The impact of psychosocial working conditions on information security behaviour in the nuclear industry

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relations among job resources, value conflicts, information security climate and information security behaviour in the nuclear industry.

Design/methodology/approach

Longitudinal questionnaire data on information security climate and psychosocial working conditions were collected from two organisations in Sweden (response rate 62% and 59%, respectively).

Findings

A high occurrence of value conflicts decreased the participative information security behaviour, while psychosocial job resources and high job demands had positive effects on such behaviour. High rule-compliant information security behaviour led to fewer perceived value conflicts. When job resources were high, high job demands had a positive effect on rule compliance. Information security climate had a strong and positive cross-sectional relationship with information security behaviour but no longitudinal influence on behaviour. This suggests that the time interval, one year between measurements, may have been too long and events between measurements may have masked the causal process.

Originality/value

As one of very few longitudinal studies of information security, this study illuminated causal relationships regarding information security behaviour that have not been possible to identify in previous cross-sectional research. This enables better understanding of psychosocial phenomena and processes of importance for information security. This study does not provide conclusive results but indicates new important directions for research.

Citation

Gyllensten, K., Törner, M. and Pousette, A. (2023), "The impact of psychosocial working conditions on information security behaviour in the nuclear industry", Information and Computer Security, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 32-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICS-05-2022-0089