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

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  • 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
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/joms.12120
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    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.
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    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.
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    2. 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).
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    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
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    9. 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.
    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.

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