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Why and How Do Employees Break and Bend Confidential Information Protection Rules?

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  • David R. Hannah
  • Kirsten Robertson

Abstract

type="main"> Organizations cannot function effectively if their employees do not follow organizational rules and policies. In this paper, we explore why and how employees in two high-tech organizations often broke or bent rules designed to protect their employers' confidential information (CI). The CI protection rules sometimes imposed requirements that disrupted employees' work, forcing employees to choose between CI rule compliance and doing their work effectively and efficiently. Employees in these situations often broke the rules or bent them in ways that enabled employees to meet some of the rules' requirements, while also satisfying other expectations that they faced. We discuss implications of our findings for practice and for future organizational scholarship on rule following.

Suggested Citation

  • David R. Hannah & Kirsten Robertson, 2015. "Why and How Do Employees Break and Bend Confidential Information Protection Rules?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 381-413, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:52:y:2015:i:3:p:381-413
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/joms.12120
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Liebeskind, Julia Porter, 1997. "Keeping Organizational Secrets: Protective Institutional Mechanisms and Their Costs," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 6(3), pages 623-663, September.
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    6. Moazzam Ali & Muhammad Usman & Muhammad Aamir Shafique Khan & Imran Shafique & Farooq Mughal, 2024. "“Articulating Cognizance About What to Hide What not": Insights into Why and When Ethical Leadership Regulates Employee Knowledge-Hiding Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(4), pages 885-895, April.
    7. Heidi Olander & Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, 2015. "Proactive Hrm For Reducing Knowledge Risks — Evaluating Commitment And Trustworthiness," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(06), pages 1-20, December.
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    10. Sylwia Sobolewska, 2018. "Protection of Marketing Information," Collegium of Economic Analysis Annals, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis, issue 49, pages 113-124.
    11. Robertson, Kirsten M. & Hannah, David R. & Lautsch, Brenda A., 2015. "The secret to protecting trade secrets: How to create positive secrecy climates in organizations," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 669-677.
    12. Fedorenko, Ivan & Berthon, Pierre & Edelman, Linda, 2023. "Top secret: Integrating 20 years of research on secrecy," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
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