Occupational Cultures of Information Systems Personnel and Managerial Personnel: Potential Conflicts

Management scholars have articulated the importance of occupational cultures in understanding employee behaviors in organizations. In keeping with this theme, Information Systems (IS) scholars have begun examining the occupational culture of IS personnel. It is generally argued that culture is important because cultural differences lead to conflicts and thus to dysfunctional interactions. A comparison of the occupational cultures of two groups can help identify potential conflicts that could ensue when the members from the two groups interact. In the current study, we interviewed IS personnel and management personnel to identify their respective cultural beliefs along group and grid dimensions proposed in Trice’s theoretical framework for characterizing occupational cultures. Based on these interviews, we have analyzed the belief systems of the two groups and highlighted the potential for conflict

Information Risk Communication in the Context of Zika Virus: A Pilot Study

Dissemination of information to at-risk populations is essential in any emergency situation. Among many health emergencies, Zika virus is a large-scale health challenge that requires authorities to communicate the risks of the virus, and, potential protective measures to the population. Communication technologies have an important role to play in this effort. Other factors, such as hazard characteristics and warning fatigue, also influence the effectiveness of communication. This article develops an adaptation of the Protective Action Decision Making (PADM) model for a holistic understanding of the technical and non-technical factors that influence the responses of vulnerable individuals to information about the Zika virus. The findings are expected to provide practical guidance to public health agencies in the selection of appropriate mix of media to deliver information about Zika. Investigation of antecedents to vulnerable stakeholders’ response will contribute to the growing literature on information risk communication and emergency responses to potential epidemics

Impulsivity and Information Disclosure: Implications for Privacy Paradox

Privacy paradox refers to the inconsistency that sometimes exists between individuals’ expressed privacy concern and the willingness to divulge personal information. Several arguments have been proposed to explain the inconsistency. One set of arguments centers around the effects of individual differences in personality characteristics, e.g., the Big Five. In the current article, we examine the role of a personality characteristic, impulsivity, in explaining the relationship between privacy concern and information disclosure. We report the results of a survey-based study that consisted of two hundred and forty-two (242) usable responses from subjects recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results show that one of the three dimensions of impulsivity, motor impulsivity, directly influences the extent of information disclosure, and, also moderates the relationship between privacy concern and information disclosure. Furthermore, our study shows impulsivity explains more variance in information disclosure than explained by the Big Five factors only

SOCIAL DESIRABILITY BIAS IN SOFTWARE PIRACY RESEARCH

Most behavioural aspects of software piracy research are a subset of ethical research. Measures of ethical behaviour in research may be subject to biases in response to the social desirability of behaviours. Few studies in the area of software piracy have explicitly addressed this issu. Literature on social desirability bias (SDB) reports on three ways to address response bias: approaches to reduce bias, approaches to detect bias, and approaches to correct bias. In the current article, the published methods to reduce, detect, and, correct bias are reviewed. Then, the extent of SDB that may be present in the published software piracy literature is subjectively assessed. A study is proposed in which piracy behaviours involving real money are compared to the intent to pirate in paper-based scenarios, under equivalent conditions. The comparison is argud to be useful in compensating for SDB in future research

Examination of Organizational Information Security Strategy: A Pilot Study

The prevailing approach to cyber security continues to be the implementation of controls—technical, formal, and informal. We have seen little departure from a fundamentally preventive strategy. The criminal justice field has called for an increased emphasis on deterrence strategies, specifically Situational Crime Prevention (SCP). This paper presents the results of an exploratory (pilot) study based on interviews of CISOs (or approximate equivalents). We found that while the balance of controls does appear to be improving, technical controls are still the priority— particularly in small organizations. We found that IS security strategies are still predominantly preventive; organizations do not view offender deterrence as a strategy. The respondents definitely see room for strategic improvement. By and large, the information security professionals interviewed believe that cyber offenders are rational decision makers, that reducing anticipated benefit would be the most lucrative influence, followed by perceived effort required and perceived risk of being caught, in that order

Nucleic acid composition in the developing buds and petioles of grapes

The nucleic acids content in grape buds showed a definite pattern of fluctuations. DNA multiplication was found to be high during the initiation and early differentiation period while the RNA was high during pre-initiation period, fell considerably during initiation and rose again during differentiation. DNA multiplication in petioles did not show any definite pattern, but RNA decreased progressively from bud burst onwards

Improving Organizational Information Security Strategy via Meso-Level Application of Situational Crime Prevention to the Risk Management Process

Existing approaches to formulating IS security strategy rely primarily on the risk management process and the application of baseline security standards (e.g., ISO 27002, previously ISO 17799). The use of existing approaches generally leads to measures that emphasize target hardening and incident detection. While such measures are appropriate and necessary, they do not capitalize on other measures, including those that surface when situational crime prevention (SCP) is applied to specific crimes. In particular, existing approaches do not typically surface measures designed to reduce criminal perceptions of the net benefits of the crime, or justification and provocation to commit the crime. However, the methods prescribed to-date for implementing SCP are cumbersome, requiring micro-level, individual analysis of crimes. In the current article, we propose that concepts derived from SCP can be strategically applied at an intermediate (meso) level of aggregation. We show that such meso-level application of SCP, when combined with the traditional risk management process, can reduce residual information security risk by identifying new strategies for combating computer crime. Using three illustrative cases, we demonstrate that the application of the proposed strategic approach does surface meaningful countermeasures not identified by the traditional risk management process alone

Influence of Organic Manures and Fertilizers on Nutrient Uptake, Yield and Quality in Cabbage-Baby Corn Cropping Sequence

Field experiments were conducted at Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, during rabi and kharif seasons of 2010 and 2011 to study direct, cumulative, or residual effect of organic manures (Farmyard Manure, Vermicompost, Poultry Manure, Neem Cake, and combinations thereof) along with the recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) and absolute Control, on nutrient uptake, yield and quality in cabbage-baby corn cropping sequence system. Results showed that application of recommended dose of fertilizers [N, P and K (100:50:50 kg ha-1)] recorded highest yield in cabbage (38.91t ha-1), which was comparable to combined application (2.89t ha-1) of poultry manure and neem cake (37.9t ha-1). In baby corn, maximum yield (6.12t ha-1) was recorded with recommended dose of fertilizers, followed by the combined use of poultry manure and neem cake (5.80t ha-1). Among various treatments, residual effect and combined application of poultry manure and neem cake to a preceding cabbage crop, recorded maximum yield in baby corn (4.71t ha-1) over other treatments. Similar trend was seen in nutrient uptake by cabbage and baby corn (cumulative and residual). Highest protein and ascorbic acid content in cabbage, residual and cumulative baby corn was recorded with application of poultry manure + neem cake (2.89t ha-1), and poultry manure + FYM (6.11t ha-1) respectively

A Cross-National Experimental Examination of Software Piracy Behavior

Software piracy has been a problematic issue for several decades. While there is a significant body of research attempting to identify reasons why individuals pirate software, some factors influencing software piracy have yet to be studied completely. One such factor, addressed herein, is differences across countries. Cross-country comparisons of self-report rates of software piracy and aggregate rates of piracy have been published. Such studies have shown that software piracy rates vary by country. Explanations of these differences have been based on country level variables, such as gross national product (GDP). However, we are not aware of any study that has examined the role of social and individual factors to explain cross-country differences. We plan to examine the role of social desirability bias (SDB) as a possible explanatory factor for differences in reports of software piracy behavior in two countries: the United States and the United Arab Emirates