Understanding the Formation of Information Security Climate Perceptions: A Longitudinal Social Network Analysis

This research employed a longitudinal social network analysis (SNA) method, called stochastic actor-oriented modelling (SAOM), to analyse the interrelationship between the employees' socialisation and information security (InfoSec) climate perceptions which are the employees' perceptions of their colleagues and supervisors' InfoSec practices. Unlike prior studies, we conceptualised socialisation in the form of six networks: the provision of work advice and of organisational updates, the provision of personal advice, interpersonal trust in expertise, the provision of InfoSec advice, and support for InfoSec troubleshooting. The adoption of the SAOM method enabled not only analysis of why an employee chooses to interact with or to send a network tie to another employee, but also how an employee's perception of InfoSec climate is affected by the ties that they possess in the network. This research suggests new directions for InfoSec behavioural research based on the adoption of SNA methods to study InfoSec-related perceptions and behaviours, while findings about the selection and influence mechanisms offer theoretical insights and practical methods to enhance InfoSec in the workplace.