent tingles down his spine. “I really

have hit the big time,” he thought as he signed the documents making him a team manager

at IFG at a salary that was almost double what he was earning now. “I can’t wait

to get started.”

Six weeks later he was being walked down the same hall by Tonya, now his

immediate boss, and into her office, a smaller version of his with a window looking

onto another high-rise. “What’s next?” he asked. “I’ve booked a meeting room for

you to meet your new team at ten-thirty,” Tonya explained. “But before that, I want to

go over a few things with you first. As the manager of IT Marketing, I am personally

thrilled that we’re going to be experimenting with new technologies and, as your coach and mentor at IFG, I’m going to make it my job to see that you have the resources and

support that you need. However, you may find that not everyone else at this company

will be as encouraging. We’re going to have some serious obstacles to overcome, both

within IT and with the larger company. It will be my responsibility to help you deal

with them over the next few months as you put your ideas together. But you need to

know that IFG may have different expectations of you than Glow-Foods. And you may

find you will get a better reception to your ideas if you look a bit more professional.”

Josh winced and nodded. He’d already ramped up the wardrobe for his first day with

a sports jacket, but clearly he needed to do more. “Finally, I’d like you to come up here

every Friday afternoon at four o’clock to go over your progress and your plans. My

schedule is usually fully booked, but if you have any questions you can always send me

an e-mail. I’m pretty good at getting back to people within twenty-four hours. Now let’s

go meet your new team. I think you’ll be happy with them.”

An hour later Josh and his new team were busy taking notes as Tonya outlined

their mandate. “You have a dual role here,” she explained. “First, I want you to work

with Ben here to develop some exciting new ideas for online marketing. We’re looking

for whatever creative ideas you have.” Ben Nokony was the team’s marketing liaison.

Any ideas would be vetted through him, and all proposals to the individual product

teams would be arranged by him. “Second, I need you to keep your eyes open and your

ears to the ground for any innovative technologies you think might work here at IFG.

These are our future, and you’re our vanguard.” Josh glanced around at his team, an

eclectic group. They seemed eager and enthusiastic, and he knew they were talented,

having had a say in choosing them. With the exception of Ben, all were new to IFG,

experienced in using a variety of new media, and under thirty years old. They were

going to do great things together, he could see.

The next couple of weeks were taken up with orientation. Ben introduced each

of the major product divisions to the team, and everybody had come back from each

meeting full of new possibilities. Tonya had also arranged for the team to meet with

the chief technology officer, Rick Visser, who was in charge of architecture, privacy and

security, risk management, and the technology roadmap. Rick had been pleasant but

cool. “Please remember that we have a process for incorporating new technology into

our architecture,” he explained as he handed over a thick manual of procedures. “In a

company our size we can’t operate without formal processes. Anything else would be

chaos.” The team had returned from that meeting full of gloom that their ideas would

all be shot down before they were even tried. Finally, they had met with the IT finance

officer. “I’m your liaison with corporate finance,” Sheema Singh stated. “You need to

work with me to develop your business cases. Nothing gets funded unless it has a business

case and is approved through our office.”

Finally, having dragged some chairs into Josh’s eighteenth-floor and marginally

larger cubicle and desk, the team got down to work. “This is ridiculous,” fumed Mandy

Sawh, shuffling her papers on her lap. “I can’t believe you need to book a conference

room two weeks in advance around here. Who knows when you need to get together?”

“Okay, team, let’s settle down and take a look at what you’ve got,” said Josh. One by

one, they outlined their preliminary ideas—some workable and some not—and together

they identified three strong possibilities for their first initiatives and two new technologies

they wanted to explore. “Great work, team,” said Josh. “We’re on our way.” The problems began to surface slowly. First, it was a polite email from Rick Visser

reminding them that access to instant messaging and Facebook required prior approval

from his group. “They want to know why we need it,” groused Veejay Mitra. “They

don’t seem to understand that this is how people work these days.” Then Ben got a bit

snippy about talking directly to the product teams. “You’re supposed to go through

me,” he told Josh’s team. “I’m the contact person, and I am supposed to be present at all

meetings.” “But these weren’t ‘meetings,’” Candis Chung objected. “We just wanted to

bounce some ideas around with them.” Next, it was a request from Sheema to outline

their proposed work, with costs and benefits, for the next fiscal year—beginning six

months from now. “Can’t we just make up a bunch of numbers?” asked Tom Webster.

“We don’t know how this stuff is going to play out. It could be great and we’ll need lots

of resources to scale up, or it could bomb and we won’t need anything.” Everywhere

the team went, they seemed to run into issues with the larger corporate environment.

Tonya was helpful when Josh complained about it at their Friday afternoon meetings,

smoothing things over with Rick, helping Josh to navigate corporate procedures, and

even dropping by to tell the team they were doing a great job.

Nevertheless, Josh could sense his own and everyone else’s frustration as they prepared

for their first big project review presentation. “They want us to be innovative, but

they keep putting us in a straight-jacket with their ‘procedures’ and their ‘proper way to

go about things,’” he sighed to himself. Thank goodness, the presentation was coming

together nicely. Although it was only to the more junior executives and, of course, John

and Rick, he had high hopes for the vision his team was developing to get IFG out and

interacting with its customers.

“And in conclusion, we believe that we can use technology to help IFG reach its

customers in three new ways,” Josh summarized after all of his team members had

presented their ideas. “First, we want the company to connect directly with customers

about new product development ideas through an interactive Web site with real-time

response from internal staff. Second, we want to reach out to different communities

and gain insights into their needs and interests, which in turn will guide our future

marketing

plans. And third, we want to implement these and other ideas on the ‘cloud,’

which will enable us to scale up or down rapidly as we need to while linking with company

databases. Any questions?”

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then the barrage began. “What’s

the business value of these initiatives?” asked Sheema. “I can’t take them upstairs to

our finance committee meeting without a clear commitment on what the benefits are

going to be.” Ben looked nonplussed. “We don’t really know,” he said. “We’ve never

really done this before, but we like the ideas.” “I’m concerned that we don’t bite off

more than we can chew,” said John thoughtfully. “What if these customers don’t like the

company or its products and say bad things about us? Do we have any procedures for

handling these types of situations?” “There’s definitely a serious risk to our reputation

here,” said Rick, “but I’m more concerned about this ‘cloud’ thing. We haven’t even got

cloud in our architecture yet, and this plan could make company intellectual property

available to everyone in cyberspace!” Sheema spoke again. “I hate to mention this, but

didn’t we do something like this community project about ten years ago? We called it

knowledge

management, and it flopped. No one knew what to do with it or how to

handle the information it generated.” On and on they went, picking holes in every part

of every idea as the team slumped lower in their seats. Finally, Tonya stood up. “I’d like to thank you all for raising some legitimate and

important concerns,” she said. “And I’d like to thank Josh and his team for some fine

work and some excellent ideas. Marketing was looking for creativity, and we have

delivered on that part of our mandate. But now we have a more important job. And that

is innovation. Innovation is about more than good ideas; it’s about delivering the best

ones to the marketplace. We’re in a new world of technology, and IT can’t be the ones

to be saying ‘no’ all the time to the business. Yes, we need to protect ourselves, and we

don’t want to throw money at every half-baked idea, but we’ve got to find a way to be

open to new ideas at the same time. We know there’s value in these new ideas—we saw

it work at Glow-Foods. That’s why Josh is here. He has a proven track record. We just

have to find a way to identify it without taking too much risk.” The room sat in stunned silence as Tonya looked from one to the other. At last,John cleared his throat. “You’re right, Tonya. We want creativity and innovation, and we need a better way to get it than we have now. I think what we need is a process for creativity and innovation that will help us overcome some of the roadblocks we

put in place.” As Josh mentally rolled his eyes at the thought of yet another process,

Tonya replied. “I think you’re partially right, John. Processes do have their place, but

we also need some space to play with new ideas before we cast them in concrete. What

I’d like to do over the next two weeks is speak with Josh and his team and each of

you and then develop a plan as to how we can, as an IT department, better support

innovation at IFG.”

Discussion Questions

1. In discussion with Josh, Tonya foreshadows “some serious obstacles to overcome.”

Describe these obstacles in detail.

2. How can Josh win support for his team’s three-point plan to use technology to help

IFG reach its customers?

Format APA

No.of words per task: 500 – 600

References: 4 – 6

Task 1 – Case study 1 – PFA word doc for full case study content

For this assignment, you are to provide a Critical Analysis of the following article . You should ensure that you are following standard APA formatting. 

Employees’ Adherence to Information Security Policies: An Empirical Study

Task 2 – case study 2 – PFA word doc for full case study content

Read the Innovation at International Foods Case Study on pages 234-238 in the textbook. Answer the Discussion Questions at the end of the Case Study. Your responses must be complete, detailed and in APA format.

1. In discussion with Josh, Tonya foreshadows “some serious obstacles to overcome.”

Describe these obstacles in detail.

2. How can Josh win support for his team’s three-point plan to use technology to help IFG reach its customers?

Employees’ Adherence to Information
Security Policies: An Empirical Study

Mikko Siponen’, Seppo Pahnila\ and Adam Mahmood^
1 Department of Information Processing Science, The University of Oulu,

Finland, {mikko.siponen, seppo.pahnila}@oulu.fi
2 Department of Information and Decision Sciences, University of Texas at

El Paso, mmahmood@utep.edu

Abstract. The key threat to information security is constituted by careless
employees who do not comply with information security policies. To ensure
that employees comply with organizations’ information security procedures, a
number of information security policy compliance measures have been
proposed in the past. Prior research has criticized these measures as lacking
theoretically and empirically grounded principles to ensure that employees
comply with information security policies. To fill this gap in research, this
paper advances a new model that explains employees’ adherence to
information security policies. In this model, we extend the Protection
Motivation Theory (PMT) by integrating the General Deterrence Theory
(GDT) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) with PMT. To test this
model, we collected data (N = 917) from four different companies. The results
show that threat appraisal, self-efficacy and response efficacy have a
significant impact on intention to comply with information security policies.
Sanctions have a significant impact on actual compliance with information
security policies. Intention to comply with information security policies also
has a significant impact on actual compliance with information security
policies.

1 Introduction

Up to 90% of organizations confront at least one information security incident within
any given year [5, p. 684]. To cope with the increase in information security threats,
not only technical solutions, but also information management methods and policies
have been proposed. Employees, however, seldom comply with these information
security procedures and techniques, placing the organizations’ assets and business in
danger [32, p. 125]. To address this concern, several information security compliance
approaches have been proposed. Aytes and Connolly [3], Siponen [29] and
Puhakainen [24] have criticized these extant approaches as lacking not only

Please use the following format when citing this chapter:

Siponen, M., Pahnila, S., and Mahmood, A., 2007, in IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, Volume
232, New Approaches for Security, Privacy and Trust in Complex Environments, eds. Venter, H., Eloff, M., Labuschagne,
L., Eloff, J., von Solms, R., (Boston: Springer), pp. 133-144.

mailto:mmahmood@utep.edu

134 Mikko Siponen, Seppo Pahnila and Adam Mahmood

theoretically grounded methods, but also empirical evidence on their effectiveness.
In fact, only three approaches [4], [34], [35] meet these important criteria. This paper
fills this gap in research by first building a new theoretical model, explaining how
employees’ compliance with information security policies and guidelines can be
improved. In this model, we combine PMT with the modern GDT and TRA. The
model is then validated using an empirical study.

The results of this study are of relevance to researchers and practitioners. Since
the extant studies on information security policy compliance present only anecdotal
information on the factors explaining employees’ adherence to information security
policies with three exceptions mentioned above, it is of utmost importance to study
this issue. This information is also useful for practitioners who want to obtain
empirically proven information on how they can improve their employees’
adherence to information security policies, and hence improve the information
security of their organizations.

The paper is organized as follows. The second section reviews previous works.
The third section proposes the research model and the fourth discusses the research
methodology. The results are presented in the fifth section. The sixth section
discusses the implications of the study.

2 Previous work on information security policy compliance

To understand the fundamental limitations of the extant works on information
security policy compliance, these works have been divided into three categories: (1)
conceptual principles without an underlying theory and empirical evidence; (2)
theoretical models without empirical support; (3) empirical support grounded upon
theories. These categories are discussed next.

Conceptual principles present practical principles and suggestions for
improving employees’ compliance with information security polices. These studies
include generic information security awareness training programs by Sommers and
Robinson [30], McCoy and Fowler [20 p. 347], Thomson and von Solms [36],
McLean [21], Spurling [31, p. 20], and Parker [22, p. 464].

Perry [23, pp. 94-95] offers practical principles for the improvement of
information security behavior: highlighting information security violations, sending
managers to information security seminars, and getting consultants to evaluate the
information security state of the organization. Gaunt [11], Furnell, Sanders and
Warren [10] and Katsikas [16] all propose information security awareness programs
for improving information security behavior in healthcare contexts. Furnell et al. [9]
propose the use of information security training software that helps users to become
aware of potential risks and the corresponding information security countermeasures.
Finally, Wood [39] suggests 53 means for ensuring that employees comply with
information security procedures, such as information security advertisements on
coffee mugs.

While all the above propose interesting principles for increasing information
security awareness, none of them are theoretically grounded or offer empirical
evidence to support their principles in practice.

Employees’ Adherence to Information Security Policies: An Empirical Study 135

Theoretical models without empirical support contain studies that contribute
to the creation of theoretical insights on how employees’ information security policy
compliance can be increased. Aytes and Connolly’s [3] study suggests that the
perceived probability and desirability of the outcomes of the individuals’ choices
explains users’ security behavior. Lee and Lee [17] use the social bonds theory, the
theory of planned behavior, the social learning theory, and GDT to explain computer
crimes, while Siponen [29] suggests the use of the theory of planned behavior, the
theory of intrinsic motivation, and need-based theories to ensure that employees
follow information security policies and guidelines. Thomson and von Solms [37]
suggest the use of social psychology to improve employees’ information security
behavior.

To summarize, while these works contribute to the creation of theoretical insights
on how employees’ information security compliance can be increased, they are
lacking empirical evidence on their practical usefulness.

Empirical works grounded upon theories include Aytes and Connolly [4],
Straub [34], Straub and Welke [35] and Woon et al. [40]. Aytes and Connolly [4] use
the Rational Choice Model to explain why workers violate information security
procedures. Straub [34] and Straub and Welke [35] use the GDT to investigate
whether investment in information security measures reduces computer abuse.
Weekly hours dedicated to information security, dissemination of information
security polices and guidelines, stating penahies for non-compliance, and the use of
information security software were found to be most effective deterrents [34, p. 272-
273]. Finally, Woon et al. [40] found that the perceived severity of the information
security threat, effectiveness of response, perceived capability to use the security
features (self-efficacy) and the cost of using the security features (response cost)
affect home users’ decisions on whether or not to use security features.

To summarize the literature review, while several information security
awareness, education and enforcement approaches exist, only four approaches are
theoretically and empirically grounded. Of these three, Woon et al. [40] study
wireless network users, while Straub [34] and Straub and Welke [35] focus on
classical deterrence theory, and Aytes and Connolly [4] apply the Rational Choice
Model. Thus, excluding Straub [34], Straub and Welke [35], and Aytes and Connolly
[4], the prior approaches do not offer an exploratory model or evidence of what
factors affect employees’ information security policy compliance. This study aims to
fill this gap.

3 The research model

The theoretical model combines PMT, TRA and GDT. PMT is best known for its use
in health science: it has been used to motivate people to avoid unhealthy behavior.
PMT is divided into two components: threat appraisal and coping appraisal. The
former is ftirther divided into threat and coping appraisal, while the latter consists of
self-efficacy, response efficacy and response costs. PMT emphasizes the changes
produced by persuasive communications [27]. Persuasive communications is based
on interacting, aiming to alter the way people think, feel or behave. Thus, the goal of

136 Mikko Siponen, Seppo Pahnila and Adam Mahmood

persuasion is to motivate or to influence an individual’s attitude or behavior in a
predetermined way.

‘Intention to comply with information security policies’ and ‘actual compliance
with information security policies’ are based on TRA [8]. Attitude indicates a
person’s positive or negative feelings toward some stimulus object [2]. According to
Ajzen [2], ‘intentions’ captures the motivational factors that influence a behavior,
and they indicate how hard people are willing to try to perform the behavior in
question. According to TRA, the stronger the intention to engage in a behavior, the
more likely the behavior is to be carried out. According to our model, the stronger
the intention to comply with information security policies is, the more likely it is that
the individual will actually comply with the information security policies.

Threat appraisal consists of two dimensions: perceived vulnerability and
perceived severity. Perceived vulnerability means conditional probability that a
negative event will take place if no measures are taken to encounter it [25]. In the
context of our study, the negative event is any information security threat. Therefore,
in the context of our study, perceived vulnerability refers to employees’ perceived
assessment of whether their organization is vulnerable to information security
threats, which will take place if no measures are taken to counter them.

Perceived severity, on the other hand, refers to the degree of both physical and
psychological harm the threat can cause [25]. In our study, it refers to potential harm
caused by information security breaches in the organization context. Here our
assumption is that if organizations’ employees do not realize that they are really
confronted by information security threats (threat appraisal) and if they do not feel
that these threats can cause consequences with a destructive impact on the
organization (perceived severity), they will not comply with information security
policies.

Therefore, we hypothesize:

HI: Threat appraisal affects employees’ intention to comply with information
security policies.

Coping appraisal is a measure consisting of three dimensions: response
efficacy, self-efficacy, and response cost [26], [27]. Response efficacy relates to the
belief in the perceived benefits of the coping action [26], that is, belief that carrying
out the coping action will remove the threat. In our study, it means that adherence to
information security policies is an effective mechanism for detecting an information
security threat. Self-efficacy emphasizes the individual’s ability or judgment of their
capabilities to perform the coping response actions [6]. Placing self-efficacy theory
in the context of our study, it refers to workers’ beliefs in whether they can apply and
adhere to information security policies; this belief will lead to compliance with these
policies. Maddux and Rogers [19] found in their study that self-efficacy was the
most powerful predictor of intention. In our study, the response costs were not
studied.

Therefore, we hypothesize:

H2: Self-efficacy affects employees’ intention to comply with information security
policies.

Employees’ Adherence to Information Security Policies: An Empirical Study 137

H3: Response efficacy affects employees’ intention to comply with information
security policies.

Sanctions. The concept of deterrence has been a key focus of criminological
theories for more than thirty years. One of the leading theories in the field is GDT,
which was originally developed for controlling criminal behavior [14]. Traditionally,
the classical deterrence theory suggests that certainty, severity, and celerity of
punishment affect people’s decisions on whether to commit a crime or not [14].
Certainty means that an individual believes that his or her criminal behavior will be
detected, while severity means that it will be harshly punished. Celerity signifies that
the sanctions will occur quickly. Straub [34] found that stating penalties for
information security policy non-compliance increases proper information security
behavior. However, studies by Straub [34] and Straub and Welke [35] employ what
Higgins et al. [14] refer to as the classical deterrence theory. Therefore, these
seminal studies by Straub [34], [35] do not address three important components of
contemporary GDT: social disapproval, self-disapproval and impulsivity. Social
disapproval refers to the degree to which family members, friends and co-workers
disapprove of the action. Self-disapproval refers to an individual’s feeling of shame,
guilt, and embarrassment about an action, while impulsivity means low self-control,
that is, the inability of an individual to resist a temptation toward criminal behavior
when an opportunity for it exists. This leads to the following hypothesis:

H4. Sanctions affect employees’ actual compliance with information security
policies.

Intentions indicate people’s willingness to try to perform the behavior in
question [2], adherence to information security policies in this case. Rogers and
Prentice-Dunn [27] suggest that the intentions are the most applicable measure of
protection motivation. Previous research on technology acceptance, for instance,
shows that intentions are good predictors of actual behavior [38], which, in the
context of our study, is adherence to information security policies. Moreover, in our
study, behavioral intention is an indicator of the effects of persuasion related to
information security policies. Thus we can hypothesize:

H5. Employees’ intention to comply with information security policies affects
actual compliance with information security policies.

4 Research methods and results

According to Straub [33] and Boudreau et al. [7], using validated and tested
questions will improve the reliability of constructs and results. Accordingly, we used
items that have been tried and tested by previous studies, when available (Table 1).

138 Mikko Siponen, Seppo Pahnila and Adam Mahmood

Table 1. Constructs and their theoretical background

Construct Theoretical background Adapted from
Intention to comply TRA [1]
Actual compliance TRA [18]
Threat and copying appraisal PMT [27]
Sanctions GDT [14]

All the items are measured using a standard seven-point Likert scale (strongly
disagree – strongly agree). Since the measures presented in Table 1 are not
previously tested in the context of information security policy compliance, the
present research tests these measures in the information security context. Hence, the
questions were pilot tested using 15 people. Based on their feedback, the readability
factor of the questions was improved. The data was collected from four Finnish
companies. A total of 3130 respondents were asked to fill out the web-based
questionnaire. The distribution of the respondents was quite geographically spread
all over Finland. Taking into consideration missing data and invalid responses we
had a total sum of reliable responses of 917, the response rate being 29.3%. 56.1%
were males and 43.9% females.

Reliability and validity. The data analysis was conducted using SPSS 14.0 and
AMOS 6.0 structural equation modeling software (SEM). The mean, standard
deviation and correlations of the constructs are shown in Table 2. The content
validity of the instrument was ensured by the pilot test as discussed above.
Convergent validity was ensured by assessing the factor loadings and by calculating
variance extracted. We conducted a single confirmatory factor analysis for each of
the constructs. As Table 2 shows all the model items loaded well, exceeding 0.50
[12]. Divergent validity was assessed by computing the correlations between
constructs. Correlations between all pairs of constructs were below the threshold
value of 0.90. The variance extracted of all the constructs exceeded 0.5 [13]. Internal
consistency reliability among the items was assessed by calculating Cronbach’s
alpha. As Table 3 shows, Cronbach’s alpha exceeded the suggested value of 0.60 for
all constructs [12]. Hence, the reliability and validity of the constructs in the model
are acceptable.

Table 2. Mean, standard deviation and correlations of the constructs.

Construct Mean Standard 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
deviation

1. Actual compliance 6.16 0.98 1
2. Intention to comply 6.35 0.88 0.848 1
3. Threat appraisal 5.72 0.99 0.374 0.351 1
4. Response efficacy 4.75 1.43 0.203 0.193 0.215 1
5. Self-efficacy 5.89 1.02 0.407 0.402 0.322 0.256 1
6. Sanctions 3.80 1.58 0.217 0.132 0.333 0.156 0.140 1

Employees’ Adherence to Information Security Policies: An Empirical Study 139

Table 3. Convergent validity and internal consistency and reliability.

Construct Items Factor Variance Cronbach’s alpha
loading extracted

Actual compliance Actcompl 0.65 0.81 0.84
Actcomp2 0.88
ActcompS 0.89

Intention to comply Intcompl 0.71 0.80 0.85
Intcomp2 0.86
IntcompS 0.84

Threat appraisal Thrapprl 0.54 0.62 0.76
Thrappr2 0.65
ThrapprS 0.60
Thrappr4 0.61
Thrappr5 0.70
Thrappr6 Dropped

Response efficacy Respeffil 0.73 0.75 0.80
Respeffi2 0.88
Respeffi3 0.66

Self-efficacy Selfeffil Dropped 0.85 0.83
Selfeffi2 0.89
Selfeffi3 0.80

Sanctions Sanctiol 0.91 0.83 0.90
Sanctio2 0.96
Sanctio3 0.89
Sanctio4 Dropped
Sanctio5 0.59
Sanctio6 Dropped

The model was assessed using the maximum likelihood method. The fitness of
the model was tested in structural equation modeling using goodness-of-fit criteria,
which in practice indicate the degree of compatibility between the proposed model
and the observed covariances and correlations.

140 Mikko Siponen, Seppo Pahnila and Adam Mahmood

Table 4. Convergent validity and internal consistency and reliability.

Model Criteria
X̂ 8.361
df 3
p 0.039
CMIN/DF 2,787 2-3
CFI 0.997 >0.9
NFI 0.995 >0.9
RMSEA 0.044 <0.05

The fit indexes (Table 4) chosen for this study are based on the literature, and
represent three different fit characteristics: absolute fit, comparative fit measures and
global fit measures. The chi-square test (x2) with degrees of freedom, p-value and
sample size is commonly used for absolute model fit criteria [15, 28]. Root mean
square error of approximation fit index (RMSEA) is used to assess the error due to
the simplifying of the model. The Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and Normed Fit
Index (NFI) are recommended for model comparison, for comparison between the
hypothesized and independent models [15, 28]. Overall goodness of fit was assessed
with relative chi-square; x2/ciegree of freedom (CMIN/DF). The fit indices indicate
that the research model provides a good fit with the data.

f Inreat \ Q24***
\ ^ appraisal y^^^^^^

^^’^^-v^^^ 0.22

f Response \ ^ ^ ^ ^ / ^ Intention to comply >v
\ ^ ^ efficacy ^ ^ • ^ f with IS security )

0 . 3 1 * * * ^ ^ ^ , . . . – – – ‘ ‘ – ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ^ ^ ^ policies ^ y

f Self-efficacy ^ C ^ 0 98***

\ ^ y ^ 0.71

CActual compliance ^ \ with IS security J
policies >^

/̂ sanctions \ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Fig. 1. The research model.

The research model yielded a x2 value of 8.361 with 3 degrees of freedom, with a
p value of 0.039 (Fig. 1). The findings indicate that the direct path from threat
appraisal (6 = 0.24) to intention to comply with IS security policies is significant.
The correlation (Table 2) between threat appraisal and intention to comply with IS

Employees’ Adherence to Information Security Policies: An Empirical Study 141

security policies was quite high (0.351), explaining alone about 12.3% of the
variance in intention to comply with IS security policies. Response efficacy (B =
0.06) and self-efficacy (13 = 0.31) also have a significant effect on intention to
comply with IS security policies. Sanctions (13 = 0.09) have a significant effect on
actual compliance with IS security policies. Intention to comply with IS security
policies (13 = 0.98) has a significant effect on actual compliance with IS security
policies. In all, the research model accounts for 71% (R2 = 0.71) of the variance in
actual compliance.

5 Conclusive discussion

The literature agrees that the major threat to information security is constituted by
careless employees who do not comply with organizations’ information security
policies and procedures. Hence, employees have not only to be aware of, but also to
comply with organizations’ information security policies and procedures. To address
this important concern, different information security awareness, education and
enforcement approaches have been proposed. Prior research on information security
policy compliance has criticized these extant information security policy compliance
approaches as lacking (1) theoretically and (2) empirically grounded principles to
ensure that employees comply with information security policies. To address these
two problems in the current research, this study first put forward a new model in
order to explain employees’ information security compliance. This model combined
the Protection Motivation Theory, the Theory of Reasoned Action and the General
Deterrence Theory. Second, to validate this model empirically, we collected data (N
= 917) from four companies.

We found that threat appraisal has a significant impact on intention to comply
with information security policies. Hence, it is important that employees are made
aware of the information security threats and their severity and celerity for the
organization. To be more precise, our findings suggest that practitioners should
emphasize to the employees that not only are information security breaches
becoming more and more serious for the business of organizations, but their severity
to the business of the organization is also increasing.

Self-efficacy, referring to employees’ beliefs in whether they can apply and
adhere to information security policies, will lead to compliance with these policies in
the context of our study, and has a significant impact on intention to comply with
information security policies. This finding stresses the perceived relevance of
information security policies. If employees do not perceive information security
policies as relevant and sufficiently up-to-date for their work, they will not adhere to
the policies. Yet it also suggests that it is important to ensure through information
security education or verbal persuasion, for example, that employees really can use
information security measures.

Our results show that response efficacy has a significant effect on intention to
comply with information security policies. In order to minimize IS security breaches,
first it is important that the organization’s IS security personnel is aware of IS

142 Mikko Siponen, Seppo Pahnila and Adam Mahmood

security threats and knows how to react them. Second, IS security policy should be
clear and up-to-date, and third, employees should comply with IS security policies.

Sanctions have a significant impact on actual compliance with information
security policies. This means in practice that practitioners need to state the sanctions
for information security policy non-compliance in a visible manner. In particular, it
is important to get employees to believe that their non-compliance with information
security policies will be detected and severe legal sanctions will take place. The
findings also suggest that the detection must occur quickly. Also, on the basis of our
findings, information security practitioners should realize that social pressure
(sanctions: social disapproval) towards information security policy compliance from
top management, the employee’s immediate supervisor, peers and information
security staff is important for ensuring employees’ information security policy
compliance. This is consistent with the findings that social environment has an effect
on individuals’ behavior [2]. To create and ensure such verbal persuasion, top
management, immediate supervisors and information security staff should clearly
and explicitly explain the importance of complying with information security polices
to their employees. This finding has implications for the information security
education strategy of organizations. In the light of our finding, organizations should
pay special attention to educating top management, supervisors and information
security staff in order that they can spread the word on the importance of adherence
to information security policies, and hence create social pressure towards
information security policy compliance. This is good news for large corporations
who may face difficulties educating all their employees.

Finally, intention to comply with information security policies has a significant
impact on actual compliance with information security policies. Intention is a
motivational factor that influences a behavior by indicating how hard people are
willing to try and how much of an effort they are planning to exert in order to
perform the behavior. The stronger the intention to engage in the behavior, the more
likely it is to be performed [2].

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