IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tjisxx/v18y2009i2p126-139.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What levels of moral reasoning and values explain adherence to information security rules? An empirical study

Author

Listed:
  • Liisa Myyry
  • Mikko Siponen
  • Seppo Pahnila
  • Tero Vartiainen
  • Anthony Vance

Abstract

It is widely agreed that employee non-adherence to information security policies poses a major problem for organizations. Previous research has pointed to the potential of theories of moral reasoning to better understand this problem. However, we find no empirical studies that examine the influence of moral reasoning on compliance with information security policies. We address this research gap by proposing a theoretical model that explains non-compliance in terms of moral reasoning and values. The model integrates two well-known psychological theories: the Theory of Cognitive Moral Development by Kohlberg and the Theory of Motivational Types of Values by Schwartz. Our empirical findings largely support the proposed model and suggest implications for practice and research on how to improve information security policy compliance.

Suggested Citation

  • Liisa Myyry & Mikko Siponen & Seppo Pahnila & Tero Vartiainen & Anthony Vance, 2009. "What levels of moral reasoning and values explain adherence to information security rules? An empirical study," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 126-139, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tjisxx:v:18:y:2009:i:2:p:126-139
    DOI: 10.1057/ejis.2009.10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1057/ejis.2009.10
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/ejis.2009.10?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Yuanxiang John & Hoffman, Elizabeth, 2023. "Designing an incentive mechanism for information security policy compliance: An experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 138-159.
    2. Bag, Surajit & Rahman, Muhammad Sabbir & Srivastava, Gautam & Shore, Adam & Ram, Pratibha, 2023. "Examining the role of virtue ethics and big data in enhancing viable, sustainable, and digital supply chain performance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PB).
    3. Ying, Shiyi & Huang, Youlin & Qian, Lixian & Song, Jinzhu, 2023. "Privacy paradox for location tracking in mobile social networking apps: The perspectives of behavioral reasoning and regulatory focus," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tjisxx:v:18:y:2009:i:2:p:126-139. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tjis .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.