IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jomstd/v52y2015i3p381-413.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why and How Do Employees Break and Bend Confidential Information Protection Rules?

Author

Listed:
  • David R. Hannah
  • Kirsten Robertson

Abstract

type="main"> Organizations cannot function effectively if their employees do not follow organizational rules and policies. In this paper, we explore why and how employees in two high-tech organizations often broke or bent rules designed to protect their employers' confidential information (CI). The CI protection rules sometimes imposed requirements that disrupted employees' work, forcing employees to choose between CI rule compliance and doing their work effectively and efficiently. Employees in these situations often broke the rules or bent them in ways that enabled employees to meet some of the rules' requirements, while also satisfying other expectations that they faced. We discuss implications of our findings for practice and for future organizational scholarship on rule following.

Suggested Citation

  • David R. Hannah & Kirsten Robertson, 2015. "Why and How Do Employees Break and Bend Confidential Information Protection Rules?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 381-413, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:52:y:2015:i:3:p:381-413
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/joms.12120
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liebeskind, Julia Porter, 1997. "Keeping Organizational Secrets: Protective Institutional Mechanisms and Their Costs," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 6(3), pages 623-663, September.
    2. Jackson, Susan E. & Schuler, Randall S., 1985. "A meta-analysis and conceptual critique of research on role ambiguity and role conflict in work settings," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 16-78, August.
    3. David R. Hannah, 2007. "An Examination of the Factors that Influence Whether Newcomers Protect or Share Secrets of their Former Employers," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 465-487, June.
    4. Dustin J. Bluhm & Wendy Harman & Thomas W. Lee & Terence R. Mitchell, 2011. "Qualitative Research in Management: A Decade of Progress," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(8), pages 1866-1891, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Heidi Olander & Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, 2015. "Proactive Hrm For Reducing Knowledge Risks — Evaluating Commitment And Trustworthiness," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(06), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Hannah, David R. & McCarthy, Ian P. & Kietzmann, Jan, 2015. "We’re leaking, and everything's fine: How and why companies deliberately leak secrets," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 659-667.
    3. Langlois, Jonathan & BenMahmoud-Jouini, Sihem & Servajean-Hilst, Romaric, 2023. "Practicing secrecy in open innovation – The case of a military firm," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    4. Ruthanne Huising & Susan S. Silbey, 2021. "Accountability infrastructures: Pragmatic compliance inside organizations," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(S1), pages 40-62, November.
    5. Anna-Maija Nisula & Heidi Olander & Kaisa Henttonen, 2017. "Entrepreneurial Motivations As Drivers Of Expert Creativity," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(05), pages 1-19, June.
    6. Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, Pia & Yang, Jialei, 2022. "Distinguishing between appropriability and appropriation: A systematic review and a renewed conceptual framing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    7. Kummitha, Rama Krishna Reddy & Crutzen, Nathalie, 2019. "Smart cities and the citizen-driven internet of things: A qualitative inquiry into an emerging smart city," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 44-53.
    8. Sylwia Sobolewska, 2018. "Protection of Marketing Information," Collegium of Economic Analysis Annals, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis, issue 49, pages 113-124.
    9. Kannan Srikanth & Anand Nandkumar & Deepa Mani & Prashant Kale, 2020. "How Firms Build Isolating Mechanisms for Knowledge: A Study in Offshore Research and Development Captives," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 98-116, June.
    10. Robertson, Kirsten M. & Hannah, David R. & Lautsch, Brenda A., 2015. "The secret to protecting trade secrets: How to create positive secrecy climates in organizations," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 669-677.
    11. Fedorenko, Ivan & Berthon, Pierre & Edelman, Linda, 2023. "Top secret: Integrating 20 years of research on secrecy," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    12. Stefan, Ioana & Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, Pia & Vanhaverbeke, Wim & Oikarinen, Eeva-Liisa, 2022. "The dark side of open innovation: Individual affective responses as hidden tolls of the paradox of openness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 360-373.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5246 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Delerue, Hélène & Lejeune, Albert, 2011. "Managerial secrecy and intellectual asset protection in SMEs: The role of institutional environment," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 130-142, June.
    3. Fedorenko, Ivan & Berthon, Pierre & Edelman, Linda, 2023. "Top secret: Integrating 20 years of research on secrecy," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    4. Kannan Srikanth & Anand Nandkumar & Deepa Mani & Prashant Kale, 2020. "How Firms Build Isolating Mechanisms for Knowledge: A Study in Offshore Research and Development Captives," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 98-116, June.
    5. Hannah, David R. & McCarthy, Ian P. & Kietzmann, Jan, 2015. "We’re leaking, and everything's fine: How and why companies deliberately leak secrets," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 659-667.
    6. Mills, Adam J., 2015. "Everyone loves a secret: Why consumers value marketing secrets," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 643-649.
    7. Knechel, W. Robert, 2007. "The business risk audit: Origins, obstacles and opportunities," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 383-408.
    8. Osman M. Karatepe, 2006. "The effects of selected antecedents on the service recovery performance of frontline employees," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 39-57, January.
    9. Shalini Srivastava, 2009. "Locus of Control as a Moderator for Relationship between Organisational Role Stress and Managerial Effectiveness," Vision, , vol. 13(4), pages 49-61, October.
    10. Haeussler, Carolin, 2009. "The Economics of Knowledge Regulation: An Empirical Analysis of Knowledge Flows," Discussion Papers in Business Administration 8971, University of Munich, Munich School of Management.
    11. Miozzo, Marcela & Desyllas, Panos & Lee, Hsing-fen & Miles, Ian, 2016. "Innovation collaboration and appropriability by knowledge-intensive business services firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1337-1351.
    12. Davina Vora & Tatiana Kostova & Kendall Roth, 2007. "Roles of subsidiary managers in multinational corporations: The effect of dual organizational identification," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 595-620, October.
    13. Cantner, Uwe & Joel, Kristin & Schmidt, Tobias, 2011. "The effects of knowledge management on innovative success – An empirical analysis of German firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 1453-1462.
    14. William C. Murray & Mark R. Holmes, 2021. "Impacts of Employee Empowerment and Organizational Commitment on Workforce Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-14, March.
    15. Beard, Fred, 1996. "Integrated marketing communications: New role expectations and performance issues in the client-ad agency relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 207-215, November.
    16. Viator, Ralph E., 2001. "The association of formal and informal public accounting mentoring with role stress and related job outcomes," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 73-93, January.
    17. Mélia Djabi & Serge Perrot, 2014. "Proposition d'une nouvelle grille d'analyse multidimensionnelle des tensions de rôle," Post-Print hal-01631116, HAL.
    18. Jahanmir a,b,c,, Sara F., 2016. "Paradoxes or trade-offs of entrepreneurship: Exploratory insights from the Cambridge eco-system," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 5101-5105.
    19. Laudien, Sven M. & Manuel Guaita Martínez, José & María Martín Martín, José, 2023. "Business models based on sharing fashion and accessories: Qualitative-empirical insights into a new type of sharing economy business models," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    20. Eling, Martin & Jia, Ruo, 2018. "Business failure, efficiency, and volatility: Evidence from the European insurance industry," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 58-76.
    21. Pritchard, Robert D. & Culbertson, Satoris S. & Malm, Kenneth & Agrell, Anders, 2009. "Improving performance in a Swedish police traffic unit: Results of an intervention," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 85-97, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:52:y:2015:i:3:p:381-413. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2380 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.