Roles of Information Security Awareness and Perceived Fairness in Information Security Policy Compliance

Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this research investigates two factors that drive an employee to comply with requirements of the information security policy (ISP) of her organization with regards to protecting information and technology resources: an employee’s information security awareness (ISA) and her perceived fairness of the requirements of the ISP. Our results, which is based on the PLS analysis of data collected from 464 participants, show that ISA and perceived fairness positively affect attitude, and in turn attitude positively affects intention to comply. ISA also has an indirect impact on attitude since it positively influences perceived fairness. As organizations strive to get their employees to follow their information security rules and regulations, our study sheds light on the role of an employee’s ISA and procedural fairness with regards to security rules and regulations in the workplace.