Social Controls and Bonds of Public Information Consumer on Sustainable Utilization and Provision for Computing

Abstract

In public areas, employees are both consumers and producers in information. For sustainable usage of information, employees should be aware of information systems security (ISS). Information systems security (ISS) is critical in further developing public sector information systems, such as e-government. Most ISS breaches are committed by insiders rather than outsiders. This study investigates the applicability of adult social bond theory, which proposes social controls in the form of social bonds that provide deterrence based on the potential shame an employee would feel from committing an ISS breach. The proposed research model consists of four antecedents for adult social bonds: commitment, attachment, belief and job stability. Individual ISS compliance is set as the dependent variance and deterrence and shame are set as the mediators between social bonds and compliance. Analysis of 672 data points largely supports the research model, proving the applicability to ISS of social bonds and social control. Belief seems to have the strongest effect on individual compliance. Implications are discussed and further studies are proposed.