Effects of Personal Factors and Organizational Reinforcing Tools in Decreasing Employee Engagement in Unhygienic Cyber Practices

Abstract

Employee engagement in unhygienic cyber practices (UCP) is a concern for organizations across the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of personal and environmental factors in decreasing workers’ engagement in UCP in a developing country: A personal-environment-behavior model was adapted for the study. Data was collected from working MBA students in Ethiopia. The key results show that the personal factor of self-regulation related to acceptable cyber practices decreases workers’ engagement in UCP, while self-efficacy did not. The environmental factor of computer monitoring (CM) decrease workers’ engagement in UCP, while the availability of security education and training awareness (SETA) programs did not. Both CM and SETA have positive effects in improving self-efficacy. Only SETA programs positively impact self-regulation. This study adds to the understanding of end-user security behavior by focusing on UCP with insights from a developing country.