Exploring the Factors That Contribute Towards Information Security Policy Compliance Culture

There is over-reliance on information systems to run virtually all aspects of modern institutions. This has put more burden on information security managers to come up with more robust and efficient ways to enhance information security policy compliance. Therefore, despite existing efforts in the area of information security management, there remains a critical need for more research to be done. The existing research has also concentrated on hypothesis testing rather than a qualitative approach. So, there is an existential methodology gap that can give another alternative result that still needs to be covered. That is why we embarked on exploring the factors that influence information security compliance in organizations. The research was conducted in two universities with a diverse population. The research design was exploratory, encompassing qualitative in-depth case interviews with grounded theory as the analysis strategy. A total of 20 interviews were conducted and each analysis was done after every few batches of interviews in line with grounded theory principles. A theoretical model was generated and discussed. Implications for the research were also discussed and recommendations made. The study found individual factors, organizational factors, and external influence to be important factors in strategizing how to increase compliance with policies. The results also showed that practitioners need to factor in a combination of elements in their strategies in order to enhance compliance with information security policies. Keywords: Information Security Policy Compliance Culture, Theoretical Model, Grounded Theory, Information systems security DOI: 10.7176/IKM/10-5-05 Publication date:August 31st 202

Climate services for the Greater Horn of Africa: interviews exploring practitioner perspectives from Kenya and beyond

Climate and weather services support important decision making in many sectors across the Greater Horn of Africa. Though constantly improving, there is a mismatch between the provision of these services and the needs of target stakeholders. To better understand this, we interviewed 23 practitioners who work with climate, weather, and hydrological information in East Africa, to gain a qualitative understanding of their work and how they use climate services. We found a complex network of stakeholders within this climate services ecosystem, each with their own foci that dictate their information needs and use cases. We found that information is typically transferred from one stakeholder to another by means of a value chain structure. Thematic analysis provided a deeper understanding of participants’ needs and motivations, revealing trust and information suitability as key issues in encouraging uptake. We also found that participants had strong motivations to overcome barriers to improve the livelihoods of end-user communities. We argue for evaluating the broader interconnected climate services ecosystem in a more holistic manner, instead of focusing only on impact in end-user communities, which can lead to the design of better systems and benefits for all stakeholders

The Influence of Organizational Culture on the Adoption of ICT Innovation following Technological Disruption: Evidence from Kenyan ICT SMEs

Disruptive ICT technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and mobile computing are transforming how organizations communicate, connect and discover. As a result, firms are being forced to restructure their strategies in order to survive in the market. Despite developing new strategies, an existent challenge facing the adoption of ICT innovation lies in the redesign of the human activity systems in which the technology is embedded and as such, necessitating an evolution of employee behaviour to facilitate adoption. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the influence of organizational culture on employee behaviour towards the adoption of ICT innovation. The study adopts a positivist philosophy where a survey of 83 managers and 43 employees drawn from 100 ICT Kenyan SMEs is conducted. Data collected is analysed using regression and correlation techniques. The findings from the study revealed that employee behaviour facilitating the adoption of ICT innovation were fostered by organizational cultures that adopted adhocracy practices such as having informal manager-employee relationships and emphasizing on creating customer value. Additionally, organizational culture dimensions such as control, social control and customer orientation were linked to high ICT adoption rates. In the wake of technological disruption, it would be recommended for tech SMEs to foster organization culture climates that facilitate employee behaviour favo uring ICT adoption. Consequently, this implies that they structure their policies to enable their employees to trust in new technologies, foster personal incentives in experimenting with the technology, develop a perceived usefulness of the technology and perceived ease of use from using the technology

Developing an e-Learning Theory for Interaction and Collaboration Using Grounded Theory: A Methodological Approach

Grounded Theory (GT) is becoming an increasingly prevalent research methodology in many fields. Although researchers use it in qualitative and quantitative studies, it is more popular with qualitative studies, as evidenced by the citations from previous research. This paper aims to document and present how we used GT in our qualitative research to construct an e-learning theory for interaction and collaboration. It also includes the justification of GT. We adopted and adapted the constructivist GT (CGT). Therefore, this paper discusses the CGT methodology, its philosophical, ontological and epistemological perspectives. It also includes the research design that captures how we sampled the participants, collected, analyzed and interpreted the data, and how we documented the research findings in the context of CGT. It also includes the justification of the decisions we made and the extent to which they align with CGT. Using CGT, we listened to, observed and captured e-learners’ and e-tutors’ stories and experiences which yielded rich and insightful data that informed the development of the e-learning theory for interaction and collaboration. We also present the challenges we experienced when using CGT and the strategies we used to overcome them. Finally, we have included the methodological insights we drew from using CGT in our research. This paper has presented the CGT design strategy; thus, it will be helpful, especially to novice and future researchers aspiring to use the methodology to conduct their research