Individual Decision-Making Styles and Employees' Security Compliance Behaviour
Charlette Donalds, Corlane Barclay, Kweku-Muata Osei-Bryson · 2022
It has been observed by various researchers and practitioners that employees are the weakest link in the chain of system security. Various discretionary extrinsic variables (e.g. General Security Awareness ) and non-discretionary intrinsic variables (e.g. General Security Orientation ) have been identified as being statistically significant predictors of the employee’s cybersecurity compliance behaviour. However, although individual decision-making style ( DMS ) has been identified as being a determinant of behaviour in other areas, apart from the studies of Donalds and Osei-Bryson (2017, 2020) the relationships between individual DMS and cybersecurity compliance behaviour has not been explored in the behavioural cybersecurity research. There are multiple representations of the individual DMS construct. In this chapter, we explore the relationship using different individual DMS constructs that were used in Donalds and Osei-Bryson (2017, 2020). We also allow for the exploration of moderating relationships. Our results again indicate that individual DMS influences cybersecurity compliance behaviour, but that this relationship is complex. These results also have a practical use. For example, for projects which require a high level of security compliance, at the point of assignment of employees to such projects, individual DMS could use to help identify employees who would be a good fit.