Transformational Leadership and Employees' Information Security Performance: The Mediating Role of Motivation and Climate

The importance of organizational information security is constantly increasing. Next to technical information security measures, research has incorporated multidisciplinary behavioral theories in order to explain employees’ information security awareness and behavior. While focusing on employees as the weakest link in the information security chain, the role of leadership has been considered less. To address this gap, the purpose of this explorative study is to investigate how transformational leadership can influence employees’ information security performance. A research model is developed that is empirically tested by means of structural equation modeling (SEM) with data collected from 208 employees across different industries. Our results indicate a significant influence of transformational leadership on employees’ information security participation. Moreover, our study reveals that transformational leaders are able to form a positive organizational climate towards information security and thereby (indirectly) enhance employees’ motivation. Drawing from our findings, implications for practitioners and future IS research are derived.