Organizational culture and information privacy assimilation: An empirical study

Data privacy concerns in organizations have been rising over the past several decades. As per the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), organizations need to implement highest possible privacy settings by design and default. This study develops a model for understanding the mechanisms of information privacy assimilation in Information Technology (IT) organizations. This study treats information privacy as a distinct dimension separate from information security. We have examined the mediating role of senior management participation and organizational culture on privacy assimilation (strategy and organizational activities). On the strategy, our findings showed that full mediating role of senior management participation for coercive forces, partial mediation for normative and mimetic forces. On the organizational activities, our findings showed that full mediating role of organizational culture for coercive forces and normative forces, partial mediation for mimetic forces. These findings would enable senior managers to identify and respond to institutional pressures by focusing on appropriate factors within the organization

Antecedents of Information Privacy Assimilation in Indian IT Organizations: An Empirical Investigation

Information privacy at the organizational level is receiving increased attention due to the huge amount of personal information being stored, transmitted across national boundaries, and ownership being shared between organizations due to change in business dynamics. This study develops a framework for understanding the mechanisms of information privacy assimilation in Information Technology (IT) organizations. There is a great need for investigating the interplay between external forces and internal influencers that impact the privacy assimilation practices within an organization. To fill this gap, we empirically examined the interplay between the external forces and internal influencers following the institutional theory. Specifically, we have examined the nature and relative significance of influencing forces, and the mediating role of senior management participation. Also, the moderating effects of process capability and cultural aspects have been investigated. This study treats information privacy as a distinct dimension separate from information security. Our findings show that mediating role of senior management participation for coercive and normative forces. Mimetic forces appears to have direct impact on assimilation. Also, positive moderating effect of process capability and negative moderating effect of cultural aspects is observed for coercive forces. These findings would enable senior managers identify and respond to institutional pressures by focusing on appropriate factors within the organization

Understanding Information Privacy Assimilation in IT Organizations using Multi-site Case Studies

We develop a framework for understanding the mechanisms of information privacy assimilation in information technology (IT) organizations. Following neo-institutional theory, we develop a broad conceptual model and further build a detailed theory based on a multi-site, multi-case study of 18 organizations. We treat information privacy as a distinct dimension separate from information security. As in the case of information security, senior management support emerged as a mediator between the external influences of coercive, mimetic, and normative forces and information privacy assimilation. Privacy capability emerged as a distinct construct that had a moderating effect on the influence of coercive and normative forces on privacy assimilation. Similarly, cultural acceptability also moderated the effect of external forces on privacy assimilation. We produce a theoretical model that future research can empirically test. The findings would enable senior managers identify and respond to institutional pressures by focusing on appropriate factors in the organizations

Combating the spread of fake news on social media through a blockchain-led intervention

Fake news has been around for centuries. However, the advent of social media and mobile connectivity has made it a menace in our times. Often driven by financial or political motives, fake news is hard to contain, and has far reaching implications in various walks of life. The paper likens the online news lifecycle to the product lifecycle comprising development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline stages, and proposes a blockchain-driven intervention to minimize the spread of fake news. This intervention model proposes forming a peer-network of legitimate news portals, to evaluate news articles posted on social media, and add them to a blockchain based on authenticity. This process ensures creation of a blockchain of all authentic news on social media. Social media can then be tasked with adding a stamp denoting the outcome of this blockchain-driven validation, which will benefit readers when accessing news items on social media. The paper also discussed the technical feasibility & operational challenges of such an intervention model

Role of Knowledge Management in Agile Execution during Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic brought an unprecedented time for everyone. IT Industry was not an exception. Some had to cut the workforce whereas some sustained in this pandemic. In this paper, we will try to look at how agile setup has helped the organization to sail through pandemic and how knowledge management becomes important when a resource leaves the project at different stages of the project

Information Privacy Assimilation in Organizations – A Neo Institutional Approach

Information privacy at the organizational level is receiving increased attention due to the huge amount of personal information being stored, transmitted across national boundaries, and ownership being shared between organizations due to change in business dynamics. There has been some recent developments in the field of data privacy with several countries enacting or strengthening data protection laws, influencing the organizational privacy policies. However privacy assimilation is not simple as privacy has multiple aspects. There is a great need for investigating the forces that impact the privacy preserving practices within an organization. To fill this gap, this paper proposes a model based on neo-institutional theory to understand the influencing forces, mediating forces within an organization for information privacy assimilation - impelling the business strategies and activities at the organizational level. This model considers privacy as an independent entity and evaluates the synergy between privacy and security along with key differences

Privacy and Security: An Organization wide DSS Framework

The concept of data privacy (often confused with security), a relatively less focused concept in the IT industry, is being studied in this research. The complexity surrounding data privacy (compared to security), is often over simplified. Combining the literature and inputs from an exploratory study involving senior managers from business critical domains, we present a comprehensive approach towards managing data privacy in an organization. In this privacy framework, a decision support system assists in the development of appropriate actions for information privacy protection. \ \ Privacy is viewed as a key competitive differentiator for organizations in the current and evolving digital markets. The proposed Decision Support System can incorporate suitable algorithms and approaches to facilitate ‘the exploration of different options for enhancing information privacy’ and ‘choose the best option based on the needs of various business scenarios’. With the rapid evolution of technology and regulations, our proposed DSS can help senior managers, mid-level managers and employees cope with privacy and act as an agent to enhance an organization’s privacy practices